On June 7, I won the Democratic Party primary in New Jersey’s seventh congressional district, heading into what I hope will be my third term in the House. That same day, I also accepted the nomination of the new Moderate Party, formed largely by state Republicans fed up with the extremism of a party led by Donald Trump.
The Moderate Party is an experiment: an alliance of Democrats of all stripes, independents and moderate Republicans hoping to win an election, while pursuing electoral reform that could empower swing voters to save our democracy from toxic polarization.
Third-party candidates have long been seen as spoilers in American politics for a long time. Ralph Nader and Jill Stein didn’t stand a chance of winning the presidency, but they pulled enough votes from Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 to help the Republicans match that election. On the right, libertarian candidates tend to take votes away from Republicans.
It doesn’t have to be that way. In several states, including New York and Connecticut, third parties can channel their energies into approving and voting for candidates who also run as Democrats or Republicans, giving their members the opportunity to cast tactical votes on a candidate from a major party under a banner that better reflects their values. This is known as merger voting, when two parties “merge” and form a coalition to support the same candidate.
Fusion parties were common in 19th-century America. During the 1890s in North Carolina, for example, Republicans and Populists had a unified slate that temporarily ousted the white supremacist Democratic majority.
In New York, the main parties operating under this system, the Working Families and Conservative Parties, occupy the left and right wing of the political spectrum. But if fusion parties were allowed across the country, the political force most likely to form a party would be at the center. Such a party could be especially appealing to Republicans who are disgusted by their national party’s embrace of election lies, vaccine denial and QAnon conspiracy theories, but who are knocked out by the Democratic Party’s left wing and hesitate to pull the lever.
I represent the median congressional district in America – half of the districts are more Democratic and the other half more Republican. The voters I meet every day in my district have views that defy tribal party stereotypes, regardless of which party they’re registered with.
They support the police, whether it’s protecting our homes from criminals or our Capitol from insurgents. They believe we should enforce our immigration laws, but our economy needs legal immigrants — and our nation should welcome them. They are pro-business, but believe that corporations should pay taxes, and that the success of American business depends on leading the world towards clean energy. They support the Second Amendment, but with reasonable limitations such as background checks and red flag laws.
In the small towns and suburbs I represent, there is also a desire for community. They want politicians to focus on fighting inflation, not fueling culture wars.
Thanks to gerrymandering, it has been estimated that only about 40 of America’s 435 House districts are truly competitive. So most elections are decided in primaries that push Democrats to the left and Republicans to the right, encouraging each party to fight and block the other instead of finding common ground. Even in middle-of-the-road districts like mine, primaries can give an advantage to more extremist candidates. For example, the Republican nominee in my race, Tom Kean Jr., was once viewed as moderate. But this year, faced with a contentious primary, he sent a mailer to voters boasting that “whatever Trump does, Kean has his back.”
A centrist merger party could give back to the Americans in the middle some of the power they have lost. We hope New Jersey will be a test case for national reform. My state banned fusion parties in 1921, under the influence of large party machines. The new moderate party is filing a legal challenge against this bill, arguing that Americans have the right to form parties that nominate candidates of their choice.
Imagine if my Republican House colleagues, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, could form a party of moderate voters and offer the validation that comes with the vote to the next Democratic presidential candidate — as long as that candidate promised to respect the Constitution and rule from the center. If I won my congressional race by, say, two points, and five or ten of those points came from Moderate Party supporters, I would work hard to maintain their support. After all, if I didn’t, they could back someone else, possibly a Republican, in the next election.
Our current political system rewards and encourages division that has already led to violence and could tear our country apart. We need new rules that promote responsible leadership and collaboration.
New Jersey Democrat Tom Malinowski represents the seventh congressional district.
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