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Unity Party of America
Political party in the United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Unity Party of America is a national political party in the United States founded on November 4, 2004 with the slogan "Not Right, Not Left, But Forward!"[3] The party has 45 state affiliates, one of which, Colorado, has ballot access.[4][5] Additionally, the Unity Party has reported that it has members in 46 states.[6]
 | This article reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage. (May 2020) |
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History
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The Unity Party grew out of the grassroots group named Runners for Clark which supported General Wesley Clark's 2004 presidential campaign by raising campaign contributions and awareness of Clark's run for the presidency; Runners for Clark morphed into Unity Runners and then into the Unity Party.[7][8]
Bill Hammons of Texas, New York and Colorado founded the Unity Party in 2004 as chairman and ran as the Unity Party of America candidate for Colorado's 2nd congressional district, centered on Boulder, in 2008[9] and again in 2010.[10] By that point, the Unity Party had expanded beyond Colorado to 27 states.[11] He then ran for the U.S. Senate in Colorado in 2014 before running for the Senate again in 2016 and then for Colorado governor in 2018 (the "Unity" voter affiliation option in Colorado is a direct result of his Senate candidacy).[12][13][14][7]
In 2012, veteran and Gold Star father Jim Pirtle of Colorado Springs was declared as a Unity Party candidate for Congress.[15]
In 2016 Bill Hammons stood as the party's candidate during the 2016 United States Senate election in Colorado, earning 9,336 votes, or 0.34% of the electorate.[16][17]
In June 2017, the Unity Party achieved full recognition as a minor party by the state of Colorado, and its candidates in the state no longer need to petition onto the ballot, but instead just need a "show of hands" at a party assembly. By 2017, the party had spread to 37 states.[18][14][19][20]
In September 2017, Unity Party members decided to begin referring to themselves as "Uniters."[21]
In October 2018, Hammons was quoted as saying, "God did not ordain two parties in the United States," and went on to say one goal of his gubernatorial run was to help put a Unity Party presidential candidate at the top of the ballot in Colorado in 2020.[22]
In June 2019, Rebecca Keltie of Colorado Springs became the first female Unity Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, and in September 2019 the Unity Party U.S. Senate candidacy of Arvada's Joshua Rodriguez created the first-ever contested Unity Party nomination race.[23][6]
Bill Hammons and Eric Bodenstab were nominated for President and Vice President, respectively, in an online convention held over WebEx on April 4, 2020.[24] Hammons and Bodenstab made it onto the ballot in Colorado,[25] Louisiana[26] and New Jersey.[27]
On 18 September 2020, Ian Silverii, columnist for the Denver Post, gave the Unity Party as an alternative to the Colorado Republican Party after the Republicans failed to give any official platform for their 2020 state convention, instead republishing their 2016 platform.[28]
During the 2022 House of Representatives election in District 2, the Unity Party stood Tim Wolf as their candidate, in a crowded field which saw three third parties, including the ideologically similar Colorado Center Party, contest the election.[29]
On 24 August 2023, Richard Ward, the Libertarian candidate for Colorado's 8th congressional district in 2022 who won 3.9% of the vote, announced that he would be switching party affiliation to the Unity Party, citing the rightward shift in the Libertarian Party after their takeover by the Mises Caucus.[30]
Cole-Hammons split
On 23 June, 2023, Tijani “TJ” Cole, a judge, lawyer, football coach, and failed Democratic candidate for the University of Colorado regent at-large seat in 2023, was elected chairman of the Colorado affiliate of the Unity Party, the formal core of the party, and the only branch of the party with ballot access.[31] Cole and Hammons, the party's federal president, quickly entered a dispute over who should be the Unity Party's 2024 nominee, with Hammons supporting Paul Noel Fiorino while Cole sought a big name such as RFK Jr. before giving Cornel West the state ballot spot instead of the party's official candidate.[32][33]
Cole and his wing of the party would seize control of the party's website unityparty.us forcing Hammons to make a new website; unitypartyamerica.us with Cole announcing on his website that the Colorado affiliate was the only affiliate of the Unity Party, and to disregard any statements made by Hammons, and vice versa.[34] Hammons' campaign against Cole, dubbed the Double Yellow Line Project, denounces Cole as "Communist and/or Fascist filth" and that he'd be "better off saving [his] energy by [trying to] launch [his] own party." Hammons has sought an appeal with the Federal Election Commission to force Cole to cease and desist using the Unity Party moniker while also trying to get him disbarred since "A judge should not act as an arbitrator or mediator or otherwise perform judicial functions apart from the judge's official duties unless expressly authorized by law."[35]
The two factions of the party would have rival conventions in 2025, with Hammons holding one on April 19 online, while Cole held one on June 21 in Lafayette. Both conventions saw both factions dig in and discredit the rival faction.[35]
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Party structure
Chairman
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Elections
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2020 election
Nominees Hammons and Bodenstab came in 12th place nationally in the 2020 United States presidential election, winning 6,647 votes.[36]
Downballot, the party's Senate candidate, Stephen "Seku" Evans, won 8,971 votes, coming in very last place,[37] underperforming Hammons both in his senatorial run and in his 2018 gubernatorial run.
In the House of Representatives, the party only ran candidates in the state of Colorado, who averaged between 0.5% and 1% of the vote in their respective districts.[37]
The Unity Party's best performance came from James Triebert, who ran for Adams County Commissioner against Democrat Chad Tedesco. He won 29.1% of the vote, with 57,387 votes.[38]
2024 election
On December 21, 2023, Donnie Harold Harris, the President of the Unity party of Indiana, and Hammons announced that for the first time in the Unity Party's history that there will be a Unity Presidential primary which will determine the candidate in time for the April 13, 2024, Unity party convention. Additionally, the pair announced that former party chairman Elijah Herson will be moderating a debate.[39]
On April 6, 2024, The Unity Party nominated Paul Noel Fiorino and Matthew May for president and vice president respectively at the 7th United National Convention over Google Meet.[40] However, the Colorado faction of the party, which has the party's ballot access, met on April 13, 2024 and nominated independent Cornel West.[41][42] It would be at this time when the Colorado party started to but heads with the national party. By May 2025 the Colorado affiliate announced that it would instead be seeking an affiliation to the Justice for All Party.[43]
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 3rd party presidential campaign had also approached the Unity Party of Colorado for their nomination before they gave it to West.[44]
2028 election
In April 2023 Harris and Hammons also announced that they would be seeking the party's nomination in the 2028 election with Hammons for President and Harris for VP.[45]
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Platform
As of 2014, the Unity Party platform was outlined as supporting a balanced budget amendment, an elimination of the federal income tax, a health care tax deduction, Social Security reform, term limits, and gerrymandering reform.
Electoral performance
Presidential campaigns
Senate campaigns
House campaigns
Gubernatorial campaigns
State upper house campaigns
State lower house campaigns
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Popular culture
- In the popular map game Hearts of Iron IV, an alt-history mod would be created called Red World which would see the Soviet Union "win" the cold war, by having the USA collapse into warring states, similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union. One such warring state, the "Midwest Union" centered around Denver, starts with the Unity Party in power with Hammons as its President. This prompted the party to issue a formal statement recognizing the mod and their presence in it.[47][48]
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Notes
References
External links
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