Florida doesn’t need a new third political party. Here’s why | Opinion

After working with the Forward Party as the national press secretary in 2022, I can confidently say third parties as alternatives to the traditional two-party system are not viable.

So when Florida attorney John Morgan — founder of Morgan & Morgan, the nation’s largest personal injury firm — announced in May he was moving ahead with plans to create a third party, I was not impressed.

At a meeting last month of the non-partisan Capital Tiger Bay Club in Tallahassee, Morgan said a new party is necessary, because the existing parties have been hijacked by factions that he doesn’t feel represent many of their members.

He’s not wrong, but that doesn’t mean we need a third party. In fact, at Forward — a centrist party that was started by 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang to focus on problem-solving instead of partisan division — the same justification was used.

But it’s difficult to unite Republicans and Democrats and independents when the only commonality is the belief that the system is broken. That’s not the cornerstone of a party. It’s a vibe.

“We’re stuck in the middle and we don’t have a voice, any voice, but yet we have a lot to say, but we’re paralyzed,” Morgan told Politico.

Morgan’s idea for a new third party is hardly the first. In Florida, both No Labels, which focused on bipartisanship through a “commonsense majority,” and the Forward Party have set up state chapters in the past. The No Labels Florida Party is no longer active; the Forward Party Florida is still listed as active on the Division of Elections website. Neither has made serious inroads in Florida or, for that matter, in national politics. We’ve also seen the Green Party and the Libertarian Party field candidates in Florida.

And yet the idea of a third party as an alternative to the entrenched two-party system remains alive.

Last week, in the midst of rage tweeting against President Donald Trump, Elon Musk tweeted “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?” Yang replied: “Working on it!!”

Launching a feasible third party across the country and ensuring ballot access is extremely difficult. It’s a mistake to think that if you can get on a cable news show or own Twitter, you can create a political party. It takes more than a viral moment to change the political system — or to break it, as some disruptors might want.

No wonder Musk is mulling the idea of creating the America party. Now that he’s done breaking the government, our political parties are next on his agenda.

However, institutions — even flawed ones — serve a purpose. Maybe the two main political parties need an overhaul but if this is about destruction for destruction’s sake, that’s not progress.

Political change comes from reforming institutions — in this case, political parties. And I’d argue we are seeing that happen in real-time as the GOP is positioning itself to become the party of the working class and Democrats are transforming into something I believe could resemble Ronald Reagan’s Republican party.

In Morgan’s case, he has had success in 2016 and 2020, pushing for the legalization of medical marijuana and increasing minimum wage in Florida from $8.56 to $15 an hour. But it’s it’s unclear what key issues his third party will focus on.

If Morgan is serious about reforming the system, and I believe he is, he should consider funneling his resources into fixing the system. Instead, it looks like he may be considering running for governor under a new third party. But for some voters, a third party candidate feels like more of a spoiler than a welcomed alternative.

Florida — and America — aren’t in need of political party entrepreneurs. What we need is to repair what’s broken in the system we have. It may not be the kind of glamorous work that influencers will gush over about but it’s the surest path to having real impact.

Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com

This story was originally published June 12, 2025 at 1:34 PM.