The NC Forward Party

About this episode

Cassie Clark interviews Lennie Friedman about the North Carolina Forward Party and its focus on political reform and education.

In this episode, I sat down in downtown Raleigh with Lennie Friedman — retired NFL player and Vice Chair of the North Carolina Forward Party — for a real, candid conversation about why he stepped into a third-party movement that says it’sfighting for the political “middle 70%.” Lennie walks through how the Forward Party first came together nationally, led by Andrew Yang and former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman — and why the North Carolina chapter is choosing to stay laser-focused on state issues instead of getting swallowed up in national political chaos. We dig into what they see as the root problem: broken political incentives. That means tackling gerrymandering, pushing for term limits, and advocating for instant runoff (ranked-choice) voting so candidates actually have to earn 50% support — especially in primaries where someone can currently win with roughly 30%. Lennie makes the case that those reforms would reduce the “spoiler” fear around third parties, force candidates to campaign beyond their base, and maybe — just maybe — cool down some of the mudslinging that’s become standard operating procedure. We also get into education. Lennie talks about outcomes…

People in this episode

Host: Cassie Clark

Guest: Lennie Friedman

Topics covered

• third-party politics
• political reform
• gerrymandering
• ranked-choice voting
• education outcomes

Keywords

• North Carolina Forward Party
• Lennie Friedman
• political middle 70%
• gerrymandering
• ranked-choice voting
• education reform
• Mississippi Miracle

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: North Carolina Forward Party, Mississippi Miracle

Places: North Carolina, downtown Raleigh

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