Forward Party Co-chair Michael Willner recently explained the reasoning behind the party’s decision to sit out the 2024 presidential race, calling it a “good thing” and framing it as part of a strategy to better prepare the party for 2025 and beyond.
In a recent article, Willner, a national board member and one of the Forward Party’s original co-chairs, said the decision stems from the recognition that the party is not yet ready to compete at the national level. Citing systemic barriers to building a new political party, Willner described running a presidential candidate without a realistic path to victory as “simply reckless.” Instead, he writes, the party is focusing on local and state elections, where it believes it can make a meaningful impact.
Willner emphasized that the Forward Party doesn’t want to contribute to further political polarization. To that end, he explained that the party has adopted a two-tiered, long-term strategy starting in 2024 and continuing into 2025 and beyond. In the short term, the Forward Party is backing candidates who share its values, whether they are running under the Forward Party banner or as members of other political parties.
“This approach isn’t just strategic—it’s urgent,” Willner writes. “The challenges we face as a nation are too massive to be tackled by one party alone, and certainly not by the narrow ideological factions that have been holding us back. We’re building a coalition that’s about solutions, not slogans.”
Looking beyond 2024, Willner explained that the Forward Party aims to establish a 50-state national presence with “broad-based support.” He added that the party eventually plans to field a presidential candidate once it is more organized, writing, “When we do run a presidential candidate—and we will—it will be because we’re in a position to win.”
In addition to not running its own presidential candidate in 2024, the Forward Party has refrained from formally endorsing another party’s nominee. However, as of this article, two of the party’s original co-founders, Andrew Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, have publicly backed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Michael Willner has not yet disclosed whom he plans to support.
“Willner described running a presidential candidate without a realistic path to victory as ‘simply reckless.'”
Why? It is only reckless if you recklessly choose a candidate who will damage the future viability of the party.
“Willner emphasized that the Forward Party doesn’t want to contribute to further political polarization.”
Good and evil are polar opposites. When both the duopoly aligns itself with evil, a third party doing the polar opposite by aligning itself with good, is something you should want to contribute to.
“We’re building a coalition that’s about solutions, not slogans.”
See, this right here makes it sound even more like it’s all about slogans, not solutions.
“However, as of this article, two of the party’s original co-founders, Andrew Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, have publicly backed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.”
And there the cat comes out of the bagbecue: the Forward Party is no different from the DINO and RINO establishment, and is fishing in the pool as the uniparty and the (overwhelming) majority of third parties and independent candidates.