OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang announced he was leaving the party and changed his voter registration to Independent.
Yang, a former New York mayoral candidate, said he felt that leaving the party was the right thing to do.
He described his situation in the Democratic Party as “political homelessness.”
According to Yang’s website, he believes that “no longer being a Democrat is the right thing.”
“Breaking up with the Democratic Party feels like the right thing to do because I believe I can have a greater impact this way,” Yang said.
“Please, keep in mind that I am NOT suggesting that you also change your voter registration to Independent, as I have done. Doing so could disenfranchise you if you live in the 83% of the country that is very blue or very red. For this reason, I considered either not making this change or not talking about it,” he continued.
“Breaking up with the Democratic Party feels like the right thing to do because I believe I can have a greater impact this way,” Yang said.
Yang announced this week that he has launched the Forward Party PAC, writing on his website that he started the Forward Party for “a few big reasons.”
“The current two-party duopoly is not working,” Yang wrote. “While the two major parties have different issues, we can all see that polarization is getting worse and worse, with 42% of both parties regarding the other as not just mistaken but evil. Neither side is able to meaningfully solve problems, so we all get angrier and angrier.”
“Throughout my twenties I remained a staunch Democrat, though like many others I was drawn primarily to national races,” Yang wrote. “I co-hosted a small fundraiser for John Kerry’s campaign at a bar when I was 29 – I think we raised maybe $3,000. I thrilled to Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 and, to a lesser extent, his re-election in 2012.”
“In 2016, I donated to Bernie Sanders’ campaign – everything he said struck me as true – but then voted for Hillary Clinton against Trump,” he also wrote, saying he took former President Trump’s election “as a red flag and call to action.”
“And yet, I’m confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing,” Yang wrote.
Welcome to the Forward Party. Learn more at https://t.co/pHP4oLw6w4. @Fwd_Party #forward #forwardist pic.twitter.com/k385M45hdN
— Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) October 5, 2021
In the letter, Yang also pointed to data that suggested Americans favor a third political party, but concluded that “the two parties right now control the primary system, which makes it very difficult for any meaningful third party to emerge.”
“Imagine a duopoly that prevents any effective competition,” Yang wrote. “That’s what we presently have in the United States.
“Changing this is both extraordinarily difficult yet imperative for our future,” he added. “We need to push for open primaries and ranked-choice voting in Congressional races around the country. This would both diminish polarization by making it so that our representatives answer to the broad majority rather than the partisan few, and enable new parties and perspectives to emerge. It would make our entire country more reasonable.”
In concluding his letter, Yang said he has a “hope for a positive political movement that is not born of rage and demonization, but on optimism and solutions,” adding that the Forward Party “is an inclusive movement.”
