Forward Party co-chair Andrew Yang is urging Elon Musk to collaborate with him on building a political party, following a recent poll Musk posted on X asking whether users would support a new party representing Americans “in the middle.”
In an interview with POLITICO Magazine over the weekend, Yang revealed that he reached out to Musk both directly and through mutual contacts to encourage him to take steps toward establishing such a party. Yang’s outreach followed a poll Musk posted after a series of public exchanges between him and President Donald Trump. Musk’s X poll, which asked whether Americans would back a new third party representing centrist voters, found that 80.4% of over 6.4 million users responded in favor as of this article.
While Yang did not clarify whether he intends to launch an entirely new organization with Musk or simply invite him to help with supporting the Forward Party, which Yang founded after his 2020 Democratic presidential bid, he shared several ideas for how the two might work together, despite having different political views in certain regards, and otherwise praised Musk’s leadership and influence.
“I don’t have to agree with everyone’s past decisions in order to agree that the primary mission has to be getting our political system back in a place where it’s actually responsive to both the views and the needs of the American people,” Yang told Politico. “And right now, we don’t have that.”
Yang complimented Musk’s track record as an entrepreneur, lauding his ability to build “world-class companies from nothing more than an idea.” He also praised Musk’s views on artificial intelligence, as well as his work on environmental innovation and technological progress, calling it “incredibly estimable.”
While Yang did not offer a full endorsement of Musk’s politics, he suggested that Musk’s influence and resources could still be harnessed in productive ways for electoral reform. These included boosting independent candidates like Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who is running for governor of Michigan in the 2026 election cycle, and acting as a “fulcrum” in the U.S. Senate. Yang suggested Musk could “buy out senators or members of Congress from their contract with their current party” by helping fund their reelection campaigns, particularly those nearing retirement.
In addition to Yang, Musk’s recent X poll has attracted attention from several other figures connected to third party organizations or political reforms, including former Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, with the latter also recently involving himself in Forward Party projects.
As of this article, IPR is not aware of Musk having publicly responded to Yang’s outreach.
With thank to reader Joshua Fauver for the link to the POLITICO Magazine interview.
Be First to Comment