Colorado Politics: The Unity Party Is The State's Newest Minor Party

Colorado has a new minor political party. On Monday, the unity Party passed the 1,000 registered voter threshold needed to qualify for the ballots.

The Secretary of State's office says that the party now has 1,002 registered voters. This guarantees that they will have a spot for the next two general elections - in 2018 and 2020.

Previously they were considered a "qualified political organization," which meant that they had to petition to get on the ballot.

"It's pretty exciting," said Bill Hammons, who founded the Unity Party in Colorado in 2005. (For more information on this and other local stories, subscribe to your local Patch for breaking news alerts.)

Their slogan is "Not right, not left, but forward."

The other minor parties in Colorado are: American Constitution, Green, and Libertarian. The major parties in Colorado are the Democratic and Republican parties. More than one- third of Colorado’s 3.6 million voters are unaffiliated and not a member of any political party.

Hammons is running for Colorado governor in 2018. He twice ran for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District, in 2010 and 2012, losing to Democrat Jared Polis.

Hammons was also a contender for the U.S. Senate in 2014, when Republican challenger Cory Gardner prevailed, and in 2016 when Democrat Michael Bennet was re-elected.

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