Will voters be coming to party with America?

Elon Musk has a third party idea. But could it work?

There’s always been support for a third party, but when it comes to actually voting for them, that support shrivels up and dies.

I have voted in Presidential elections since 1984, when I proudly cast my first vote for Ronaldus Maximus. (Technically, at the time, I was a Reagan Democrat, having registered with the Democrats for that primary in an early version of Operation Chaos to select the weakest Reagan opponent possible.)

In that time, I have often been presented alternatives to the Democrat and Republican on the ballot, in particular the Green Party and Libertarians but others as well. In 1992 I was a Ross Perot voter because I had read George H.W. Bush’s lips and found out he got snookered by the Democrats. He was the pale pastel of Reagan’s bold colors. In 2016 I was still #NeverTrump so I wrote in Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party - which is why I registered with them later on.

Now let’s move forward to 2025 and the fallout to One Big Beautiful Bill. After Elon Musk left government and began carping at President Trump, the passage of OBBB sealed the fate of the divorce of their bromance. Hence, the poll you see above, conducted on X and seemingly showing a solid majority of Americans who want a third party.

When most Americans think of a third party, they think of people like the aforementioned Perot (who actually didn’t form the Reform Party until his second run in 1996), Ralph Nader (who arguably cost Al Gore the 2000 election as a Green Party nominee) or Jill Stein, who did the same to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Usually, the third party focuses on the top of the ticket, with perhaps a few stragglers with the banner running in state and local races.

In Musk’s vision, however, the America Party would be up and running for the 2026 midterms and only work on selected Senate and House races. Depending on the targeted states, it may be easy or tremendously difficult to get ballot access as a new party.

Looking at the Senate map, there are a lot of red states up for grabs this time around. Retirements in Alabama, Kentucky, and North Carolina can put those states into play; meanwhile, there are special elections in Florida and Ohio to finish unexpired terms. On the other hand, states which have been considered battlegrounds are Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire: out of those five, four are currently represented by Democrats.

What Musk is shooting for is to deny both parties a majority; perhaps his ideal might be a 48-47 Republican Senate where Republicans control the agenda but five members of the America Party are the deciders as to what legislation passes and what gets killed.

While my friends over in Maryland miss out on the Senate fun for 2026, Delaware will have a Senate seat up for grabs this time around, held by Democrats Chris Coons. (LBR isn’t up until 2030.)

Unlike most other states, it will be ridiculously easy for the America Party to make it onto the Delaware ballot - all they need is about 800 voters to register with or switch their registration to the party once they turn in the paperwork. (For example, it took the centrist No Labels Party less than two months to reach ballot access in between December, 2023 and January, 2024. They did not use it in the 2024 election, though.) But would they want to use the vast resources of Elon Musk and others who would be interested to try and make up what typically turns out to be a 15-20 point deficit for a Republican in this state? That’s the big question.

Obviously the Delaware GOP is going to back some warm body in the race, but as a thought experiment, what if they got to a point where it looked like Coons could lose to a centrist America Party candidate? Instead of an ACU score in the single digits, what if we could get to a 50/50 as a start? Think of a Mike Castle-style person getting into the Senate race under the America Party banner - would you vote for him if he had the financial backing to have a real shot at victory? Or would the perfect be the enemy of the good?

Unfortunately, the Delaware GOP has run the gamut of candidates in statewide races over the last decade without success. If Elon Musk wanted to do us a favor, perhaps he can soften the parched soil by removing one longtime Democrat. Even someone in the middle would be better than what we have and, oddly enough, without the Republican tag he or she could be the one who builds success for the Right in Delaware.

In the meantime, though, you can Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there now.