Why Musk’s Bid to Create a Viable Third Party Could Be Difficult

Third parties in America are almost as old as the Republic itself—as are the difficulties they face in making an impact on the national stage.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 30, 2025. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

News Analysis

Elon Musk’s feud with President Donald Trump has led the Tesla CEO to announce the formation of a third party—but that effort is much easier said than done.

“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom,” Musk wrote on X, which he owns, on July 5.

He referenced a poll he posted to his account asking X users whether he should move forward with the plan. By a margin of roughly 65 percent, users expressed support for the idea.

Third parties in America are almost as old as the Republic itself—as are the difficulties they face in making an impact on the national stage. Nevertheless, non-major parties have played a critical role in American political life, with a pronounced impact on elections across U.S. history.

Past experience suggests that Musk could have a tough battle in building the America Party into a viable competitor to Republicans and Democrats.

So far, he hasn’t filed any paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to make it official—leaving it still unclear how serious the tech billionaire is about the push.

Here’s what he’ll be up against if he moves forward with the idea.

‘Spoilers’ Mindset

Third parties have long had a reputation in American politics—and not necessarily a good one.

They’re often seen as “spoilers,” or “wasted votes” by supporters of the two major parties. Third party voters, meanwhile, often describe their vote as conscience-based or as a protest vote.

Overcoming this mindset will be the America Party’s first major hurdle.

After all, legitimacy is a key challenge behind organizing a third party, Richard Groper, a political science professor at California State University–Los Angeles, told The Epoch Times.

“Remember, this country has never had in its history a viable third party that has lasted more than like one cycle,” he said. “So is it going to be kind of a fly-by-night enterprise, or is it going to make a sustained difference in the American polity?”

Winner-Take-All Elections

Though Americans increasingly begrudge the two-party system, according to Gallup polling, it’s nearly baked into the way that most U.S. elections are handled.

While many other parliamentary systems use proportional representation models—in which a party wins roughly the same percentage of seats as they received votes over a given area—U.S. states use district-based, winner-take-all models. This means that it’s possible for a third party to receive double-digit support statewide but take no seats.

Musk has indicated that the America Party’s first focus would be on winning a handful of key seats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives during the 2026 midterm elections.

These members would “serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws,” Musk wrote on X.

That said, third-party state-level victories aren’t unprecedented: 2020 Democratic candidate Andrew Yang’s Forward Party, founded in 2021, has also managed to win 46 state-level offices so far.

Andrew Yang speaks to attendees ahead of Democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips's arrival at a campaign rally in Manchester, N.H., on Jan. 22, 2024. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

In 1998, meanwhile, Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota.

Electoral College

The bigger long-term challenge for Musk’s party is the Electoral College, which heavily favors the current system.

To win the U.S. presidency, a candidate must receive 270 electoral votes, or else the election goes to the House for adjudication.

That favored the development of a system with two roughly opposite parties at any given time, as elections with more than two major candidates are less likely to reach 270 electoral votes.

The massive party organizational and financial structures formed to support the major parties’ presidential aspirations, meanwhile, have increased barriers for other parties to break into down-ballot politics.

Funding

Aside from these systemic challenges, Musk’s bid would also face a series of more concrete challenges, starting with funding.

According to USA Facts, a data analysis group, nearly $5.6 billion was spent on the 2024 election, much of it coming from political action committees (PACs).

Forbes estimates that Musk’s net worth sits somewhere around $393 billion.

However, U.S. election finance law limits how much he could contribute to the party or affiliated PACs directly: Federal Election Commission Rules cap it at $41,300 in annual contributions to a national party committee, $3,300 to individual candidates, and $5,000 to PACs.

He could overcome this through the use of “Super PACs,” which allow unlimited contributions but not coordination with candidates, parties, or campaigns.

Finding Candidates

Just as money can’t buy everything, Musk’s wealth can only do so much in elections: The America Party will need solid candidates, Groper said.

“He’s got to have some real-name people with him on his ticket, some people who have some draw because he has the financial backing,” he said. “He needs good, viable, legitimate candidates.”

Skeptical of Musk’s third-party push, Austin Petersen—a political commentator who mounted a bid for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination in 2016 and a bid for the Republican Senate nomination in 2018—emphasized this point as well.

“It is so difficult to try and find a good person who actually will be able to get votes in a district, because you have to find someone who is already known, well-liked, has a little bit of name ID, has … this chemical soup … of qualities, in order to make a legitimate, credible run.”

Ballot Access

That funding won’t do much good if he can’t overcome the other major procedural hurdle: gaining access to the ballot in all 50 states.

Under the U.S. Constitution, every state is permitted to handle its federal elections internally, with a few statutory exceptions. That means there are as many election regimes as there are states.

People cast their ballots during early voting for the general election at the University of Michigan Museum of Art Gallery in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Oct. 31, 2024. Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

From paperwork to signature requirements to other bureaucratic hurdles, working with all 50 state governments to receive ballot access has long been a key hurdle for third parties. Signature-gathering alone can cost tens of millions of dollars.

To this day, only a single third party—the Libertarian Party—has consistently managed to appear on all 50 ballots since 1980. Even the Green Party, the second most successful third party, at its peak ballot access in 2016, appeared on just 45 state ballots.

Bipartisan Appeal?

Given that Musk hitched his political identity to the Trump campaign in 2024, he’d face another major hurdle: convincing members of both parties to back the America Party.

Though many of Musk’s ideas—reduction of spending, regulation, and waste in entitlement programs, embracing cryptocurrency, and supporting gun rights—may seem more likely to siphon votes from Republicans, Democrats are also taking the competition seriously.

“I don’t think we should take it lightly or just suspect—as many of these attempts in the past have failed—that it’s going to fail,” DNC Chair Ken Martin told “Endless Urgency,” a Democrat-leaning online show.

“My sense of it is that there’s definitely frustration in both parties right now with a two-party system, and it could be successful,” Martin said, citing Musk’s resources.

Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin speaks after winning the vote at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 1, 2025. Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP Photo

Peterson objected to arguments that Musk’s party would necessarily take votes only from the GOP.

Depending on the candidates and districts involved, “they could just as easily take as many votes from a Democrat as they could from a Republican,” Peterson said. “That’s just the facts.”

And Musk does have some positions that could appeal to centrists and Democrats.

For instance, he’s pushed for the United States to subsidize and develop clean energy and related infrastructure.

He’s also indicated that releasing the files related to billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s death and criminal enterprise will be a top priority for the party.

“How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?” Musk wrote in a July 8 post on X.

In response to a question about whether this would “rank high on the America Party’s list,” Musk replied with a “100” emoji, indicating agreement with the idea.

Trump, meanwhile, expressed confidence to reporters during a July 8 Cabinet meeting that Musk’s party would “help us.”

“It will probably help. Third parties have always been good for me. I don’t know about Republicans but for me.”

President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on July 8, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds /AFP via Getty Images

Other Republicans aren’t so sure.

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) told The Epoch Times that Musk’s push might “require all of us to take a hard look at our spending, our fiscal outlook, and some of the fundamental policies that … are really unpopular with most Americans on both sides.”

Allies

Some unexpected allies have already indicated openness to the concept.

“​​I’m in touch with Elon and his team, and I’ve said to them, ‘Look, anyone who wants to challenge the duopoly has a friend in me,’” Yang told Axios.

Some Libertarian operatives, as well as the 2024 group No Labels, have also expressed interest.

Others are less certain.

Peterson said that Musk’s resources would be better spent working within the GOP.

“I think it’s best for [Musk] to stay within the MAGA coalition … and build a budding coalition of people who agree with him in the Republican Party,” Peterson said, citing figures like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who shared Musk’s criticisms of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) speaks to the press outside the U.S. Capitol, as the only Republican to vote against passing the House legislation to fund the government through Sept. 30 and avert a week-end shutdown, on March 11, 2025. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

“There are paths to accomplishing what he wants to accomplish, but not that path. It’s the wrong path,” Peterson said, emphasizing that a focus within GOP primaries may work better.

Despite the challenges he faces, Musk himself has been blasé about the hurdles.

Responding to a post about these and other difficulties, Musk wrote, “Not hard [to be honest].”

Nathan Worcester contributed to this report.