What is the Forward Party and why is a Daytona Beach native taking a leading role?

MAITLAND − With the Republican and Democratic parties fielding unpopular presidential candidates, a trend toward unaffiliated voters has only gained momentum, and a small band − emphasis on small − of Floridians have chosen to start their own political party.

The Florida Forward Party, which formed in 2023, has endorsed its first candidates this year and showcased them at a forum in Maitland Thursday. Those attending also heard from a Daytona Beach native and former Massachusetts lieutenant governor who's the executive chair of the national Forward Party.

Kerry Murphy Healey quit the Republican Party on Jan. 7, 2021, but she said she had earlier found that her views as a Massachusetts Republican were different than those of national Republicans.

"I have felt that my views were partially on one side, and partially on another," Healey said, "and that maybe we're also wanting to get things done. Wanting to do things in a different way, a more pragmatic way, and when I looked at Forward, that's what they were going to do."

Rejecting 'partisan pageantry'

Nate Smolensky, the Forward Party's state director, said Florida has nearly 4 million voters registered as independent or no-party affiliation, despite the fact that the state's closed-primary system incentivizes voters to become members of the Republican or Democratic party.

"You have to really believe in it and really not like the parties to not register with either one," Smolensky said.

"There is a need (for the Forward Party) because of our politics' continued deterioration into partisan pageantry," Smolensky said. "Whichever side you think is worse, whichever is more dangerous, the division itself holds an existential threat to our democracy."

Independents don't like being put into a box, so there is a need to be considered a new kind of party.

"We want to find the dignity to handle discussions, handle conversations with opponents. We want to see the intellectual humility to treat complex problems as complex problems. We want to see transparency in political intentions and political motivators."

How a Daytona Beach native moved Forward

Healey, who graduated from Seabreeze High School and worked as a teen at The News-Journal, went on to Harvard and became chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party before becoming Mitt Romney's lieutenant governor between 2003 and 2007. She later became president of Babson College.

She described another occurrence that steered her toward a third party.

"I bumped into Josh Gottheimer (a Democratic congressman from New Jersey), and all of our positions aligned, and so one of us was probably in the wrong party," she said. "Or maybe both of us are in the wrong party and there simply wasn't a party that was properly representing people who were not in the mainstream of either the Democratic party or the mainstream of the current Republican Party."

The Forward Party started with former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang. Two years ago, the party merged with the Renew America and Serve America movements, with Yang and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman becoming co-chairs.

Healey lived in Daytona Beach from the time she was 2 years old until she graduated high school.

She became interested in politics in high school and interned at the Florida State House with former Florida state Rep. Hyatt Brown, whose insurance company, Brown & Brown, has grown to be one of the industry's leaders.

"I had a little glimpse into the political world and at that time it looked very Democratic and it looked very male. I wasn't sure there was a place for me there because I was feeling that I would probably become a Republican and I didn't see a role model for myself," she said.

Years later, when she was living in Beverly, Massachusetts, she ran for office as a Republican despite the fact that the state's GOP captured only 13% of registered voters at the time. "I felt that I needed to be true to myself and my beliefs and to run as a Republican and I was very fortunate that after a while I became chairman of the party there and I was able to recruit Mitt Romney to come back and run in 2002-2003."

I couldn't have asked for a better mentor and a more decent person to work with in Mitt Romney. Even after our time together in office, I've learned to appreciate his character more and more over time."

A Massachusetts Republican isn't the same as a national Republican, she said.

Surveys have shown a larger percentage of Americans consider themselves to be politically independent than Democrats or Republicans.

Healey aims to learn how the Forward Party can reach out to voters who have been disenfranchised by either major party and what matters to them.

She also said the party is not fielding a presidential candidate but is rather focusing on building the organization from the grassroots of local and state elected officials.

Property insurance crisis animates Forward-endorsed candidate

The Florida Forward Party's first elected official in Florida is Newberry Mayor Jordan Marlowe, a former Democrat and Libertarian. On Thursday, Marlowe sat on a panel with two Forward Party-endorsed candidates for Florida House, Kim Kline of Pensacola and Banks Helfrich, a Clermont independent.

Kline is running for Florida House District 2 in Pensacola as a no-party affiliate candidate. She owns two apartment buildings for seniors and is a former high school government teacher.

Kline said the reason she's running is to find solutions to problems, specifically the skyrocketing cost of homeowners' insurance.

"I want to be able to focus on the best solutions out there and not the solutions that are tied to a political party platform that is created in Washington, D.C., and has absolutely nothing to do with the panhandle of Florida," she said. "One of the big frustrations I saw when I first started going down this rabbit hole was that state politicians are not talking about state issues."

Ormond Beach resident's reaction to hearing from Forward

The Forward Party registered 456 people − out of more than 22 million Florida residents − as of February. Orange County had the most of all counties, 45, with Volusia County having 15.

One future member could be Carrie Anne Templeton, an Ormond Beach resident who said Thursday she intends to change her party affiliation to the Forward Party.

"I grew up Republican. My family is Republican. I love Florida, but I am also a woman and I went to college so I have more progressive ideas on certain topics, and I just don't fit into either of the parties' mold," Templeton said.

As someone who is considering running for office, Templeton said she feels more comfortable with Forward, as it doesn't have a platform.

"I can be a person with ideas and they would welcome me and support me in that way," she said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: What is the Forward Party? Florida members showcase independents