David Jolly, Chairman of the SAM Party, recently send out a final letter to members of the Serve America Movement across the country. Jolly, who was named SAM National Chairman in 2020, has led the party over the past two years with distinction and has now passed the torch to the Forward Party.
| Jolly writes, “Nearly six years ago, a small group of concerned citizens came together around a simple idea – a new political party was needed to give voters better choice in their elections. A few months later, that small group joined other like-minded Americans in Philadelphia to determine a viable path forward. Out of Philadelphia, the Serve America Movement (SAM) was born. In the years since, SAM went on to run candidates in high profile races, engage in fundamental electoral reform initiatives, achieve electoral ballot lines, and receive legal recognition as an emerging minor political party. From the beginning, SAM envisioned a brand of politics that would put the shared interests of our nation ahead of our individual differences. And along the way something remarkable happened. SAM discovered that building a party around ideology, whether left, right, or middle, would simply repeat the failure point of all other political parties today. SAM instead came to reject the notion that a party should dictate from the top down what its candidates and members should believe, and instead charted a course of empowering candidates and voters to stand on their own political convictions, and to then coalesce around our shared fundamental values. SAM celebrates the perspectives of all Americans, assembling a coalition where the greatest number of American voices can gather, present ideas, and arrive at solutions. SAM has embraced the fundamental premise of pluralism upon which our nation was founded – the very notion upon which our Congress, the People’s House, was established. This approach inevitably led SAM to some pressing questions – if embracing diversity of thought and shared values is the key to unlocking growth in American politics, then which other organizations today might SAM join together in working toward similar goals? Which organizations might consider aligning with our vision and our platform at SAM? Today, we are very pleased to announce something that has never been done in modern political history – the merger of three ideologically diverse organizations coming together under a commitment to empowering independent thought, pursuing outcome-based policy making, celebrating diverse ideological approaches, and embracing the power and importance of local representation and local voices. TODAY, THE SERVE AMERICA MOVEMENT, THE SAM PARTY, FORMALLY ANNOUNCES ITS MERGER WITH THE FORWARD PARTY AND THE RENEW AMERICA MOVEMENT. TOGETHER, WE IMMEDIATELY BECOME THE NATION’S LARGEST MINOR PARTY BY RESOURCES, WITH A MEMBERSHIP PRESENCE IN ALL 50 STATES, A PLAN FOR LEGAL RECOGNITION IN ROUGHLY 15 STATES BY THE END OF THIS CALENDAR YEAR, 35 STATES IN 2023, AND THE REMAINING STATES IN 2024. The Forward Party, led by Andrew Yang and supported by a large grassroots movement of passionate volunteers, begins its political orientation on the left and looks toward the center. The Renew America Movement represents a coalition of those on the right also looking toward the center. Together we will operate under a rebranded Forward Party that adopts SAM’s values-based platform centered on problem solving, fundamental electoral reform, defense of our democracy, and to transparency and accountability. Additional information on the merger of our organizations can be found here. An endeavor of this size is historic and a game changer in American politics as we know it. As such, it comes with inevitable questions. Allow us to settle just one – this is not an effort to simply run a presidential ticket in 2024. This is an effort to create a viable, sustainable, and durable new political party in the United States, to offer voters more choice in their elections, from city hall to Congress, from state legislatures to the U.S. Senate. Along the way, should the politics of 2024 or 2028 present the new Forward Party with a presidential candidate who emerges as both viable and right for the moment, we will not shy away from providing our ballot lines and party assets to that candidate. But that is not today’s focus of the new Forward Party. The Serve America Movement made a commitment to creating a new America. Today, as a result of this merger, we are one step closer to achieving that promise. Thank you for your contributions to this effort thus far. Thank you for being part of this remarkable journey. We hope you’ll join us for our next chapter. With gratitude, David Jolly and the SAM Team |
