New Mexico has wrestled with questions of accountability, competition, and representation in its politics. Many residents feel locked out of the process by closed primaries, entrenched party structures, and a system that often prioritizes conflict over cooperation. Bob Perls, chairman of the Forward Party of New Mexico, is working to create what he calls “a mainstream alternative to the two parties that have tracked along the extremes.”
Perls grew up in Albuquerque, graduating from Highland High School before heading to Pomona College in California. After returning to New Mexico, he founded Monitor Tech, a medical technology company that grew into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. He served two terms in the state legislature, where he passed New Mexico’s first charter school act, created the Public Regulation Commission, advanced ethics reforms, and outlawed the sale of cigarettes to minors. After unsuccessful runs for Congress and the PRC, Perls joined the U.S. Foreign Service, serving in Germany, Gambia, Canada, and Pakistan before returning home. He later founded New Mexico Open Elections, a nonprofit that championed open primaries after a decade-long fight.
According to Perls, political leadership requires collaboration and empathy. “Building a company, being in politics, being a diplomat, it’s all the same stuff,” he says. “It’s building high performance teams, it’s expecting excellence, and it’s being able to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes.” He contrasts this with today’s partisan climate, where “we have a politics industry … made up of this duopoly, these two parties that really nowadays spend more time fighting each other and calling the other one evil than we do pulling together diverse people and coming up with solutions.”
That led him to chair the Forward Party in New Mexico. Founded nationally by Andrew Yang, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, and others, the party fosters cooperation rather than division. “We’re kind of the un-party party,” Perls says. “We’re trying to do this from the bottom up, just grassroots organizing and getting people enthused, getting people willing to run for lower offices like city council and mayor.”
Before it can run candidates, the Forward Party must first achieve official recognition in New Mexico, Perls says. “We have to collect 3,500 signatures, which means we really need about 5,000 from registered voters. Once the secretary of state certifies us as an official party, then in 2026, when you walk in to vote, you’ll see the Republican line, the Democrat line, the Libertarian line, and hopefully you’ll see the Forward Party line.”
Unlike traditional parties, Perls says Forward will not impose policy litmus tests. “There aren’t going to be any must-test policy issues to be a Forward Party voter or candidate. We want localities, we want states to make decisions about what their priorities are.” He says that the party intends to endorse candidates across the political spectrum when their ideas align with Forward’s principles of rule of law, integrity, and data-driven solutions.
Perls believes most New Mexicans share common goals, even if they disagree on divisive issues. “My philosophy is that I can bring together nine out of ten people and come up with consensus on most issues,” he says. “It’s only this tribalism that’s infected politics where you’ve got these two warring teams.” He points to public safety as an example. “People don’t want to defund the police. People want to have police who are community based, who are in it for the right reasons, not for ego. I think we can create consensus, but you have to have a political system that incentivizes consensus, and our current system does not.”
That broken system, according to him, results in voter disengagement. “We’ve got 2 to 5% of the populace deciding who governs us at every level,” Perls says. “Nothing is more important than voting. People have died throughout history for the right to vote.” He says non-voters are not apathetic. “If they actually have a real decision to make, they will show up.”
Perls criticizes both major parties for prioritizing ideological purity over problem-solving. “With the progressives, we often see far too much emphasis on identity politics,” he says. “With the MAGA group, January 6th was a violation of the rule of law. It was treason. You can’t say you’re a party of law and order when you’re killing law enforcement at the Capitol.” He frames the Forward Party as an outlet for the 80% of Americans he says are stranded in the middle.
Perls says the party needs to provide competition. “We don’t want to be a third party. We want to be your second party,” he says. “You’ve got to have competition. We have more choices in cereal and flavors of ice cream than we do in candidates.”
