The party, often shortened to Forward (FWD), was founded by former Democratic 2020 presidential and 2021 New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang.

Forward sees itself as being bottom up innovation, and describes its goals as the reduction of partisan polarization and the implementing of electoral reforms.

The party's American-style populism, particularly in its early platform, focused towards independent voters and those dissatisfied with the American two-party system,[2] and advocated an universal basic income within a humanistic capitalism.

It continues to support electoral and democratic reform (favoring in particular nonpartisan primaries), independent redistricting commissions, and ranked-choice voting.

[14] In November 2021, Yang discussed the Forward Party with Van Jones about "positive populism, finding common ground, and why Democrats often end up having to defend the status quo".

[16] Denney attempted to get Richard Painter, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, to run as a member of the Forward Party in the 2022 Minnesota Attorney General election.

[16] Cory Hepola, a radio host, announced he was running as a member of the Forward Party in the 2022 Minnesota gubernatorial election.

[19][20] The new party, named simply Forward, would be co-chaired by Andrew Yang and former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman.

The main points of the pledge states: "Democracy only works when people respect the established rules and the electoral system is set up to elevate the voice of the voter ...

[32][33] In August 2023, Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein and Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala announced their affiliation as Forward Republicans.

[42] After its merger and official founding in July 2022, the party's positions included founding co-chairs Andrew Yang (2020 Democratic presidential candidate),[19] Christine Todd Whitman (former Republican governor of New Jersey),[21] and Michael S. Willner (businessman), as well as co-CEOs Matt Shinners (from July–September 2022 and then interim CEO from September 2022–February 2023, when he became the chief strategy and operating officer) and Miles Taylor (former Republican who served as Homeland Security official in the Trump administration).

[54] Forward's former platform supported the implementation of a universal health care system,[55] and it encouraged states to adopt nonpartisan primaries and implement ranked-choice voting,[5][53] a concept Yang draws from political theorist and businesswoman Katherine Gehl called Final Five Voting.

[citation needed] It also proposed independent redistricting commissions and public finance reform in the form of democracy dollars.

[56][57] As a consequence, Forward plans to endorse candidates from both major and third parties, as well as independents who advocate for the core values rather than field their own.

[28] Two pillars of the new party's platform were to "reinvigorate a fair, flourishing economy" and to "give Americans more choices in elections, more confidence in a government that works, and more say in our future".

Luke Savage of Jacobin criticized the conception of the party as "pseudo-populism that's ultimately more an effort at rebranding the status quo than overthrowing it".

[65] MSNBC opinion columnist Zeeshan Aleem called the Forward Party "an uninspiring mess lacking vision or purpose".

[68] In contrast, New York Times opinion writer Kara Swisher praised Yang's book Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy, which inspired the pre-July 2022 positions of the party.

Swisher wrote: "Yang does not just give us a laundry list of intractable problems, but shows how we can find solutions if we think in new ways and summon the courage to do so.