Alex Samuels
May 19, 2021 2:40 PM ET
As far as the ideological leanings of the breakaway coalition go, political scientists I talked with told me to expect it to be composed of “Trump-skeptical moderates” and “anti-Trumpers” — two of the five wings of the Republican Party Perry Bacon Jr. previously described for FiveThirtyEight. That’s to say, this isn’t even close to the majority of the GOP, and reports so far say Republicans on board with this effort are generally fiscally conservative but more centrist on cultural issues. Because of this, we wouldn’t be surprised if some Democrats joined this effort, too. Last year, the Pew Research Center found that conservative and moderate voters make up about half (51 percent) of the Democratic electorate, so if there’s potential for this third breakaway party to have any hope of viability, it needs it to be bipartisan, too.