| Unity Party of America | |
| Chairman: | Bill Hammons |
| Membership: | 3,900[1] |
| Position: | Center |
| Ideology: | Centrism |
| Slogan: | "Not Right, Not Left, Forward!" |
| Seats1 Title: | Elected offices |
| Seats1: | 0 |
| Country: | United States |
| Founder: | Bill Hammons and Rich Hammons |
| Colors: | Cyan |
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!"[2] The party has 45 state affiliates, one of which, Colorado, has ballot access.[3] [4] Additionally, the Unity Party has reported that it has members in 46 states.[5]
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.[6] [7]
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[8] and again in 2010.[9] By that point, the Unity Party had expanded beyond Colorado to 27 states.[10] 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).[11] [12] [13]
In 2012, veteran and Gold Star father Jim Pirtle of Colorado Springs was declared as a Unity Party candidate for Congress.[14]
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.[15] [16]
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.[17] [18] [19]
In September 2017, Unity Party members decided to begin referring to themselves as "Uniters."[20]
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.[21]
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.[22]
Bill Hammons and Eric Bodenstab were nominated for President and Vice President, respectively, in an online convention held over WebEx on April 4, 2020.[23] Hammons and Bodenstab made it onto the ballot in Colorado,[24] Louisiana[25] and New Jersey.[26]
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.[27]
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.[28]
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.[29]
| No. | Name | Term Start | Term End | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Hammons | November 4, 2004 | February 11, 2022 | Party's founder and longtime perennial candidate.[30] | |
| 2 | Elijah Herson | April 9, 2022 | June 7, 2022 | Longtime party Vice-Chairman, resigned due to personality disputes in the party's national committee. | |
| 3 | Tim Wolf | June 7, 2022 | March 29, 2023 | Former vice-president, there is no interim-chairman role in the party's constitution, upon Herson's resignation Wolf became chairman until his own resignation. | |
| 4 | Eric Bodenstab | April 7, 2023 | May 12, 2023 | Upon the resignation of Wolf, Vice-Chair Jim Wiest declined chairmanship so Secretary Eric Bodenstab became chairman. | |
| 5 | Alex Darlington | May 12, 2023 | July 29, 2023 | Popular national committeeman, Alex Darlington, was elected chairman in an attempt to end the instability of party leadership, however, he too would resign. | |
| 6 | Sabrina Bryan | July 29, 2023 | July 30, 2023 | Another interim chairman who oversaw the transfer of power back to Hammon. | |
| 1 (7) | Bill Hammons | October 7, 2023 | Incumbent | To conclude the leadership instability, then treasurer and founder Bill Hammons was reinstated as chairman. |
See main article: 2020 United States presidential election. Nominees Hammons and Bodenstab came in 12th place nationally in the 2020 United States presidential election, winning 6,647 votes.[31]
Downballot, the party's Senate candidate, Stephen "Seku" Evans, won 8,971 votes, coming in very last place,[32] 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.
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.[33]
See main article: 2024 United States presidential 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.[34]
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.[35] However, the Colorado faction of the party, which has the party's ballot access, met on April 13, 2024 and nominated independent Cornel West.[36] [37]
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.
| Year | Candidate(s) | Popular votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | Ballot access | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 |
| 6,647 | 0 | |||
| 2024 |
| TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Year | Seat | Candidate | Popular votes | Percentage | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Colorado Class II | Bill Hammons | 6,427 | 6th of 6 | ||
| 2016 | Colorado Class III | Bill Hammons | 9,336 | 5th of 7 | ||
| 2020 | Colorado Class II | Stephen Evans | 8,971 | 5th of 5 | ||
| 2022 | Colorado Class III | T.J. Cole | 16,379 | 4th of 5 |
| Year | Seat | Candidate | Popular votes | Percentage | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Colorado's 2nd | Bill Hammons | 2,176 | 4th of 4 | |
| 2018 | Colorado's 6th | Dan Chapin | 4,607 | 4th of 4 | |
| 2020 | Colorado's 1st | Paul Noel Fiorino | 2,534 | 4th of 4 | |
| Colorado's 2nd | Gary Swing | 2,524 | 4th of 4 | ||
| Colorado's 3rd | Critter Milton | 4,265 | 4th of 4 | ||
| Colorado's 4th | Laura Ireland | 4,530 | 4th of 4 | ||
| Colorado's 5th | Rebecca Keltie | 3,309 | 5th of 5 | ||
| Colorado's 6th | Jaimie Kulikowski | 3,884 | 4th of 4 | ||
| Colorado's 7th | Dave Olszta | 2,355 | 4th of 4 | ||
| 2022 | Colorado's 2nd | Tim Wolf | 1,968 | 5th of 5 | |
| Colorado's 7th | Critter Milton | 1,828 | 4th of 4 | ||
| 2024 | Colorado's 1st | Dom Waters | TBD | ||
| Colorado's 3rd | Gary Swing | TBD | |||
| Colorado's 8th | Dan Ward | TBD | |||
| Election | Candidate | Popular votes | Percentage | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado 2018 | Bill Hammons | 25,854 | 4th of 4 | ||
| Colorado 2022 | Paul Noël Fiorino | 6,687 | 5th of 5 |
| Election | Seat | Candidate | Popular votes | Percentage | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado 2018 | District 43 | Scott Wagner | 874 | 3rd of 3 | ||
| Colorado 2020 | District 5 | Joe Richardson | 633 | 3rd of 3 | ||
| Colorado 2022 | District 5 | Troy Brekke | 539 | 3rd of 3 |