John Morgan has selected a name for his new Florida political party, announcing that the organization will be called the Common Ground following a prize contest in which he said more than 35,000 people submitted suggestions.
Morgan, an Orlando-based attorney and the founder of personal injury firm Morgan & Morgan, announced the name in a video shared on X this week. He previously launched a public contest to name the party in May, offering a $100,000 prize to whoever submitted the winning entry. Entries were then judged on a 10-point scale, factoring in appeal, creativity, and originality.
“I asked all of you to come up with a name for a new third party, a party that sits in the middle, that’s willing to compromise, that wants to get things done,” Morgan said. “We had over 35,000 people submit names, and some were very, very good, and some were very, very crazy. But in the end, we chose one because we could only choose one.”
Morgan said the party would be known as “the Common Ground,” though he also referred to it later in the video as the Common Ground Party. He added that the next step will be to begin registering people to join the organization, with members of the group to be referred to as “Grounders.”
“Whether it works or not, I don’t know, but it’s worth a try to undo the gridlock, the hate, and all of the meanness that has fallen into politics on all sides,” Morgan said.
The contest came about following Morgan’s decision earlier this year to move forward with forming a new statewide political party rather than launching a gubernatorial campaign of his own, which he had been considering for more than a year. The group would be designed to occupy the political middle, with Morgan saying he wants a party willing to compromise with both the right and the left when needed.
Morgan said at the time that the initial paperwork for the new group had already been completed but that it still needed a name, which he planned to let the public help choose. The contest required participants to submit a proposed party name through a website created specifically for the event, with entries limited to one per person. Proposed names had to be in English, use five words or fewer, and not be generated through the use of artificial intelligence.
The rules also stated that all submissions would become the exclusive property of Morgan & Morgan upon submission.
Morgan did not explicitly say who won the contest or how many individuals submitted Common Ground as a suggested name in his announcement video. However, speaking to WCJB this week, he said more than 250 people submitted the name independently, with the $100,000 prize divided among them.
“It was a great exercise, and what it showed me is that you, like me, believe our political system is broken,” Morgan said. “So this is step one. Step two will be the registration of people to the Common Ground Party.”
I know of restaurants that use that name. It may be trademarked.