PHILADELPHIA, PA – America’s Main Street Party (AMSP) is launching an initiative to create a new candidate selection process that eliminates the financial barriers dominating politics. It uniquely requires no new laws.

A Start-Up with a Big Vision

AMSP is a small but dedicated team of university students, technical experts, and business professionals working to design a nominating system that is opt-in, transparent, and untainted from the outsized influence of money in politics. 

Unlike traditional campaigns that bombard voters with ads, AMSP’s approach is to build a portal that creates direct engagement and trust. 

Students Chauncy Wadsworth of Haverford College and Richmond Nguyen of Drexel University are working on a prototype for public demonstration. Wadsworth, a political science junior, has completed the software specifications while Nguyen, a computer science major, recently started coding the alpha release.

The system will include a unique candidate profile feature and innovative filtering. “The app allows constituents to quickly note their position on seven key issues and match these to potential nominees,” Wadsworth explained. “It’s a systematic way to reduce a large field.”

To keep the project going, the team seeks to raise $100K by the end of the school year. The money will be used to hire additional student software engineers and launch a marketing campaign. The plan is to raise enough money to hire a professional software firm to fully develop and publish the system. 

In January, AMSP commissioned a survey of 1500 citizens through the global research company SAGO, which showed bipartisan support for reducing financial influence in elections. 73% of survey respondents “like” the idea of a movement focused on a free and equal nominating process, and well over half of those “like it a great deal.”

“Younger voters are eager for an alternative to traditional party structures, and older populations understand how money impacts politics,” noted Mariah Shaw, a political consultant who assisted the team in designing the survey. “These insights shape our approach to ensure the system aligns with voters’ needs,” she added.

The app is the first step in a broader effort to reengineer the nominating process for all elections. Once complete, the plan is to implement the system in targeted districts across the country. It introduces competition where there is typically none and offers constituents a way to find candidates who represent their values without the interference of donors, political insiders and the media.

A Novel Approach with a Storied History

AMSP is the pump in Wilson’s Fountain, a repurposing of the United States political committee system. Wilson’s Fountain references the topic of Constitutional author James Wilson's inaugural law lecture, at what is now the Penn Carey Law School. Wilson warned that free and equal elections were vital, and if not guaranteed by every state, the Fountain of Democracy is poisoned, and the “true voice” of the people is lost.

This parallel effort has met its first milestone. Penn Carey Law student Tulio Tagliaferri and recent Penn Political Science graduate Gabe Wright have defined how to legally operate the Wilson’s Fountain paradigm within the regulations of the Federal Election Commission. This document will serve as an operating manual for the various types of political committees comprising Wilson’s Fountain. 

“At its core, our objective is to improve the quality of representation,” said Tom Joseph, Founder and Treasurer of AMSP. “To succeed, we intend to run this political party like a business. Once our plan is executed, we’ll have a system producing candidates who are the true voice of their people.”

America’s Main Street Party seeks to disrupt the status quo and give every voter a meaningful say in who represents them.

Disclaimers

The Party is not affiliated with any of the colleges or universities mentioned in this article.