On the heels of the Fourth of July — and amid his feud with President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans over the president’s tax policy bill — tech billionaire Elon Musk announced plans for a brand new political party, dubbed “America Party,” to represent what he called “the 80% in the middle.”
Musk, who recently left his temporary government post as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, told his X followers that his new party will “give you back your freedom.”
In a series of posts over the weekend, Musk said his party would use “extremely concentrated force at a precise location on the battlefield” to target “2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” which he believes “would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws.”
So what would it take for Musk to launch his third-party effort? Here’s an overview.
Getting on the ballot
To start, Musk would have to get his party on the ballots in the states where he wants to compete — each with its own process for qualifying.
In many states — including Kentucky, where the race to fill retiring Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s open seat in 2026 is heating up — a party-designated candidate must win a nomination from a state-recognized political party that has received a certain percentage of votes in the previous presidential election — or else a candidate has to run as an independent or a write-in candidate.
In other states, the America Party’s name itself could present a problem — like in New York, where state law prohibits political parties from having the word “American,” or any part of it, as part of their party names, according to Election Law Blog.
Allison Robbert/via Reuters – PHOTO: Elon Musk listens as President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, Nov. 13, 2024.
Bankrolling these state-level efforts would take significant resources. Experts would be needed to navigate each state’s election laws and political systems in order to identify and nominate promising candidates, and canvassers would have to gather thousands to tens of thousands of signatures for each candidate to get them on the ballot.
Traditionally, candidates and their parties spearhead these operations, working together to strategize signature-gathering, voter registration, and campaign fundraising and spending. But Musk’s America Party is unlikely to become a certified political party anytime soon, because the Federal Election Commission, which reviews political organizations’ qualification as political parties, has not been in quorum to do so since a commissioner resigned in April, leaving the agency with just three commissioners. FEC commissioners can only be appointed by President Trump himself.
It’s not yet clear if Musk has filed any paperwork for his America Party, and an FEC spokesperson declined to comment on whether the agency has received any paperwork from Musk’s team.
Going the PAC route
Faced with the long odds of gaining party certification, some election experts say that Musk, at least for the time being, could focus on House and Senate candidates through a super PAC.
That’s because ballot access for congressional races is governed by the states — not the federal government — so the America Party could still put its designated candidates on the ballot without the FEC’s certification, as long as they pass state qualifications.
And because super PACs are unconstrained by fundraising or spending limits, an America Party super PAC could be funded by unlimited donations from supporters including Musk himself, and could independently spend an unlimited amount of money in support of its candidates.
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The only catch is that super PACs are unable to work directly with campaigns the way FEC-certified political parties can — but election lawyer Matt Sanderson of Caplin and Drysdale told ABC News that the efficiency of a super PAC can actually outweigh the advantages of a political party.
“Form a super PAC, just call yourselves a political party — that’s not against the rules. The FEC blessing is not needed,” said Sanderson, who was legal counsel for the No Labels movement during the 2024 election. “I actually don’t think it makes a lick of sense in this day and age to try to form yourself as a national party committee.”
“They can call themselves whatever they want,” Sanderson said, explaining that the FEC doesn’t prohibit a super PAC from calling itself a political party as long as it doesn’t coordinate directly with campaigns. “Just skip right past this very cumbersome and not-all-that-beneficial process, hold themselves out as a political party, and move forward.”
Joining forces
Additionally, Musk could enlist the help of existing third parties, like the Libertarian Party or the Green Party.
However, third parties historically have had little success in gaining office in the United States.
During the 2024 election, the centrist group No Labels led a third-party presidential movement but ended its efforts months before the Republican and Democratic national conventions, after failing to find their candidate before their self-imposed deadline.
Longstanding Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver ran in the 2024 presidential race but received less than 0.5% of the total vote.
Still, a possible collaboration could be in the works: Musk has been in touch with one-time Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who in recent days has spearheaded a third party centrist effort of his own, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
Caleb Burns, an election lawyer at Wiley Rein, acknowledged the potential significance of obtaining an official party status through the FEC instead of bypassing that step with a super PAC — stressing the role of a political party as a “brand for politicians.”
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“The success of any new political party will turn on whether there are sufficient candidates — and, by extension, members of the public — interested in aligning with that new brand,” Burns said. “If the answer is yes, then it makes sense to do everything possible to enhance and promote that brand — which means proceeding with the organizational and legal burdens necessary to create and formalize a new political party.”
“The critical predicate, however, is the political question of whether or not there is sufficient interest in a new brand of politician,” Burns said. “For that, it seems we will have to wait and see what Mr. Musk concludes.”
ABC News’ Will Steakin, Brittany Shepherd and Ben Siegel contributed to this report.
