New Mexico Forward Party Aims for Recognition as Andrew Yang Visits Santa Fe
SANTA FE — A former presidential candidate came to the New Mexico state Capitol on Friday to announce a new home for voters who are tired of the strife between Republicans and Democrats.
“Politics in the state will never be the same,” Andrew Yang proclaimed to about two dozen people at a news conference where he announced the arrival of the Forward Party.
The Forward Party, which Yang co-founded in 2021, is focused less on policies and more on principles, particularly upholding the rule of law, working across the aisle with civility and listening to the facts — “things that would have been taken for granted in another era,” he said.
The party motto is “not left, not right, but forward,” he said.
The Forward Party has collected 5,500 signatures to form an official minor party in New Mexico and is working to field candidates for the general election in November, state party chair Bob Perls told reporters. Perls, a former Democratic New Mexico state representative, said only around 3,400 signatures are required.
“My feeling is everybody’s yelling, and nobody’s listening. There’s a lot of battling and not a whole lot of solutions with both major parties,” Perls said.
The website states the party seeks to “create civility, policy innovation, and pragmatism in government by reforming how we district constituencies, elect candidates, and finance their campaigns.”
The Forward Party hopes to field a handful of candidates in the general election this year, Perls said, and is especially focused on challenging incumbent state representatives who voted against a bill to open primaries to unaffiliated voters.
“If we can get two to five top-notch candidates, I’ll be happy,” Perls said. “We don’t want to run fringe candidates. ... We want to run somebody in non-competitive races who can win."
The party still needs official validation from the Secretary of State of its signatures and rules, but Perls said he’s confident it will be approved.
A handful of other states have the Forward Party as a minor party, including Utah, where Yang said 26 legislative candidates are running on the ticket this cycle.
Litmus test
A bill last year narrowly passed the Legislature and was signed into law to allow unaffiliated voters to have a say in a Democratic or Republican primary without first having to change their registration to either major party.
Perls said support of open primaries is a litmus test for the party, to show whether politicians “care about enfranchising all the people, not just the hardcore party base.”
Supporters said it would increase voter turnout in the state’s primary elections. New Mexico’s is now a semi-open primary, meaning independents can participate but registered Democrats and Republicans cannot cross over.
More than a quarter of New Mexico’s 1.4 million voters are registered as “declined to state,” sometimes referred to as independent, with another 2%, or about 28,000, registered with a minor party.
The New Mexico Forward Party created a poster with a list of 17 New Mexico state representatives who last year voted against an open primaries bill and are going unchallenged in the coming general election (along with three open seats in which the previous officeholder voted against the bill).
Perls said the majority of the organization’s efforts will go into targeting 20 House seats, but he is also looking at a handful of others, including seats held by U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, State Auditor Joseph Maestas and State Treasurer Laura Montoya.
Perls pointed to House District 43, which includes Los Alamos, as being particularly important because, he said, it has the highest rate of independent voters of any House district in the state, and current Rep. Christine Chandler voted against the open primaries bill.
In an interview by phone Friday afternoon, Chandler said she would welcome the opportunity to debate a challenger.
“Having a challenger often helps people discuss issues. I think it’s interesting that [Perls] views it as a retaliatory measure because we disagree, apparently, on one policy,” she said, referring to the open primary bill. “The electoral process is open to everyone, and I look forward to seeing who they’ll be able to run, and we’ll have a great conversation.”
She also defended her vote, saying, “I feel that members of the party should be the people who are picking the representative for that position.”
Third-largest party
Yang, 51, is best known as an underdog candidate in the 2020 Democratic primary for president who then gained popularity including for his support of a universal basic income.
“I get asked to run for president all the time, and it’s in large part because 50% of Americans now self-identify as independents and don’t see themselves in either party,” Yang said.
He did not say yes or no when asked whether he plans to run for president again. “I’m almost too young not to,” he joked.
One audience member wore a “MATH” baseball cap, which stands for Make America Think Harder, Yang’s 2020 campaign slogan.
Yang said the intervening years since his presidential campaign have proven the need for a universal basic income — but that’s his personal belief, not part of the Forward Party platform. The rapid development of artificial intelligence, he said, will leave many jobless and suddenly without income.
“Unfortunately, this is going to get much, much worse, not better,” he said.
“I stand before you the co-chair and co-founder of the third biggest political party in the country by resources, which is saying not that much,” Yang joked.
“It just means we’re better at fundraising than the Libertarians and the Greens. It turns out it isn’t that hard,” he said.
