Greg Orman, a then-independent candidate for Senate in Kansas, speaks to supporters at a watch party on election night in 2014. | Julie Denesha/Getty Images Statewide independents roll out national slate

Unite America, the group backing and supporting independent statewide candidates attempting to capitalize on the current post-partisan political moment, will officially announce its slate of three governor candidates and two Senate candidates on Tuesday — along with what they are calling "a Declaration of Independents.”

The list of shared principles is vague and mostly rooted in principles of good government like “use common sense and find common ground,” but the plans for 2018 are more hard-nosed: Core staff is helping candidates find donors, staff and publicity and build campaign infrastructure with the aim of forcibly changing the political system through winning races.


“Sometimes you can feel a bit lonely out there on the campaign trail,” said Terry Hayes, the elected state treasurer in Maine who’s now running for governor.

Maine has a strong independent tradition — Sen. Angus King was elected as an independent, and in the last two gubernatorial races, Gov. Paul LePage won in a field fractured by a third party candidate. Still, Hayes said, “there’s no strong mechanism” for independent candidates in the state.

If she wins, she’d be looking to join Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, a former Republican elected in 2014 as an independent with a Democratic lieutenant governor running mate, who’s running for a second term this year with the enthusiastic backing of the group.

The official announcement will come at an event at the National Press Club in Washington.

Morning Score newsletter Your guide to the permanent campaign — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Neal Simon in Maryland and Craig O’Dear in Missouri are the group’s Senate candidates.

David Dodson, who had been expected to run with Unite America in his race against Sen. John Barrasso in Wyoming, has been dropped from the slate because of his interest in running to clean up the Republican Party instead of promoting what the group calls its “fulcrum strategy”: a caucus of swing independents who’d effectively control a closely divided Senate by forcing both parties to chase their votes.

Greg Orman, a 2014 independent candidate for Senate in Kansas, is now making the case for an independent for governor — with a hope to provide an palatable alternative to whoever comes out of a GOP primary likely to be dominated by Trump-aligned firebrand Kris Kobach, the secretary of state, and Gov. Jeff Colyer, the former lieutenant governor to immensely unpopular Sam Brownback, who left the job for a low-level Trump appointment.

“Voters are really looking for something different. They’ve seen that the system we have isn’t working for them, in Kansas or across the country,” Orman said. “This is a sentiment that’s been growing. Most voters seem to realize that the two parties are more interested in [seeing the other fail] than in seeing their state or their country succeed.”

