Forward Party Moves Forward to the Ballot In Pennsylvania
By Bob Small
The Forward Party was founded on Oct. 5, 2021, by former Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang. The current co-chairs are former NJ Gov. Christie Todd Whitman and Penthera CEO Michael S. Wilner.
The Forward Party on July 27, 2022 merged with Renew America Movement and the Serve America Movement.
The basis for the party is the Andrew Yang book Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy Among other aspects, they declined to run a candidate for the 2024 election, thus avoiding a series of challenges. They have formed coalitions with the Common Sense Party of California and the South Carolina Independence Partyamong others.
Additionally, in some way there are members of the Forward Party who are, for want of a better phrase, bi-party.
Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein and Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala now consider themselves “Forward Republicans”. Meanwhile Pennsylvania state senators Lisa Boscola and Anthony H. Williams are “Forward Democrats.
How this works out in Caucuses and Primaries has yet to be worked out.
The two 2024 Pennsylvania Forward Party candidates are Attorney General candidate Eric Settle (Montco) and Treasurer Candidate Chris Foster (Pittsburgh).
Settle was Deputy General Counsel to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, and has a lengthy job history. Foster is a graduate of Emporia State University in Kansas and has spent two decades in health care settings.
Because challenges are still going on for other alternative parties, the candidate listing is not yet finalized.
The Forward Party battleground state strategy is listed here.
Not everyone thinks this is a good idea. I Saw the Hollowness Inside Andrew Yang’s New Third Party by Mary Ann Mancuso, former National Press Secretary for the Forward Party. This lengthy article is well worth reading.
This is not related to The Forward (forverts) What happened to The Forward?, founded in 1897 as a Yiddish language daily socialist newspaper, still active online, unlike many socialist papers I used to read.
Lastly, why couldn’t we create a Common Sense Party in Pennsylvania? Because this is Pennsylvania and we don’t have any…
Forward Party Moves Forward
