(The Center Square) — As Democrats and Republicans analyze their wins and losses after the November election, one alternative party believes their long-term strategy is beginning to pay off.
The Forward Party, founded by former Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang, stepped into the gap created by a polarized America to offer more choices to dissatisfied voters.
Craig Snyder, Forward’s Pennsylvania political director, told The Center Square that while they had hoped to reach the threshold for minor party status in the state, they did accomplish a lot of building last year – confirming their motto of “a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.”
Most of Forward’s candidates ran as affiliates – retaining their legacy party registration but pledging to govern according to the party’s principles.
However, had their two statewide office candidates secured 2% of the vote in the general election, it would have opened the door for official party status in the state. Eric Settle, Forward’s candidate for Attorney General, received 17,320 votes – or 0.3%. Chris Foster, their candidate for Treasurer, received 0.4% with 25,512 votes.
Synder stated that it was the most volatile and distracting of any election cycle and one in which hundreds of millions of dollars of political communications were targeted at Pennsylvania due to its pivotal role in the outcome of the presidential election.
With most of the funds spent on the presidential and U.S. Senate races, he posited that it was nearly impossible for the down-ballot candidates to get any kind of notice.
Calling it a “coattail wave,” he said when swing voters broke for Trump, it brought other Republican candidates like Sen. Dave McCormick and Auditor General Tim DeFoor over the finish line.
“We had a red wave,” Snyder said, “and we don’t have a big enough boat to swim against that wave.”
However, he was encouraged that the organization built infrastructure with volunteers. An important takeaway, he noted, was that the areas in which candidates performed best were those with the strongest volunteers.
“It shows that if you can’t compete on the level of paid political communication, it is grassroots that make a difference in building the infrastructure and growing supporters,” he said.
He believes they legitimized the notion of a third-party candidate, particularly with Eric Settle, who he said was treated with respect, invited to several candidate forums, and acquitted himself very well.
“So, we are going to appreciate the gains that we made, acknowledging that we didn’t get as far as we’d like, and keep going,” said Snyder.
Other Forward-affiliated candidates included: State Rep. Valeria Gaydos, R-Moon Twp.; Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia; and Rep. Lisa Boscola, D-Bethlehem.
They also endorsed Republican Sen. Doug Mastriano’s Democratic challenger Cameron Schroy, as well as Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein, Allegheny County District Attorney Steve Zappala and County Executive Candidate Joe Rockey – all Republicans.
Forward was founded as a long-term project, and the organization intentionally chose not to run a presidential candidate, preferring to build from the bottom up.
Snyder compared their efforts to those of the No Labels organization, which raised a lot of funds with the promise of running a presidential candidate, but that never materialized. He would like to see some of those resources come their way in the future.
He said what Forward did was “disciplined and principled.”
“You don’t start at the presidential level,” he said. “You get there when it organically makes sense to get there, and we don’t know when that’s going to be.”
Forward says it endorsed over 125 candidates nationally – 20% of which won their races. To date, they have achieved minor party status in four states – Colorado, Florida, South Carolina, and Utah.
