Elon Musk wants to start a third party but it will take more than just money | The Excerpt
On a special episode (first released on July 23rd) of The Excerpt podcast: Musk isn’t the first billionaire to try. From Ross Perot to Teddy Roosevelt, third parties in the U.S. have a long history—and a short shelf life. Joey Garrison explains the structural and political barriers Musk now faces.
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Dana Taylor:
Hello, I'm Dana Taylor, and this is a special episode of Paste BN's The Excerpt. Billionaire Elon Musk, a man who has famously sent rockets into outer space, has a new moonshot, a viable third political party fueled by his distaste for President Donald Trump's debt-exploding Big Beautiful Bill. Musk announced earlier this month that he was launching the American Party, a movement he said that will, quote, "fight the Republican-Democrat uniparty," end quote.
Third-party ambitions in America are nothing new. There's a long history of people starting them, going all the way back to the anti-Masonic party in 1828. The problem is making them last. Can Musk succeed where former president Teddy Roosevelt, South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, and billionaire Ross Perot all failed? Paste BN White House Correspondent Joey Garrison joins us to share his reporting on why third parties have often become the third rails of American politics. Joey, thanks for joining me.
Joey Garrison:
Hey, thanks so much for having me.
Dana Taylor:
In the 2024 presidential election, Elon Musk spent over $290 million to help elect Donald Trump, a former ally. Influence and money are clearly two critical elements that could help him succeed here. What else does Musk need to do to be taken seriously here?
Joey Garrison:
He's the richest man in the world, and if he really wants to go at this in a full-throated way, he could pump as much money into it as he would like. So let's put that aside. I think you have some logistical hurdles for him to do this as well as some political challenges. And first, going into those logistical problems, the first thing he needs to do is file with the Federal Election Commission and begin raising money and to make that American Party that he's talked about official. Right now, he can't do that because the FEC is lacking a quorum with some vacancies on that board. But assuming he gets validation, certification with the FEC, each state has a myriad of different laws in terms of petition signatures that one must collect in order to run a candidate in their state. And for many states, it can be a very high bar.
And so with that said, there are big questions on whether Musk can create the political party infrastructure in order to do that. It's not a simple thing. A lot of people have talked big about this but not been able to execute. And yeah, Musk has a lot of money and that could obviously go towards hiring advisors and other people to help make this political party a reality. But then he goes up and gets very well-fueled machines when it comes to the Republican and Democratic parties, parties that will be ready to fight in court Musk's efforts to get these candidates on the ballot. And then on the political side, I really wonder whether Musk is the right messenger for this.
Dana Taylor:
Trump's very public falling out with Musk over Musk's disdain for the trillions in debt that will result from his Big Beautiful Bill hasn't won Musk many fans, neither has his work with DOGE. According to a recent YouGov poll, Musk's favorability rating has recently tanked among Americans, sitting at a low of negative 30 currently. He's also not winning any converts to his new third party. While 45% of Americans agree that a third party is necessary, only 11% of them would consider supporting one started by Musk. What could Musk do to win over more supporters here?
Joey Garrison:
Well, yeah, I think therein lies the big problem with Musk's whole push here. He's politically not a popular figure. I mean, he's consistently polled well under Donald Trump, and that was one of the reasons the White House I think was ready to cut ties with him when he finally did leave DOGE and was really not welcome back to continue after his four months of working within the White House. And so the way Musk really went after the federal government workforce and cut programs, cut USAID as part of DOGE really turned off a lot of people on the left. He's really vilified among the Democratic Party and left progressive liberal voters. At the same time, the way he's gone after Trump now, he's become a disliked figure among many in Maga world. So it's hard to see where he's going to be able to cobble together a real coalition.
Dana Taylor:
Joey, taking a step back here, there are Gallup polls going back to 2003 that have shown only once have Americans not wanted a third party. In their polling last fall, 58% of US adults said they thought a third party was necessary because the Republican and Democratic parties, quote, "do such a poor job," end quote, of representing the American people. But obviously this is a huge undertaking even if you're not a wealthy billionaire like Musk. Besides money, what are the biggest obstacles to founding a third party that has legs?
Joey Garrison:
Generically polling when people are asked about it, they think it sounds like a good idea to have another option of a third party. But when push comes to shove, the kind of allegiance these voters have to the party they're more comfortable with has always won the day. The most popular third party candidates that we've seen in the past have really been able to galvanize around one issue that has resonated. I think we're going to talk about some of those candidates later in our conversation. But is the debt crisis in the country that issue that will really galvanize and bring people around? I don't think it is. The national debt has been a much talked about problem facing this country for decades. It's really been more of a talking point among Republicans, but it's never shown one to really electrify voters. And so I think that Musk would have to piece together a real agenda beyond that that really connects with people at this time.
Dana Taylor:
Backing a third party is not something either Republicans or Democrats have embraced in the past for obvious reasons. Ralph Nader's unsuccessful run for the presidency on the Green Party ticket back in 2000 had some calling him a spoiler, including then Sierra Club president Carl Pope. Is there any scenario that might change Republicans and Democrats' minds? And what kinds of obstacles would a presidential candidate running on this new American Party ticket have to overcome?
Joey Garrison:
That's a tough thing to be able to sway, and they're going to have to find something I think beyond the national debt issue in order to resonate. When you look back at the recent candidates who have... and you're talking about presidential races. Of course, you had Ross Perot, I think is sort of, in recent American history, the most successful third party candidate we've seen, but he only got 19% of the popular vote nationally. He didn't win a single state. He was successful in shifting some of the debate to the Reform Party platform that he was pushing at the time. He went hard after a number of issues about possible relocation of manufacturing jobs overseas, some of the things that really resonated to a singular audience back then.
Now, Ralph Nader was not successful electorally, but Democrats blame him for helping swing the state of Florida to George Bush by siphoning off Democratic voters. He got about 90,000 votes in Florida, and so that's what he most remembered, but he didn't have any type of widespread success. And then on the congressional level, the Libertarian party has been quite good in terms of fielding candidates across the country, but they haven't had anyone win any of the seats in Congress. The same goes for the Green Party, which has also, of course, fielded Jill Stein in recent presidential elections. They've also had people running, again, no wins in Senate or the House.
Dana Taylor:
As I mentioned at the top, the idea of a successful third political party in the US is nothing new. Former president Teddy Roosevelt, who was enormously popular as a president, came as close as anyone on a third party ticket to ever win an election ending up with 88 electoral votes. Are there any lessons Musk can take from his run, back in 1912 under the newly founded Bull Moose Party?
Joey Garrison:
Yeah, there are. I mean, Elon Musk has to decide what his goals are. Is it to actually win some of these seats or does he want to maybe push certain agenda, like for the... Teddy Roosevelt, so he had already been, of course, the Republican president for two terms. He then ran under a progressive candidacy, had the name the Bull Moose Party. He didn't end up winning, and some would argue maybe he siphoned off votes from Republicans, helped Woodrow Wilson get elected. But what he did is led to a dramatic transformation of the Republican Party at the time, and helped the progressive candidates at the time, helped create a number of policy reforms that really transformed the country, whether it's workers' rights policies that were passed or a number of other things.
I think that Musk, looking back at that as really the most successful third party that we've seen over the more than a last 150-plus years in America, could that be a model where, hey, I'm going to try to list a set of specific policy aims that maybe I can steer Republicans towards by being a threat here with my third party? That could be potential model for what Musk is trying to do.
Dana Taylor:
This isn't even the first time there's been a third party called the American Party, the most famous one being a secret society that rose to prominence in the 1850s and whose name was subsequently changed to the Know Nothings, so named because that was the standard response to any questions about it, quote, "I know nothing," end quote. Obviously, with a name like the American Party, Musk is trying to give his new party a patriotic, unified feel. Could the name, much like Trump's Make America Great Again movement, help to persuade voters to get behind the new party? And do we know anything besides anti-debt that would be key to the party's platform?
Joey Garrison:
We really don't know much. Elon has not really set out a long list of agenda items. He's really most recently been vocal against Trump over the Epstein files, the files of course, of Jeffrey Epstein that Trump has... his administration is not released. Of course, that's a whole controversy right now. I don't know if that... maybe transparency would be something that Musk would talk about. I'm sure he would continue, based on what we've seen of his track record, continue to talk about cutting waste in government.
But broadly speaking, these are not totally new concepts. They're things that the Republicans had really talked about for a long time. So I think he needs something distinguishing there. As for the name of the American Party, yeah, I guess you can't really have a more maybe unifying name than that. But then again, it's fairly bland to be the America Party running in America. I don't know if that's necessarily a great party name, but I guess he landed on that one as thinking it does sort of bridge both the left and the right around one unifying purpose. But I guess we'll see whether it's as catchy as he thinks it is.
Dana Taylor:
What's next for the American Party, and what will you be looking out for in the coming weeks, Joey?
Joey Garrison:
Well, I just first of all want to know whether Musk is serious about this. He talks a lot on social media and talks about some big endeavors and says a lot of things that he doesn't really follow through on. So is he going to actually first create the organization that you have to from the FEC? This gets started sooner than you might think. A lot of these qualifying deadlines for states will be at the beginning of 2026. That's next year. I assume the window's already passed to try to recruit candidates in some of these off-year elections. And so looking ahead to 2026 is sort of the focus right now. And I want to see, can he actually recruit some people to announce that, "Hey, I am going to run for the Senate seat as a member of the American Party." If you're going to do that, that needs to be something that is announced probably by the end of the year, so not next summer. This has to happen quickly.
I talked to a White House senior official about it a couple of weeks ago, and he told me it's really not something on the radar. But Steve Bannon, who's close to Trump, the former political strategist, really sounded off on Elon. So it has bugged some of the people in Trump world. They do have to take it seriously, but even if maybe an American Party candidate doesn't win in the ballot box, there could be a siphoning off votes if Musk is successful. But I think the first thing we need to watch is if he actually starts organizing this in a serious way.
Dana Taylor:
It's always good to hear your insights. Joey, thank you for being on The Excerpt.
Joey Garrison:
Hey, thank you so much.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks to our senior producers, Shana Marie Greene and Kaely Monahan for their production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of Paste BN's the Excerpt.