The party was founded on 25 October 2017 by Nayib Bukele, the then-mayor of San Salvador, and was registered by the Supreme Electoral Court on 21 August 2018.

Although Nuevas Ideas was formed before the 2019 presidential election, it was not legally registered as a political party in time to run a candidate.

As such, Bukele ran for president as a member of the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), but he continued to use Nuevas Ideas branding throughout his campaign.

He won the election with 53 percent of the vote and assumed office on 1 June 2019, becoming the first president in 30 years to not be a member of the country's two largest political parties: the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) or the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).

Ahead of the 2024 general election, Bukele announced that he was running for re-election, which was considered unconstitutional by legal experts and diplomatic officials, and Nuevas Ideas leadership stated that the party aimed to win all 60 seats in the Legislative Assembly.

According to Anna-Catherine Brigida and Mary Beth Sheridan of The Washington Post, the party is "based more on his [Bukele's] image and performance than on a traditional political ideology".

The party, described as being populist, utilizes social media outlets to rally support among young voters and to spread pro-government and anti-opposition propaganda.

[1] Five days after he was expelled from the party, Bukele expressed his intention to run for president in the upcoming 2019 presidential election as a member of a new political movement.

[3] Fernando Argíello Téllez, a magistrate of the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), believed that it could be viable that the party would be registered in time for the 2019 presidential election, adding that it "does not have any restriction at this moment" ("no tiene ninguna restricción en este momento").

Regardless, the TSE asked the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice if Bukele being expelled from the FMLN, rather than resigning or legally changing political affiliation, would make him a defector and disqualify him from running for public office.

[8] Bukele then sought to run for president as a member of the Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), winning the party's presidential nomination on 29 July 2018.

[10] Opinion polling gave Bukele consistent leads against the ARENA and FMLN presidential candidates, with several giving him over 50 percent support.

[12] He was inaugurated on 1 June 2019, becoming the first president since José Napoleón Duarte of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) left office in 1989 to not be a member of either ARENA or the FMLN.

Douglas Rodríguez, the secretary of the party's National Electoral Commission (CNE), confirmed that some candidates had bought chips and validated them.

[18] The CNE confirmed that it would seek the identities of candidates involved in buying chips and would hand over cases with sufficient evidence to the party's ethics commission.

[17] In September 2020, the El Faro digital newspaper alleged that Bukele had entered into secret negotiations with Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street gang, two of the country's largest criminal gangs, to reduce the country's murder rate and vote for Nuevas Ideas in the 2021 election in exchange for repealing anti-gang laws and relaxing security in prisons.

[14][26][27][28] Ernesto Castro was elected by Nuevas Ideas and its allies as the president of the Legislative Assembly, with the remaining 20 deputies abstaining.

[30] On the same day the 13th legislative session began, the Nuevas Ideas-led government voted to remove five members of the Supreme Court of Justice's Constitutional Chamber on the basis that the judges had previously issued "arbitrary" decisions.

[45] In February 2023, Castro not only confirmed that Nuevas Ideas was formally investigating municipal consolidation but also that they were looking into reducing the seats in the Legislative Assembly from 84 to 64.

Deputies of Nuevas Ideas argued that the reductions would "generate a more equitable distribution of wealth", improve the quality of life for people in each municipality, and save the government US$250 million per year.

[49] On 31 July 2023, Nuevas Ideas deputy Erick García resigned from the Legislative Assembly after allegations were made against him by Alejandro Muyshondt, a presidential national security advisor, that he was involved in drug trafficking operations linked to MS-13.

García denied having any affiliation with gangs,[50] and that same day, Nuevas Ideas opened an investigation into the allegations made by Muyshondt.

[51] On 9 August 2023, García was expelled from Nuevas Ideas, and the party opened an investigation into his replacement on the Legislative Assembly, Nidia Turcios.

Ruth Eleonora López, the chief of Cristosal's anti-corruption committee, criticized their campaigns as illegal, stating that they violated article 172 of the country's electoral code.

The party's primary platform is combatting corruption, clientelism, and cronyism;[107] a common phrase reiterated by Bukele and by Nuevas Ideas is "money is enough when nobody steals" ("el dinero alcanza cuando nadie roba").

[110][111][112] The party utilizes social media—among them, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok—to communicate with and contact the public,[107] spread pro-government and anti-opposition propaganda, and rally support among young voters.

[96][114][115][116] According to Anna-Catherine Brigida and Mary Beth Sheridan of The Washington Post, the party is "based more on his [Bukele's] image and performance than on a traditional political ideology".

[14] Jonathan Blitzer of The New Yorker stated that Nuevas Ideas government officials, which he described as a "mixture of true believers and opportunists", are united in their loyalty to Bukele.

Nuevas Ideas USA was coordinated by Luis Reyes from its formation until its dissolution in 2020 when it splintered into five groups based in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C.[133] Prior to the 2024 election, various deputies of the Legislative Assembly from Nuevas Ideas held campaign events in the United States to promote Bukele's re-election campaign.