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In a CBS News article titled “Elon Musk vows to start a new political party after Trump feud. Here’s why that’s harder than it sounds.” written by Joe Walsh and published on July 2, 2025, Brett Kappel speaks on the many obstacles and challenges present on forming a new political party on the national level. Kappel stated that “The hurdles for creating a new party and getting it on the ballot are extremely high. It can be done if you have endless amounts of money, but it’s a multi-year project and will cost hundreds of millions of dollars…Only the richest person in the world could make a serious effort at creating a new American political party.”

Kappel explains that even with access to the appropriate funds, the process is incredibly time-consuming and creating a brand-new political party would take years, and it is impossible to create by the 2026 midterm elections. Kappel goes on to say that “Political parties are creatures of the states…The state laws in all of the states are biased towards the two major political parties, and make it as difficult as possible for the emergence of a third political party.”

In addition to the vast amount of funding required, the years long processes, and navigation of state laws, a new political party would also face obstacles at the federal level with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Kappel specifies that new political parties typically start out as not-for-profit groups before they are formally recognized, and during this early phase, donations from financial backers aren’t limited. However, once a party is nationally recognized, the FEC subjects the party’s donors to limits on political contributions. Overall, the combination of these factors makes it incredibly difficult to form a new national political party in the U.S.