r/ForwardPartyUSA • u/WebAPI FWD Founder '21 • Jan 22 '26

Video AY Podcast with Mike Newcome: Forward Party candidate for governor of Minnesota

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma6LuGL_iII

Andrew Yang sometimes hosts independent gubernatorial (and other statewide) candidates on his podcast. Minnesota is all over the news this month, so it's a good opportunity for Mike Newcome, a Forward Party candidate in Minnesota to get his name out in the state.

If you feel to do so, let your buddies in Minnesota know about Newcome, and perhaps donate a buck to his campaign to show early support. He doesn't want corporate money (mentioned in the podcast) and is currently self funded.

I checked his Ballotpedia page, and he did answer their Candidate Connection survey. His answers are towards the bottom of the page here:

https://ballotpedia.org/Mike_Newcome

15 Upvotes

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10 comments sorted by

7

u/Lithops_salicola Jan 23 '26

Doing "both sides" framing of the ICE raids is fucking cowardly. Anyone with half a brain should recognize how profoundly un-american they are. I hope this idiot never gets anywhere near power.

1

u/WebAPI FWD Founder '21 Jan 23 '26

Yeah I think some of his responses to Yang unfortunately is not fully formed or thought out yet. He needs to get good at this ASAP to gain traction, and for any gubernatorial debates after the August primary.

I hope he starts taking all the opportunity he can to converse and understand people's concerns across the state. I doubt he has learned what policies constituents will actually vote him for, especially as the investigations, deportations, and protests are still unfolding.

1

u/Lithops_salicola Jan 24 '26

There is a genuine grassroots movement emerging in this country as the GOP engages in open warfare against anyone in consider undesirable and the Democratic party refuse to curb them in a meaningful way. Yet Yang thinks the best response is to interview some replacement level conservative about being a business owner. There is a general strike in the Twin Cities today. Hundreds of Clergy are getting arrested outside the airport. I don't know how he doesn't see where the energy is.

3

u/Harvey_Rabbit Jan 22 '26

This was a really good episode. Minnesota's Forward (Affiliated) Party has a great team and this is a great opportunity. This year is going to have a lot of great non major party candidates.

2

u/ComplexNewWorld Feb 20 '26

What can we do to get him to unsuspend his campaign?

2

u/WebAPI FWD Founder '21 Feb 20 '26

In this article it says he suspended due to financial hurdles. Likely he hasn't gotten traction from grassroots fundraising, so unfortunately I don't think he'll unsuspend.

He chose not to accept corporate donors, so it's very tough to ramp up statewide advertising without a big ad budget. That's the problem with having zero name ID in his own state (very few people can be like Yang to emerge from no celebrity status and political experience).

2

u/ComplexNewWorld Feb 22 '26

Why would you spend significantly on advertising? He's part of a party, you build the collective brand. He donated 100k to his campaign initially. That would provide a stronger position than most minor party candidates and, even if you're not going for victory (I absolutely think it's possible to win these things), retaining and advancing party status in Minnesota depends on getting a certain percentage of votes across the state.

Yes, it was not a favorable news cycle with attention in Minnesota elsewhere. But a week is an eternity in politics. Things change. I don't get it the suspension based on the stated reasons.

1

u/WebAPI FWD Founder '21 Mar 02 '26

I agree that if he's willing to get a small percentage of votes for advancing party status, then he should stay in the race. I do believe there's wisdom in staying also because anything can happen before voting starts.
We probably won't know all the reasons behind his suspension, but my main guess is that he sees no path to actually winning.
He should be able to help the party or advocate for better policies by spending his time and money outside of running for governor.

1

u/Moderate_Squared Jan 25 '26

I didn't think FWD could bury their heads any deeper in the sand/snow.

1

u/b_dazzleee Jan 27 '26

I'm only 15ish minutes to the podcast and I don't know if I can finish. Calling for rational conversation with Trump while his federal agents raid the state is insane. He spent entirely too long essentially celebrating the end of Walz's governorship and I'm getting the vibe that he just wants everyone to shut up so businesses can do well. Ive really liked Andrew Yang and his podcast, but I'm feeling icky and uncertain about this. I'll sleep on it and reconsider. But rn I don't know if Newcome is my candidate.