New party for anti-Trump Republicans? Here's what is happening
Frustrated by the direction the GOP is heading, a group of Republicans is creating a new movement.
Will a new movement steer the Republican party away from Donald Trump?
Frustrated by the direction the Republican party has taken since nominating Donald Trump as its presidential candidate, a group of Republican leaders is pushing to "rededicate" the GOP to its founding ideals. Led by Republican and independent leaders, the group put out a public declaration titled A Call for American Renewal. More than 150 leaders have joined.
"We will not wait forever for the GOP to clean up its act," Miles Taylor, a founder of the movement, tweeted after releasing the five-page document outlining the group's concerns and goals. "If we cannot save the Republican Party from itself, we will help save America from extremist elements in the Republican Party."
Here's what the group hopes to accomplish and who is in it. For more on what Washington is doing now, here is when you can expect to start receiving your first child tax credit payment, what is happening with the federal unemployment payments and what the chances are of a fourth stimulus check.
Why would Republicans want to form a new movement or a new party?
The movement describes itself as consisting of local, state and national leaders. The group says its members seek to form a "common-sense coalition" that will work to overcome the "division and political extremism" of the current political system.
"There is a cohort of people who want [an] 'I'm not crazy' coalition that they can join," according to Taylor, who is also the author of a New York Times op-ed that criticized the Trump administration during the middle of the 45th president's term. The piece was attributed to Anonymous, described at the time as a senior administration official.
Concern among some Republicans about their party's direction isn't new. Trump's 2016 candidacy prompted a small, loosely knit group often referred to as Never Trumpers that spanned from party leaders to newspaper columnists and fought to keep the property magnate and reality television star from being nominated.
A group of Republicans is looking for another path for their party.
Who supports the new political movement?
The Republican and independent political leaders who signed the declaration include former members of Congress (such as Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock), former governors (former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, for example), members of the Trump administration (former Trump White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci, among others) and political commentators (including Bill O'Reilly).
Can the new anti-Trump group successfully create a movement or even a new party?
Dissatisfaction within a political party is nothing new. The Tea Party movement that started around 2009, for example, called for the Republican party to embrace more fiscally conservative policies. On the left, supporters of the Green New Deal since 2019 have pushed the Democratic party to focus on climate change.
At the national level, a new third party would face an uphill battle to become viable. The grip the Democratic and Republican parties have on the national political structure and the winner-take-all nature of the Electoral College work to keep a third party from gaining a foothold.
For more on what's happening at the national level, here's how to check on the status of your income tax refund, how much you could expect to receive from the advance child tax credit and what President Joe Biden is considering putting in his next two stimulus proposals.