If the electoral aspirations and internal machinations of Democrats and Republicans no longer concern you, what should you do with your time as a politically engaged and patriotic citizen? (Always keeping in mind that politics is not a religion or an all-encompassing theory of life or an endeavor that is worth wasting too much time on. Especially with college football, the MLB playoffs, and the new EPL season kicking off soon, and countless books to read, records to spin, and dog walks to savor. Priorities!)
There are several emerging political strategies for unaffiliated Americans—offered by an array of independent leaders, organizations, candidates, and thinkers—that are worthy of consideration and support.
Join the fight for political reform.
A notoriously messy and convoluted field, the political reform movement in recent years has sharpened its game and started pursuing tangible efforts that could be transformative for political free agents. Two areas intrigue me the most. One is the legal and legislative push to establish open primaries in all 50 states, and the other is the more far-reaching call for proportional representation in Congress.
As Ballotpedia reports, “As of August 2026, 14 states require open primaries, 13 require closed primaries, 10 require semi-closed primaries, five require top-two style primaries, and in 11 states parties have discretion to choose participation rules for their primaries.”
If you live in a state with closed Democratic and Republican primaries, like Maryland where I reside, and you are one of the more than one million unaffiliated voters in that state, this means you get little to no say in who ultimately represents you. Why? Maryland is an uncompetitive state that leans heavily Democratic, and even more so in Baltimore City where I’ve lived for more than 20 years, so the Democratic primary is the only game in town. Yet unaffiliated voters are blocked from participating in Democratic primary elections for all levels of government and various offices. The inverse situation is true in an uncompetitive heavily Republican state like Wyoming.
Notably, there’s no partisan or ideological distribution of closed and open primary states. Texas is an open primary state. So is California (using a top-two all-candidate primary format). Several southern states are open primary, while many northeastern ones are closed. Other states like Louisiana used to have open “jungle” primaries, but recently reinstated party-specific primaries for congressional and other elections starting this year.
Elections are state-run functions funded by all taxpayers. Yet the State of Maryland, among others, allows the two parties to exclude anyone who is not a declared party member from participating. Yes, you can temporarily switch your registration to join one of the two party primaries but must do so within 21 days of an election and then switch it back if you want to remain unaffiliated—hurdles that do not bother other partisan voters.
As organizations like Open Primaries and five unaffiliated Maryland residents have argued in a legal suit against the state, the closed primary provisions set up by the two parties allegedly violate the constitutional right of independent residents “to vote and participate in all elections held in the State as provided for in Article 1, Section 1 of the Maryland Constitution of 1867 and secured by Article 7 (the “Free Elections Clause”) and Article 24 (the “Equal Protection Clause”) of the Maryland Declaration of Rights.”
At a minimum, if the parties want to close their primaries to keep out hundreds of thousands of citizens legally able to vote, they should forego all public funding and set up their own primary elections using their own funds. The state shouldn’t deny any citizen the right to vote because of their party identification, or lack thereof.
As the number of independent and declared unaffiliated voters continues to grow, expect these citizens living in closed primary states to fight for their right to vote in any election set up and sanctioned by state governments. Unite America and a group of bipartisan House members are also trying to pass legislation (“Let America Vote Act”) to ban closed primaries nationwide for all primary elections for federal office.
The movement to get Congress to change election laws to allow for proportional representation in the House of Representatives is also picking up steam given the latest (outrageous) round of partisan gerrymandering efforts conducted by states controlled by both Democrats and Republicans. The premise is simple: voters should be able to choose any party and candidate they want for congressional representation and have that party represented in Congress based on the percentage of the total votes they receive.
Proportional representation could largely do away with partisan gerrymandering and reduce the ability of the two parties to manipulate single-member districts to their benefit by replacing them with much larger multi-member districts—or a single statewide district—with multiple representatives elected in proportion to their share of the vote. In simple two-party terms, if a state has ten congressional seats and votes 60-40 Republican-Democrat, then Republicans would receive six seats and Democrats four. If a third party managed to get, say, ten percent of the vote, then they would get one seat, and the remaining nine would be distributed to the two main parties based on their vote share. No more parties drawing lines to reduce the chances of other parties getting seats and maximizing their own, and no more partisan efforts after elections to redraw these lines to eliminate competition in future election cycles.
There are different models for how to do this, as groups like Fix Our House and FairVote lay out, but the goal is simple and democratic: let the voters choose who they want to represent them and stop the parties from choosing their own voters.
Back existing or new third parties.
Third parties and their voters often get a bad rap as “spoilers” who are delusional and naive about American politics. At the pinnacle of U.S. politics, there is a grain of truth to this charge. No third party or independent presidential candidate has ever received more than 27 percent of the vote, as Teddy Roosevelt achieved in the 1912 election with his Progressive Party. Ross Perot, the most successful third-party candidate since TR, received around 19 percent of the vote in 1992. In recent elections, however, all third parties combined have at best received only a few percentage points of the total popular vote.
So, it’s fair to say that most third-party presidential bids are quixotic. However, this does not diminish the importance of third-party organizing for offices below the presidency, especially for state and municipal government positions, or if there is any movement towards proportional representation in Congress.
If you believe in consistent economic freedom, civil liberties, and limited government, the Libertarian Party may be for you. If environmental and social justice concerns are paramount, the Greens might be up your alley. If you want more support for unions and working-class policies and candidates, the Working Families Party has your back. If political and electoral reforms and less polarized politics are your thing, consider the Forward Party.
These parties won’t win the presidency anytime soon. But they do offer a landing spot for protest votes and organizing around issues and candidates that differ in important ways from traditional Democrats and Republicans.
Help create a small bloc of independent members of Congress.
Given the impracticality of third-party efforts, former West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a known maverick during his time in office and now a self-declared political independent, along with his daughter and groups like Americans Together and the Independent Center, has started an intriguing new effort called The Independent Leadership Council.
The ILC is not a political party but rather a strategic movement to elect a small cohort of genuinely independent leaders in Congress to help gain leverage over the two parties and pursue legislation that is broadly helpful to all Americans and all regions of the country. The organization’s declaration by its endorsed candidates makes three commitments:
1. Fair Competition. America’s success has been propelled by a radical commitment to competition. The founders understood a simple truth: competition drives innovation, creates accountability, and produces greater opportunity and better outcomes for everyone and our political system should be no different.
As an independent, I will be dedicated to restoring competition through:
Promoting nonpartisan primaries and politicians receiving a majority of votes to be elected
Ending gerrymandering
Supporting term limits
Championing policies that strengthen opportunity, innovation, and the American middle class
2. Solutions that move our country forward. America’s biggest challenges will not be solved by one party acting alone. They need leaders willing to think independently, work with anyone who has a good idea, and put lasting results ahead of partisan victories.
As an independent, I will not caucus with either party, I will work with anyone to create opportunity, strengthen our country, and deliver results. I believe that my political independence is the single most valuable currency I can bring to the halls of Congress.
3. Genuine Accountability. Representative government only works when elected leaders are accountable to the people they serve. That means constituents deserve more than a vote, they deserve to know why that vote was cast.
As such, I commit to publicly explaining every vote I make on behalf of my constituents. Transparency builds trust, and trust is essential to a healthy democracy.
Above all else, I am optimistic that America’s best days are ahead of her, and I dedicate my work to putting the country above both party and self.
Manchin and his colleagues are currently seeking to elect roughly 10 to 12 independents across the House and Senate united by these three commitments—most importantly, the promise not to caucus with either party. Even if you do not support Manchin’s centrist political views, you can see the potential appeal of electing more genuine independents to office with the power to shape public policy in more beneficial ways beyond the ideological priorities of one party or the other.
The strategy really only works, however, if the margins in Congress remain very narrow as they are today: “As an independent, your strength is in a slim majority because when the key votes come, they’re going to need your vote.”
Support truly independent news sources and media publications that cover unaffiliated voters honestly.
Progressives and Democrats have the New York Times, MS NOW, and numerous political podcasts, liberal magazines, and blogs pumping out party-aligned messages, voices, and opinions on a regular basis. Trump and MAGA Republicans have Fox News, Newsmax, the Washington Examiner, the New York Post, and countless others doing the same.
Independents and unaffiliated Americans face more limited options. They mainly read or watch fairly reliable mainstream sources such as The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and PBS, or perhaps listen to various unaligned podcaster types like Joe Rogan, or get news and commentary through a range of different voices on X, Substack, and other social media platforms.
Currently there are very few dedicated media outlets that aren’t just telling people what Democrats and Republicans want them to hear or covering the diverse voices of independent America. Independent Voter News and some of the other groups mentioned earlier are trying to do more of this, as is Free Agent Politics.
But given the size and diversity of the independent bloc in America, more than 40 percent of the electorate, it’s sad that these media projects and potentially many more new ones are so drastically outgunned by partisan media. In addition to investing more resources into dedicated independent media outlets, it would be helpful to encourage the big outlets like the NYT, WSJ, and Washington Post, plus the corporate newsletters like Axios, Punchbowl, and Semafor, to put more money and effort into covering independents and their influence on American politics.
Embrace the political depolarization movement.
Independents often point out that they were driven out of two-party politics by the constant hectoring, fighting, and distortions that constitute the daily activities of Democrats and Republicans. Mutual partisan loathing and contempt for others who are not on the team hold little appeal to free agents.
Instead, political independents are increasingly turning to organizations and social experiments designed to reduce partisan and ideological polarization in American life. One of my favorite groups doing this work is More in Common, which does work in the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, and Poland, among other countries, and is dedicated to the goal of achieving “democratic societies in which people believe that they have more in common than what divides them.” More in Common conducts original research (like the report “Hidden Tribes”) that examines the roots of polarization while challenging the idea that people are hopelessly divided. The group also backs various initiatives and experiments to encourage bridge building and cooperation among people. Braver Angels is another great organization “taking a stand against toxic politics” by helping Americans mend personal and family relationships torn apart by political disagreements, find better ways to express their views to others, and understand their perspectives in turn. No Labels is a longstanding independent organization that helped launch the original bipartisan “Problem Solvers Caucus” in the House, and experimented with a bipartisan unity ticket in 2024 before getting browbeaten by groups and donors affiliated with Democrats. Bridge Grades is a relatively new data-driven project that categorizes elected officials based on “how collaboratively or divisively they govern.”
There are many other groups focused on depolarization, like Unite America mentioned above, but their goals are basically the same as most independents’: a political system that is less consumed by sectarian partisanship and more committed to helping Americans work together to solve common problems.
This is just a brief tour of the emerging strategies political free agents of various stripes are undertaking to help change the electoral rules, build alternative parties, elect independents, create a new media infrastructure, and shift overall cultural norms. If two-party politics isn’t your bag, consider one of these five ways to engage in politics on your own terms and in concert with others who think similarly.
Free Agent Politics will try to cover these and other strategic developments among political independents as the 2026 and 2028 elections take shape.
Thanks for this survey. We can hope that some of these ideas and organizations will have impact.
But one thing mentioned seems misguided to me. When they began to be seriously advocated, term limits seems like an obvious good thing to me. Having observed them since, here is what I see as the problem. Without term limits, a legislator can largely ignore their party and respond to their constituents. If they stay popular, they can do this for a long time. So the path to a long career is to attend to the constituents. Under term limits one only has a long political career with the help of one's party, as one moves from one office to the next. In my opinion this has increased the partisan aspect of state politics, especially here in Michigan where I've seen it closely.