Meanwhile, most polls showed voters were unhappy with the idea
of a Biden versus Trump rematch.
That obviously changed when the president dropped out.
But the calls for more options on the ballot remain
strong.
Our friend Lindsey Draft is the CEO of the Forward
party.
She's back and up late with me here tonight on
the final five.
Welcome back, Lindsey, good to see you again.
Hey, Jim, thanks for having me.
First of all, I mean, just this, this breakneck speed
at which this campaign has changed and evolved and move
back and forth.
But there has been that constant dissatisfaction with the options
that the parties gave the American public.
Yeah, even since the Forward Party was founded in July
of 2022, we've consistently seen numbers rise in terms of
registered independence around the country.
So we've seen a consistent departure from the two legacy
parties, and that number is even more striking when you
look at Gen.
Z.
But across the country, the largest voting bloc in America
are actually independents or unaffiliated voters.
Yeah, we've seen a lot of the numbers, too.
I noticed out of Pennsylvania particularly, there were a lot
of parties were losing and people were just disassociating, disassociating
themselves with some of the major parties.
And we've talked to you before about what the Forward
Party was looking to do.
It was really empowering a lot of these local candidates
into that.
And you've had a large number of candidates who may
be a Democrat or Republican, but they they have that
that, that that prefix of forward Democrat, forward Republican.
You that you're working with these candidates on the local
level.
Is that still the approach focusing on those those local
races?
It is, Jim, you know, we are building this party
from the ground up and a lot of the voters
that we were just talking about those 51% of Americans
that are registered independent, the issues that are resonating with
them are issues in their own communities and in their
own backyards.
We've got a massive nationalization of of our political narrative,
but at the end of the day, people are concerned
with what's happening, what are happening in their communities.
So the Forward Party is excited just in our in
our own community and in the DMV.
We have a candidate running in Frederick, MD.
We have two candidates running in Arlington County and they
are running for non partisan positions, but with a forward
affiliation and the Forward Party is is proud to support
them.
Similarly, we have candidates that are running as Republicans that
we're supporting and Democrats, but it's important to them that
they're able to distinguish themselves as as unique from those
legacy parties.
And their focus is serving their constituents in an authentic
way above and beyond kind of passing that litmus test
of partisanship in their legacy parties.
Now, that does doesn't mean that we're not working state
by state to achieve ballot access.
So ultimately, once these folks are elected, they can switch
parties and service forward us and be free of those
two legacy parties and those partisan litmus test.
And Pennsylvania is an example of that.
You just mentioned Pennsylvania, Jim, do that over 150,000 registered
Republicans voted for Nikki Haley in the presidential primary, in
the Republican primary, even though she was already off the
ballot.
So what does that say about Pennsylvania voters who want
more choice?
So we actually have two candidates who are running for
statewide office as Fordists in Pennsylvania, one for state treasurer,
one for attorney general.
They have petitioned on to the ballot.
Ford volunteers across the Commonwealth collected signatures and got these
two incredible people on the ballot.
So we're talking about those races.
And I just wanted to, you know, I get emails
all the time.
And there are there's the National Forward Party, which you
are here on behalf of.
There are state level forward parties in, in Maryland.
They have endorsed Larry Hogan for the Senate, but they've
also endorsed Vice President Harris for the presidency.
Sort of has that flexibility on the state level where
the state chapters can decide who they want to endorse,
but it's not necessarily the sentiment of the the forward,
the National Forward Party.
Is that a correct way of distilling that?
Yeah.
I think this is a great opportunity to illustrate our
commitment to building a party from the ground up.
We want to empower our states to endorse the candidates
that they feel are best representative of their communities and
their interests.
And in this case, the Maryland party was really excited
about Larry Hogan.
He certainly has proven his history as an independent, as
an independent minded legislator, an executive in the state.
So we're really proud of of our folks at the
Ford Party in Maryland.
Similarly, that they're also endorsing the Republican or the Democratic
challenger, Andy Harris.
So they are endorsing Republicans and Democrats in Maryland and,
and we're really proud of them.
So is there still at this point is there is,
is it more or less about the approach about being
bipartisan that would really qualify somebody for being, to, to
be part of the Forward Party as opposed to subscribing
to a laundry list of, of ideologies?
Yeah, We do have a candidate pledged in that each
of our candidates sign.
And one of the, the, the things that we are
really proud to work to advance along with our, our
movement partners are the passage of, of nonpartisan voting reforms.
So Maryland, for example, has a closed party primary.
I just referenced the statistics coming out of Pennsylvania.
In neither of those states can you vote in a,
in a political primary.
You also can't do it in, in the District of
Columbia if you are registered outside of the two legacy
parties.
So in in in each of these instances, we ask
our candidates to sign a pledge that that says they
are committed to advancing non partisan democracy reforms like opening
up the primaries, like advancing ranked choice voting.
Our two candidates in Arlington, we're really excited about because
they're running on a ranked choice voting ballot.
We also asked our candidates to commit to upholding the
rule of law, upholding the Constitution, respect for peaceful transition
of power after an election.
So these are really basic tenants of our democracy that
the forward party candidates are all committed to upholding.
Lindsey draft joining us on the final five.
Lindsey to see again.