Texas Forward Policy: By The People

Forward was created to break the duopoly and return power to the people. To accomplish this, we need modern innovations, bold new ideas, and the skills to implement them effectively. We strive to build practical solutions to every problem and one of the biggest problems is how policy has been made in America in recent years. This extends to all the policies that haven't been made, lacking proper prioritization, education, and advocacy.

Forward must solve the systemic problems in order to produce meaningful changes and push them into the mainstream. To accomplish this, we have developed a unique policy process unlike anything the established American parties have implemented.

Grassroots Structure

Forward is a party built from the ground up, as opposed to the top down structure of the Democrats and Republicans. This means those at the national level strive to support those at the state level, rather than dictate to them. This structure has proven successful in *multiple organizations. We selected this approach because we believe it's the right way to build a sustainable democratic organization.

Following the principles of ground up structures, we believe no one solves a problem better than the people at ground zero. This means many problems, while requiring coordination, are best solved by local teams and local decision makers implementing local policies. We need our local governments empowered to make the right calls and take necessary actions to solve problems, all while staying coordinated with other relevant decision makers in the system.

If power rests in the hands of even the most well intentioned government official who has only visited a town once for an event, they'll never be able to solve the real problems. These problems will pile up until we have so much chaos the country can't move forward. Unsustainable government means needless suffering, lost opportunities, and in extreme cases, preventable deaths.

Our Policy Development Process

We turn these principles into action by developing a policy system that enables everyone to participate in policymaking in a way that brings expert opinions, science, and best practices to the foundation of every policy, while ensuring room for innovation, flexible application, and rapid deployment.

We've developed our process by studying what works in many fields of science and technology, and we're continuously expanding and iterating to ensure it stays current with modern needs.

How It Works

Our Forwardists write, critique, manage, and deploy policy proposals to our Policy Database. Each policy proposal consists of modular components, including problem statements, bill analysis, potential solutions, and more. These proposals are collections of different pieces of work assembled by Forwardists, which undergo a review process similar to an academic journal.

These are living documents that may be updated, amended, or forked to create new policy proposals. There can be many different Forward policy ideas, all meeting approval from Forwardists while offering different perspectives based on the varying needs of different jurisdictions.

What unites all policies are the rigorous methods used in their development. Methods backed by thorough, quality processes that aim to keep our policies aligned with their intended results and outcomes, crafted with both present and future needs in mind, and developed with complete transparency and engagement from any Forwardists who wish to participate.

Our policies function like building blocks that all Forward endorsed candidates may select and use for their own platforms. Our candidates don't need to share identical policies to move Forward, because each community has different needs, interests, and resources to work with.

Our approach enables:

Accessible Civic Engagement: Anyone who cares about a topic can easily participate in the policy development process.

Transparency: Clear visibility into the governmental processes that our candidates will be working within.

Minority Representation: Minority groups can easily represent themselves and their needs by creating policy proposals that any number of our candidates can adopt and champion.

Better Outcomes: Superior policy results through the power of representative perspectives, data and evidence based foundations.

This framework ensures that Forward remains true to its mission of practical problem-solving while maintaining the democratic principles that make our movement unique.




* Patagonia, Buffer, Ritz-Carlton, and Interface Inc