The Ohio United Party and the Community First Party of New Hampshire have announced what they call an interstate cooperation agreement, linking the two newly formed state-level organizations as both work toward ballot access and longer-term party recognition.
In a statement shared with Independent Political Report, the Ohio United Party said the agreement will create a “framework for collaboration” between the two groups while otherwise preserving their independence. The parties said they intend to cooperate where possible on messaging, best practices, party development, and building a shared community for members.
Both organizations began organizing earlier this year. The Ohio United Party is chaired by Timothy Grady, an independent candidate for governor running alongside Army veteran Andrea Neutzling, and is seeking minor party status in Ohio through a statewide petition drive. The party says it must collect 57,679 valid signatures by June 30 to qualify for the 2026 ballot, with the effort rolling toward 2028 if it falls short this year.
The Community First Party of New Hampshire is tied closely to Jon Kiper’s 2026 gubernatorial campaign. Kiper, a former Newmarket town councilor and 2024 Democratic gubernatorial primary candidate, left the Democratic primary in April to organize the party and use it as the ballot designation for his gubernatorial run. To appear on the New Hampshire general election ballot, Kiper must collect at least 3,000 valid signatures by the state’s June 12 deadline.
The agreement comes as both organizations are trying to establish themselves as new alternatives to the two major parties, though from very distinct ideological starting points. The Ohio United Party has pitched itself as a cross-ideological organization focused on practical solutions and voters alienated by partisanship. Meanwhile, the Community First Party presents itself as a working-class-oriented party focused on housing affordability, cost of living, small business support, and keeping wealth circulating in local communities.
In the statement, the parties said that despite their differences, they share commitments to open government, electoral reform, opposition to corruption, and democratic principles. They also said both organizations are committed to securing ballot access in their respective states by the 2028 election cycle.
“Most Americans already know the Democratic and Republican parties are failing us. Our job isn’t to convince them of that, it’s to give them somewhere to go,” Grady said. “Agreements like this one are how we build that alternative, state by state, over the next few years.”
Kiper similarly touted the agreement as part of a larger organizing project rather than a merger of the two groups.
“The two-party system has been failing Americans for a long time, and the response can’t just be more frustration. It has to be organization,” Kiper said. “The Ohio United Party and the Community First Party prove that people in different states, working on different issues, can recognize the same problem and start building the same kind of answer: accountable, community-rooted parties that put voters ahead of donors.”
The statement further notes the agreement “explicitly preserves the full independence of both organizations.”
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