The third party third rail: Former Lt. Gov. sees GOP successor in Forward Party
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
/2024/07/03/1720012529420.gif?w=3840)
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
For years, right-of-center Massachusetts voters who despise Donald Trump and left-leaners who aren't thrilled with Joe Biden's Democrats have found themselves without a political home.
Why it matters: Former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey is taking on the almost impossible task of providing a third way for politics in the Bay State and building a new party for the disenfranchised.
Zoom in: She wants the Forward Party, the coalition founded by 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang, to gain enough of a foothold here to change how local politics works.
- To do it, she's looking to court the 64% of Mass. voters who don't belong to the major parties.
What they're saying: "Massachusetts is really becoming an entire state of independent voters and those voters dwarf both the Democratic Party and Republican Party," Healey told Axios in an interview last week.
- Healey says the party is looking for candidates to run at every level of government.
- So far, there's just one: Sean Diamond is running for state representative in Waltham under the Forward banner with a pragmatic progressive platform.
From there, Healey says, the party can build up a volunteer base and fundraising apparatus to mobilize for a statewide effort.
Yes, but: Wooing unenrolled voters won't be easy.
- "They become unenrolled because they don't like political parties in general," Stonehill College political science professor Peter Ubertaccio told Axios.
- He says a third party hasn't made a splash in Massachusetts in generations because that huge chunk of independent voters want flexibility, not a group identity.
The pitch: Healey sees Forward's mission as just that: providing freedom of choice in a binary system and a place for ideas outside the Republican or Democratic orthodoxy.
The Forward Party could make headway here, per Ubertaccio, if a big name politician got involved and brought an established network of deep-pocketed funders with them.
- The most likely scenario would be a popular moderate with statewide potential, but who can't win a MAGA-flavored GOP primary.
- Former Gov. Charlie Baker is busy running the NCAA, but his running mate, former Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, is still in the mix.
- Healey says the Forward Party will welcome Democrat or Republican officeholders who lost their party's nominations.
What's next: Beyond getting enough signatures to establish an official political designation, Healey wants Forward to have enough heft to eventually check the dominant Democratic Party at the State House.
- It's a role she says Republicans, with only 8% of the electorate, can no longer perform.