America Party: Elon Musk connects with former presidential candidate Andrew Yang

Elon Musk has spoken with former presidential candidate Andrew Yang as he moves ahead with plans to create a new political party in the United States, according to Fox News agency.Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently announced on his platform X that he launched a new political party, "America Party," aimed at challenging what he called America's "one-party system."

He hopes to field candidates in next year’s midterm elections as an alternative to the two main US political parties.The conversation between Musk and Yang was first reported by Politico and later confirmed by Fox News. According to media reports as quoted by Fox News, the two talked about Musk’s plans and what will be needed to start a successful third party.“I’m excited for anyone who wants to move on from the duopoly,” Yang said in a statement to Fox News, referring to the Democratic and Republican parties.

“And I’m happy to help give someone a sense of what the path looks like.”Yang gained national attention during the 2020 presidential election, promoting ideas like universal basic income. Although he didn’t win the Democratic nomination, he built a strong following. After an unsuccessful bid for New York City mayor in 2021, he criticized the two-party system more openly and launched the Forward Party, an independent political group aiming for nationwide ballot access.

Yang and Musk have known each other for a long time. Musk in 2019 endorsed Yang’s presidential run and has spoken positively about universal basic income, a key part of Yang’s campaign.According to Yang, he and Musk have been in touch directly and through other channels. He has said the Forward Party welcomes people from many backgrounds and sees Musk’s massive following as a way to draw attention to the need for a new party.“People have come to the Forward Party from all different walks of life and different ideologies,” Yang said in June. He noted that over 5.3 million users voted on Musk’s X post about starting a new party, with about 81% supporting the idea. “Elon has a very, very significant following and megaphone, and you can see that with the number of people that have voted on his post about starting a third party. It’s about 5.3 million votes, with 81 percent saying yes, it is time to create a new political party,” Yang said, as reported by Politico.In response to Musk’s announcement, Yang posted on X: “In a feud between the guy who enabled space rockets and electric cars and the guy who branded steaks and a fake university, I’d bet on the former,”

Musk has also recently started following Yang on X, suggesting the two may continue discussions as Musk tries to build momentum for his new party.