Andrew, it's an enormous undertaking, but I think we have to start with a little bit of a philosophical

backstep, which is what we're doing over at the Forward Party, is thinking through what does it

look like to build a new kind of party? And a party that is actually oriented around an actual

civic life that is joyful and robust and makes a difference in people's lives. We have to reorient

what is a political party? Because I think people have first and foremost forgotten the potential

of a political party. And so once we kind of understand that what we're trying to build is a

container and a community for people to engage in a robust and joyful civic life that deeply

impacts their communities for good. Now we can think about how you structure that.

It is my pleasure to welcome to Forward, a man who has lost more independent political races

than anyone else in the country perhaps the head of political strategy for Forward. Joel,

Syrby, welcome Joel. Andrew, great to be with you. Thank you. Yes, I do hold the distinction of having

lost more independent campaigns than any consultant in US history. I'm pretty sure.

Well, it's because you've been fighting the good fight in a very, very principled fashion,

but it is not always thus. You started out within one of the major parties and became a prominent

consultant in Florida. Before I believed in the Republican Party in 2016, which might be a

familiar narrative to some, but you want to walk us through your background? Yeah, sure. Happy to

been doing politics for about 17 years did not get into this because it was my career of choice.

I decided not study political science, but once I got in, I worked my way up through the Republican

ranks in a consulting firm in Florida. In 2014, I became the CEO of that firm. At the time,

we were the largest consulting firm in the southeast. I was in the process of buying that company

when 2016 rolled around and I had just been growing less and less comfortable with the direction

of the party. I was very concerned about the 2016 election. Ultimately, that became incompatible

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