Washington – Launching a new national political party in the United States may be harder than sending a man to Mars.
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, who last year was the country’s largest known political donor, now says he is trying to do both. But while the effort to achieve interplanetary trip has slowly advanced for over 20 years, the last decades of American politics are full of abandoned attempts to break the bipartisan system.
It is not yet known how serious Musk is about the new political project, and if he will evolve from mere ideas on his social media platform to something concrete. Although it declared on Saturday that “today the America is formed,” so far it has not yet registered it on the federal election commission.
Continues after advertising
As with many of its tweet -shaped proclamation, Musk’s plans for the new party are obscure. Their private conversations have so far been conceptual and not focused on the details of what would be necessary to realize it, according to two people informed about these conversations. Some musk advisers involved in these initial discussions, however, seem more focused on the details and are looking for more feedback from experts, according to one of those people.
Musk counselors have privately indicated that they plan to use a Super Political Action Committee to organize initial support to the new party before their formalization, according to one of the informed people.
Musk said the America would be a new entity and aimed to break the dominance of the two major parties in the federal government.
Continues after advertising
If he eventually gives up on the idea, it wouldn’t be the first time he makes a big statement in a post on his social platform X before retreating or letting the idea die while a new project. Still, some ideas that started as musk jokes – as their initial purchase of Twitter actions – ended in investments that changed the world.
Public opinion polls have long been showing that Americans want an option beyond the two major political parties, although third party candidates rarely perform well in elections.
If Musk makes a sustained investment in his America party project – either in financial or political capital – will face major obstacles. Here are some of them.
Continues after advertising
The rules in each state are difficult to follow
Musk boasted on Sunday that his plan to radically transform American democracy would not be difficult – suggesting that he spent a short time studying state banknotes and federal campaign financing laws.
Congress candidates for a new theoretical party face a labyrinthine system of signature requirements ranging from state to state. The most restrictive laws are in Georgia, where candidates outside the two major parties should collect 27,000 signatures from their district. This obstacle has prevented candidates from third parties from appearing in the general election ballot since the law was promulgated in 1943, according to Richard Winger, editor of the Ballot Access News, which has been following electoral laws since 1985.
Qualifying a list of 435 candidates to the House, if Musk takes his idea at national level, would require about three times more signatures than put a presidential candidate in the ballot in all states and could cost more than $ 50 million only in subscription collection, Winger said.
Continues after advertising
“I was on a zoom call with people yesterday talking about it,” Winger said in an interview on Monday. “Many of them predicted that he is the kind of person who, when he finds out how difficult it is, will give up.”
Parties require sustained commitment
It is still unclear who musk would designate to set up a new party in his name. Some people close to Musk’s Republican Counselors fear, in particular, from the career prospects of these counselors if they get involved in an anti-Trump effort. President Donald Trump punished republican consultants who joined or even associated with his opponents. The White House has closely monitored Musk’s allies in recent days, said an informed person about the White House posture.
This can leave musk dependent, at least in part, the mercenary types that populate the world of smaller parties and ballot campaigns, which may be willing to suffer reputational damage with national republicans if the payment is high enough.
In recent days, money-eager operators have been doing frantic and developed research proposals in the hope of presenting them to Musk, according to a person involved in this. Some of them started to spend excessive time by analyzing his posts on social networks.
In addition to smaller parties such as libertarians and green, which have been able to qualify for banknotes and occasionally disturbed general elections, third parties are usually short life.
The reform party, created by H. Ross Perot for his presidential campaign in 1992, eventually disappeared after Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota for his line in 1998 and Trump refused to run for presidency by his line in 2000.
Perot obtained 19 million votes in 1992 with a populist platform that, in some ways, preceded Trump’s rise. So far, Musk has not defended any real political agenda beyond the reduction of deficit and anger against Trump.
Unite America, a project of the 2010s to launch centrist candidates, has stopped nominating candidates after the 2018 election and changed its focus to press on changes in electoral laws that facilitate the success of independent candidates and third parties.
Musk may not yet know what he wants
On his social network, Musk suggested the idea of holding a Congress of the America next month in Austin, Texas. He indicated interest in maintaining a “laser focus on just 2 or 3 chairs in the Senate and 8 to 10 House districts” in the 2026 middle elections. And if these candidates wins, he said, they would “form an independent CAUS”, but “legislative discussions would be made with both parties.”
Musk’s team has not yet taken many operational measures to structure the party, according to people in contact with them. At X, he has received feedback on effort – including how party logo should be – Grok’s, chatbot artificial intelligence of his company.
Limiting your ambitions to just a few disputes may not match Musk’s grand self -image, but it can bring you a better return on the investment.
It is easier to work within the system
Despite all the speech about starting a new party from scratch, Musk may find it easier to work within the existing system.
There are still many republicans in Congress who expressly express disgust for Trump, but few willing to face him publicly. In recent weeks, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Nebraska’s deputy Don Bacon announced that they will not seek reelection next year, in part because they are unable to fully commit to Trump’s agenda.
Musk pledged to support Kentucky’s republican deputy Thomas Massie, who faces a possible challenge in the preview by a Trump supporter.
Several smaller veterans have suggested that Musk could try to ally with an existing party that has line in the ballot, such as libertarians.
Nick Troiano, executive director of Unite America, proposed that Musk could get a much better political return by persuading republican incumbents to align with his new effort than trying to elect novices for Congress.
If the new musk team operates like a block within the Republican Party or forming a fully new organization, it can make little difference whether members of Congress aligned with Musk remain united in the face of what would certainly be a relentless attack of Trump.
“If the hardest thing is to elect a third party or independent candidate for Congress, the neglected opportunity is the one who could potentially desert to a new effort if he had support to be reelected,” said Troian. “Now the options are to continue a miserable existence in the party, retire or try something new.”
c.2025 The New York Times Company
