A NEW political party co-chaired by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and the former Republican governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman is on the cusp of emerging as a third alternative in the United States.

Forward, as the new party has been dubbed, was announced Wednesday by multiple former Republican and Democratic officials to appeal to millions of U.S. voters they say are dismayed with what they see as America’s dysfunctional two-party system.

They hope the party will become a viable alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties that dominate U.S. politics, founding members told reporters.

Party leaders will hold a series of events in two dozen cities this autumn to roll out its platform and attract support. They will host an official launch in Houston on Sept. 24 and the party’s first national convention in a major U.S. city next summer.

The new party is being formed by a merger of three political groups that have emerged in recent years as a reaction to America’s increasingly polarized and gridlocked political system. The leaders cited a Gallup poll last year showing a record two-thirds of Americans believe a third party is needed.

The merger involves the Renew America Movement, formed in 2021 by dozens of former officials in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump; the Forward Party, founded by Yang, who left the Democratic Party in 2021 and became an independent; and the Serve America Movement, a group of Democrats, Republicans and independents whose executive director is former Republican congressman David Jolly.

Two pillars of the new party’s platform are to “reinvigorate a fair, flourishing economy” and to “give Americans more choices in elections, more confidence in a government that works, and more say in our future.”

（SD-Agencies)