Yang’s Forward party merges with groups led by former GOP officials

Former Democratic New York City mayoral candidate and presidential candidate Andrew Yang has joined forces with former Republicans, Democrats and independents on the Forward Party, Yang announced Wednesday.

The political party, initially formed in October, is now a merger of three organizations: Yang’s Forward Party, the Renew America Movement, consisting of former Republicans led by former Trump White House official Miles Taylor, and the Serve America Movement, made up of Democrats, independents and Republicans, and founded by former Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.)

“Building a positive unifying third party movement is going to be difficult but is also exactly what millions of Americans have been waiting for,” Yang said in a statement to The Hill. “That’s why we will succeed.”

Forward Party leaders are billing it as the biggest third party in the country, saying it will reject political extremes and pursue common ground. 

“Not Left. Not Right. Forward,” reads a slogan on the party’s website.

Yang, who left the Democratic party in October, echoed similar sentiments in his own announcement.

“I knew the country needed a new kind of party to help realign our politics and reverse the polarization that is tearing our country apart,” he wrote.

In a Wednesday op-ed in The Washington Post, Yang, Jolly and former Gov. (R-N.J.) Christine Todd Whitman said Forward will unite Americans.

“The United States badly needs a new political party — one that reflects the moderate, common-sense majority,” they wrote.

According to Yang’s announcement, the Forward Party is currently on the ballot in several states.