Libertarian National Committee Chair Steven Nekhaila said in a Politico interview Tuesday that the Libertarian Party has attempted to contact tech entrepreneur Elon Musk in response to his recent statements about forming a new political party. Musk threatened to form the America Party earlier this week in response to the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Speaking with Politico’s Morning Score, Nekhaila suggested that starting a new third party from scratch “would be a mistake” and instead encouraged Musk to support the Libertarian Party, calling it the country’s most established “dissident subversive party.” He warned about the difficulty of achieving nationwide ballot access, noting that the Libertarian Party is able to compete on a national level in most states due to years of building the proper infrastructure.
While Nekhaila said he has not heard back from Musk directly, he confirmed that party outreach efforts have been made.
Musk first floated the idea of launching a new party after leaving the Trump administration in early June and polled users on X about creating an organization that “represents the 80% in the middle.” Interest surged again this week after Musk declared the America Party would be formed if the federal spending bill advanced. The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday by a 51–50 vote and has returned to the House for further consideration.
The Libertarian Party is not the only group to express interest since Musk began discussing the potential formation of a new party. According to Politico in the same article, the centrist group No Labels has also attempted to reach out to Musk, though the exact nature of what they want to explore beyond concerns about bipartisanship was not disclosed.
Additionally, Forward Party co-founder Andrew Yang said in an interview last month that he contacted Musk through mutual channels to encourage collaboration on forming a new party. It is not known whether Yang hoped Musk would support the Forward Party directly or join in supporting a different type of effort. At the time, Yang said he had not received a response.
On X, Musk said:
“One way to execute on this [establishing an America Party] would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts.
“Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.”
This long-shot concept might work. While I can see why some find Musk to be libertarian-adjacent, there’s no indication that he adopts the NAP as the one and only political consideration.
I hope Elon Musk will join the Libertarian Party. The LP could use a boost these days.
I don’t believe that Musk will do anything ultimately. He has too many irons in the fire and unlike Ross Perot he can’t head up a national ticket.