Will you be running candidates in 2024?
Are you aiming at the national level as well?
Does registering with the Forward Party limit who I can vote for?
Is there a chapter in my town/campus?
How are you different from the Democratic and Republican Parties, or other alternative parties?
What are your positions? Where is your party platform?
Learn more about our platform here!
Californians feel that our politics are broken, and until it's fixed, nothing will truly change. That's why our platform is focused on governance reform, more than any single hot-button issue. We need to first fix our system, with:
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Campaign finance reform - to equalize access to the political arena and allow everyday Californians to run for office
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Electoral reform - so that we can be free to vote for candidates we actually like
- Legislative reform - to make our laws transparent and hold our lawmakers accountable
Will you be running candidates in 2024?
To run our own candidates, we need to first become a qualified political party in California by gathering 73,000+ registrations. Our goal is to accomplish that official party status and run our own candidates in 2026.
Right now, we're focused on building and strengthening our vibrant community of supporters, volunteers, leaders, and like-minded local organizations, and aim to support independently-minded local candidates in 2024.
Are you aiming at the national level as well?
Forward Party California is affiliated with the Forward Party at the national level, but we're uniquely focused on the state of California.
Does registering with the Forward Party limit who I can vote for?
Because California has open primaries, your party preference makes NO difference on who you can vote for in local, state, and congressional races.
Your party affiliation only matters for presidential primaries. In those cases, you must be registered with the party whose primary you want to vote in.
To vote for a specific presidential primary candidate you can change your registration prior to the primary, or even change your registration in-person on election day, and then change back to Forward Party afterwards. There is no limit to the number of times you may change your party in California.
Don't third parties take strength away from the established party to which they are closest ideologically? Why won't you do the same? (i.e., spoiler effect)
California's top-two open primary system mitigates the spoiler effect.
In our primaries, all candidates, regardless of their political party, compete in a single primary election. Voters have the freedom to choose any candidate they prefer, regardless of party affiliation. The two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary move on to the general election, where voters select from these top two contenders.
This approach mitigates the spoiler effect, by giving voters an opportunity to support third-party candidates in the primary election, while still having the general election to decide the winner between the top 2 candidates.
Is there a chapter in my town/campus?
The best way to connect with your local Forwardists is to sign up to receive an invite link to our Slack workspace, where we have active communication channels for each region.
How can I volunteer?
For a mission as ambitious as saving our democracy, we need all hands on deck! No matter what skills you want to bring to the table, there's a place for you on our volunteer team. Click here to sign-up!
How are you different from the Democratic and Republican Parties, or other alternative parties?
We're not left or right - we're forward. Forward Party California is focused on bringing people together to find real, data-driven solutions to our state's root problems, and support genuine and independent candidates to champion them. More than any single hot topic issue or rigid set of philosophies, we're here to change the game - to fix our systems so that more Californians and more parties can participate meaningfully in our democracy. We're a vibrant and diverse state, and we deserve an equally diverse government.