Elon Musk soft-launched a third party over the weekend, and so far, the billionaire seems to be manifesting his “America Party” into existence.
Hard-launching the party, which he first posted about through a poll on X, would involve filing official paperwork, such as FEC forms, and signing up to petition in individual states. Musk has not done those things yet.
What Musk has done, however, is open the door for what could be the most well-funded attempt ever at launching a third-party. Following his forceful digs at President Donald Trump about the One Big Beautiful Bill reconciliation package, and his seeming breakup with the president, Musk is starting big. On X, Musk said the America Party would involve narrowly targeting eight to 10 House seats and a smaller number of Senate seats to establish a presence in Congress.
But it’s not really clear who, exactly, would constitute this new party, from the candidates to staff to supporters. All of it depends on who, like Musk, needs a new political home.
A Home for the Weary … and Maybe the Crypto Bros
Despite polling showing dissatisfaction among Americans with both parties—four in 10 voters overall and 76 percent of independents said in a June CNN poll that neither party has strong leadership or can get things done—it remains unclear whether there’s a true grassroots centrist phenomenon for Musk to tap into.
“This is the attention economy,” a national strategist who has worked with minor parties says. “You’ve got to get people to care.” Musk’s target audience of centrists, they say, is mostly tuning out the news.
In a midterm environment where the most dedicated partisan voters tend to show up, it’s hard to imagine an unprecedented flood of third-party voters. However, this strategist, who also has strong ties to the crypto community, said that the coalition could combine with their overlapping Silicon Valley comrades to give this yet-to-be-formed party a boost. Cryptocurrency donors, this source noted, are beginning to feel “jaded” about not securing many wins from the new administration despite pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2024 campaign on Trump’s behalf.
“Elon is famously very pro-crypto,” the independent party strategist tells me, “and I wouldn’t be shocked if he starts hammering those lanes [of crypto and the tech right], whether it’s on X or ads… You’ve got to build a coalition. One of the problems with third party is that you haven’t had enough populace or even political critical mass in terms of people and excitement.”
Silicon Valley’s new arrivals to the GOP also came away empty-handed on multiple fronts from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, most notably with a 10-year ban on state-level regulation of AI falling by the wayside after Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee pulled her support, a development reported by WIRED.
Musk’s ability to drive attention is the best thing this fledgling third party could have going for it.
“Hatertainment and angertainment,” the strategist says, “it’s probably a good thing for a third party.”
The Suspects
So, if this party were to actually materialize, who would possibly represent it?
A number of politicians and operatives threw out a few names to WIRED: US representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, who’s drawn Trump’s ire for voting against the One Big Beautiful Bill and Musk’s praise for vocally opposing it. In the Senate, it could be Pennsylvania Democrat (for now) John Fetterman or even Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who proved to be the deciding vote for Trump’s precious bill along with Vice President J.D. Vance as the tiebreaker. (Murkowski, notably, is already in a state with open primaries and does not have to worry about being paralyzed by a Trump-endorsed challenger in the way other Republican members fear.) A pair of Michiganders, Peter Meijer and Justin Amash, who both previously served in the House—Amash even left the GOP to become an independent then Libertarian while serving from 2019 to 2021—were also mentioned. (All of the politicians here didn’t reply to WIRED’s request for comment.)
