Talk:Unite America

Requested move 23 May 2018

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: moved as requested per the discussion below. Dekimasuよ! 01:25, 31 May 2018 (UTC)

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The Centrist Project → Unite America – organization rebranded from The Centrist Project to Unite America in early 2018. The Wikipedia entry should reflect this new name for ease of navigation and organizational clarity. Msmithey (talk) 21:57, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

• Support - Unfortunately the new name isn't very search friendly, but I have found several mainstream sources (AP in particular) that report on the name change. Can't see any reason to object. -- Netoholic @ 07:25, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Question about the infobox

My name is Kevin Singer and I'm the communications director for Unite America. I have a question for anyone watching this page: Would it be possible to add the Unite America logo to the infobox? I notice that it's a pretty common infobox feature for organizations like ours. Is there anything I would need to do to make this happen? KS at Unite America (talk) 16:31, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

I will do this now. MediaKyle (talk) 21:15, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

 Done. I uploaded the logo as a fair use image. It might be simple enough that it could be hosted on the Commons but I'll let someone else worry about that. Cheers, MediaKyle (talk) 21:19, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Logo looks great! Appreciate the assist, MediaKyle. I just posted another request about removing promotional content. KS at Unite America (talk) 18:47, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

Request to remove promotional content

Hi, this is once again Kevin Singer, the communications director for Unite America.

The Mission section of this article has a large banner on top of it stating concerns about "promotional content."

Would it be possible to simply remove this section? I agree that the content reads as promotional. It's also considerably out of date (e.g. Unite America no longer endorses candidates).

In short, nothing in this section is accurate or encyclopedic and editors have already expressed concerns about it. Removal seems like an easy solution!

(And for context: I'm working on a few suggested updates to the History section that would specify when Unite America stopped endorsing candidates, how the mission has changed, etc. These updates would presumably address any concerns about removing all mission-related content.) KS at Unite America (talk) 18:45, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

 Done, seems reasonable enough. Tessaract2 (hello) 18:47, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

Update the History section?

Hi, this is Kevin Singer again, the communications director for Unite America.

In my previous request, I asked whether editors would consider removing the Mission section, which featured a prominent banner warning that the content appeared to be promotional. That request has since been implemented (thank you to Tessaract2).

I wanted to ask whether editors might also be willing to review several of the sections that follow, as they appear to raise similar promotional concerns. Some passages aren't supported by inline citations, while others rely on Unite America website content that is no longer available. My concern is that these sections may be removed in the future, even though some of the underlying material seems notable and encyclopedic.

With that in mind, I drafted a revised History section that seeks to preserve the strongest material from those sections while presenting it in a more neutral, concise fashion. Whenever possible, I cited independent news coverage rather than Unite America’s own materials. The draft also helps address what appears to be a significant gap in the article’s coverage from 2019 to the present.

History draft for consideration

Charles Wheelan, a Dartmouth College professor and former Congressional candidate, published The Centrist Manifesto book in 2013. An affiliated federal PAC, The Centrist Project Voice, registered with the FEC in May 2014. The organization was intended to support ideas from Wheelan's book, most notably the “fulcrum strategy” in which a small group of independent senators could control the balance of power in a closely divided chamber and push both parties toward more centrist policies. The Centrist Project began endorsing candidates, including independents and major-party candidates it saw as pragmatic or centrist. Its first endorsement was Larry Pressler, a former three-term Republican senator from South Dakota who was running as an independent for the seat vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Tim Johnson in the 2014 election. The organization also endorsed Susan Collins, Michelle Nunn, Greg Orman, and Jill Bossi during the 2014 election cycle.

In 2016, Nick Troiano, a former congressional candidate, joined the organization's board as executive director. Troiano pushed the organizations towards supporting structural election reforms, such as nonpartisan redistricting.

In 2017, the Centrist Project opened its national headquarters in Denver, Colorado. The organization then changed its name to Unite America. That same year, an affiliated state-based organization, Washington Independents, launched to support independent candidates in Washington.

In 2018, Unite America and its state-focused local affiliate, Unite Colorado, endorsed independent candidates for the Colorado State Legislature. The organization picked Colorado because of its narrowly divided Legislature and a belief that voters there would be receptive to independent candidates. That same year Unite America also supported a slate of independent national candidates for state gubernatorial offices and the U.S. Senate.

In March 2019, a new statewide chapter, Unite Virginia, launched to support centrist Democratic and Republican candidates.

In September 2019, Unite America announced more than $5 million in commitments through the Unite America Fund to support election reform campaigns in Alaska, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York. The two largest donors to the fund were Kathryn Murdoch and Marc Merrill. In November 2019, New York City voters approved ranked-choice voting through a City Charter amendment. The change only applied to primary and special elections for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and City Council.

In 2020, Unite America backed Alaska Measure 2, which combined a top-four open primary, ranked-choice voting in the general election, and campaign-finance disclosure changes. Alaska voters approved the measure in November 2020, and the system was first used in the 2022 election. A 2024 ballot measure to repeal the state's open primary and ranked-choice voting system failed.

In February 2024, Troiano authored a book, The Primary Solution, about how primary elections fuel political dysfunction. That same year, Unite America backed ballot measures in six states to replace traditional primaries with nonpartisan primaries or ranked-choice voting. These ballot measures all failed, including the one in Colorado.

In 2026, Unite America published a study of open primaries used in five states: California, Louisiana, Alaska, Nebraska, and Washington. The study showed that such electoral systems reward pragmatic, moderate candidates who are more likely to enact beneficial legislation.

References

I recognize that I have a conflict of interest, so I am not making any of these changes directly. I would appreciate editors’ review of the draft and any feedback on whether this approach would improve the article’s neutrality, sourcing, and compliance with Wikipedia standards. KS at Unite America (talk) 21:05, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Reply 16-JUN-2026

• The COI editor described their- proposal as a revised History section that seeks to preserve the strongest material from those sections while presenting it in a more neutral, concise fashion. The image presented with that description is of a leaner, stronger section of text with the weaker, extraneous portions culled.
• What that description doesnt state are the portions of text which were wholly created anew, text which was not culled, paired down, or made "lean" an any way, because that text wasn't in those sections to begin with.
• This isn't akin to taking a two sinked bathroom and shower, removing one sink and swapping the shower, pipes, and drain for a simpler, singular bathtub and sink with an eye towards simplicty and utility. This is expansion: turning two sinks into four, transmogrification of the shower into a walk-in sauna and whirlpool with an eye towards conspicuous consumption.
• That being said, the COI editor is urged to be frank and forthright concerning their intentions for improving the article in the future—it would be much appreciated. The reviewer stands ready to review any and all requests which follow this philosophy. Thank you! Regards,  Spintendo  05:59, 17 June 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed feedback, Spintendo. Your bathroom analogy is quite entertaining. Perhaps I should have been clearer in stating my objectives for the draft. Right now the History, Reform strategy, Unity Candidates, Partnerships, and 2018 Endorsed National and State Candidates sections are a combined 1,300 words, and that includes four tables filled with unsourced data that take up at least one-third of the article's space. My History draft would replace all of that content, and it's only around 550 words with no tables. I've trimmed the total amount of content by well over half and removed promotional claims and unsourced data. The "new" material you identify is largely connective tissue which helps make the information readable—or to continue with your bathroom analogy, it's the plumbing that connects all of the fixtures.

Now, I am not a Wikipedia editor, and if you don't feel the draft works, then that's on me. But I'm hoping the explanation above provides adequate context for what I was trying to do.

What would be the best next step? If it's easier, we could go paragraph by paragraph.

Existing History paragraph one

Author and educator Charles Wheelan published The Centrist Manifesto in 2013, inspired by the failed bipartisan efforts surrounding the Simpson-Bowles Commission in 2011. In the book, he outlines an approach to government in which a "Centrist Party" challenges partisanship by controlling the swing vote and facilitating compromise between Democrats and Republicans. Putting ideas into practice, Wheelan worked with business, political, and academic leaders from across the country to form the Centrist Project in 2014, which would eventually become Unite America.

References

And I'm proposing we replace that with the following:

Revised History paragraph one

Charles Wheelan, a Dartmouth College professor and former Congressional candidate, published The Centrist Manifesto book in 2013. An affiliated federal PAC, The Centrist Project Voice, registered with the FEC in May 2014. The organization was intended to support ideas from Wheelan's book, most notably the “fulcrum strategy” in which a small group of independent senators could control the balance of power in a closely divided chamber and push both parties toward more centrist policies. The Centrist Project began endorsing candidates, including independents and major-party candidates it saw as pragmatic or centrist. Its first endorsement was Larry Pressler, a former three-term Republican senator from South Dakota who was running as an independent for the seat vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Tim Johnson in the 2014 election. The organization also endorsed Susan Collins, Michelle Nunn, Greg Orman, and Jill Bossi during the 2014 election cycle.

References

The first four sentences in the new draft roughly mirror the three sentences in the current first paragraph, but I added the detail about the affiliated federal PAC since that seems relevant. The cited Independent Voter News article confirms the notability of the PAC and the cited FEC filing confirms the registration date. The next sentences are all new (as you rightly noted) but are intended to parallel the structure of the next few sections where United America endorsements are discussed. The endorsements from the 2014 election cycle are not currently mentioned in the article, so I added them by citing news coverage (the aforementioned Independent Voter News article and a piece in the Native American Times) along with a press release which was the only source to identify all of the remaining endorsements in one place. As this was straightforward, uncontroversial factual information, a press release felt like an appropriate citation. Jill Bossi is less well known than the other candidates, but it felt like cherry-picking to exclude her.

Does that all make sense? Please let me know and I'll work on a summary of the next paragraph (and maybe start picking out some wallpaper for the bathroom). KS at Unite America (talk) 17:54, 18 June 2026 (UTC)

I appreciate the rewrite. As far as the sources, we cant use articles that are written as editorials or commentary. The Mort Kondracke piece written for RealClearPolitics is labeled as commentary, so we're going to have to find a replacement for that. The Kondracke source was used as a reference for the most contentious of the claims, The organization was intended to support ideas from Wheelan's book, most notably the “fulcrum strategy” in which a small group of independent senators could control the balance of power in a closely divided chamber and push both parties toward more centrist policies. That text spoke to intent, instead of just facts (like the sentence that mentions who endorsed who, which is relatively straightforward-type info). So to continue our bathroom metaphor, the Unite America article making claims of intent using Wikipedia's WP:VOICE is a very dicey area, frought with the danger of exposed wires and such. The contractor may have said that the construction is completed, but a closer look reveals it's not up to code. That intent needs to be buttressed by reliable WP:SECONDARY sources or placed out of Wikipedia's voice. Regards,  Spintendo  09:20, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for the feedback, Spintendo. I should note that I've been trying my best to preserve material from the existing article that feels encyclopedic. (Or to continue with our bathroom renovation analogy, I'm trying to keep a light fixture the previous owner installed.) The current description of the book and summary of the Centrist Project are drawn from the book publisher's landing page. The Mort Kondracke article, although a commentary as you note, does feel like a stronger citation than the existing one. Could we simply attribute that descriptive passage to Kondrake, like as follows:

Alternative

Charles Wheelan, a Dartmouth College professor and former Congressional candidate, published The Centrist Manifesto book in 2013. An affiliated federal PAC, The Centrist Project Voice, registered with the FEC in May 2014. According to Mort Kondracke , the organization was intended to support ideas from Wheelan's book, most notably the “fulcrum strategy” in which a small group of independent senators could control the balance of power in a closely divided chamber and push both parties toward more centrist policies. The Centrist Project began endorsing candidates, including independents and major-party candidates it saw as pragmatic or centrist. Its first endorsement was Larry Pressler, a former three-term Republican senator from South Dakota who was running as an independent for the seat vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Tim Johnson in the 2014 election. The organization also endorsed Susan Collins, Michelle Nunn, Greg Orman, and Jill Bossi during the 2014 election cycle.

References

In the draft above, I also added a WSJ book review from Kondrake as a secondary citation. In both Kondrake pieces, the author offers a straightforward description of the Centrist Project and the fulcrum strategy. The author's assessment of these initiatives would be an opinion, but the descriptions are neutrally worded and factually accurate summaries that I don't believe would ever be contested.

If the above still doesn't pass muster, we could just cut that sentence entirely. Or maybe you could suggest a variation on wording and attribution? Please let me know what you think. KS at Unite America (talk) 16:28, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Specifying my History section request

Hi, this is Kevin Singer again, the communications director for Unite America.

After receiving helpful feedback from Spintendo, I'm back with a more specific request to update the History section and consolidate claims from other sections that are superfluous and poorly sourced. These other sections could then be removed.

I'm first going to identify the passages and sections that should be updated or removed due to poor sourcing and non-encyclopedic content. (I'm not embedding the tables here because they're too large.) Then I'll provide a proposed History draft that consolidates and streamlines notable claims from all these sections & tables and ensures they're backed by reliable citations. If implemented, this update would considerably reduce the article's length.

The final two paragraphs in the current History section cover the period from 2016 to 2019 and read as follows:

Existing two History paragraphs

In October 2016, Nick Troiano, former congressional candidate and part of "Forbes 30 under 30" for Law & Policy, joined as executive director. The organization continued to grow through 2017, attracting talent from both sides of the aisle on a mission to elect enough independents to shift the balance of power in key state and statewide elections. Unite America adopted its current name in January 2018, aiming to reflect the organization's core mission. Unite America announced the first-ever nationwide slate of independent candidates in February 2018.

In March 2019, Unite America announced that they were expanding their mission of accelerating the democracy reform movement, with strategic investments in multi-cycle campaigns and infrastructure. They also announced the addition of two new board members: philanthropist Kathryn Murdoch and former independent Senate candidate Neal Simon.

References

The citations for this section include a mix of news coverage along with press releases from Unite America and the personal website for Nick Troiano.

The next section in the article, Reform strategy, covers events from this same period of time. The two sentences from this section read as follows:

Reform strategy sentences

In 2019, Unite America released the first State of Democracy Report in which they graded every state based on their status in five reform areas. In September 2019, Unite America announced their plan to invest in their first portfolio of campaigns based on these reforms.

References

These sentences are supported by one citation to an article on an advocacy website called The Fulcrum. This section also includes a table identifying four "2019 Reform investments". Presumably these investments are supported by the same Fulcrum source. There is no cited news coverage anywhere in this section.

The next section in the article, Unity Candidates, also covers events in 2019. The three sentences in this section read as follows:

Unity Candidates sentences

In March 2019, Unite America announced the creation of their new statewide chapter, Unite Virginia. Unite Virginia would work to reward bipartisanship and support candidates through the 2019 primary elections.

The organization endorsed a bipartisan slate of candidates in Virginia.

References

The two cited sources here are an NBC News article and the Unite America website. These sentences are followed by a table identifying "2019 Virginia Endorsements" and highlighting the subsequent election results. There is no cited source for the table.

The next section, Partnerships, also addresses events that occurred around 2018-2019:

Partnerships section

State-focused partnerships

In an effort to build the movement from the ground up, Unite America endorses and provides resources to independent candidates for state legislatures in a number of viable states, including Colorado, New Mexico, Maine, Alaska, and Washington.

Unite Colorado

Unite America formalized its Colorado-concentrated efforts for statehouse elections with the organization of its largest state-focused affiliate, Unite Colorado. Troiano identified the state's wide-ranging political leanings and the potential for a historic independent candidate victory as the driving motivations for this strategy. In 2018, Unite Colorado endorsed five independent candidates the Colorado House of Representatives and the Colorado Senate.

The group will endorse independent candidates running for office in New Mexico state legislature in an effort to promote competition amongst 30 of 70 uncontested New Mexico House of Representatives seats.

Washington Independents

Washington Independents, with support from Unite America, launched in fall of 2017 with the intention of supporting independent, centrist candidates in Washington. Its co-founders were Chris Vance, the former chairman of the state's Republican Party, and Brian Baird, a former Democratic Congressman (WA-3). The Political Action Committee spent over $100,000 on three candidates for state office in the 2018 general election. All three lost. In spring of 2019, Washington Independents announced that it would suspend operations.

Unite Virginia

In March 2019, Unite America launched Unite Virginia in order to focus on Virginia's off-year state legislative elections. Pivoting from its strategy in the 2018 elections, Unite America chose to support moderate, reform-minded Republicans and Democrats rather than independents. More specifically, it worked with four moderate primary challengers — two on the right and two on the left. Three of the four won their races.

The Committee for Ranked Choice Voting

In 2018, Unite America endorsed the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting, an organization that pushed for the implementation of instant-runoff voting in Maine. After a majority of voters approved a RCV citizens ballot initiative in 2016, state lawmakers called a special session to repeal the measure. In the following year, the people of Maine petitioned to override the veto, ultimately voting to restore RCV in Maine in time for the 2018 general election.

References

The sourcing in this section does include a lot of news coverage, but the Unite America website is also cited numerous times. There are also passages that speak in the future tense ("The group will endorse...") about events that happened years and years ago.

The next section, 2018 Endorsed National and State Candidates, also addresses events that occurred around 2018. The section includes four sentences and two large tables. The sentences read as follows:

2018 Endorsed National and State Candidates sentences

Unite America announced the first-ever slate of national candidates in February 2018, including three gubernatorial candidates and two candidates for US Senate.

In January 2018, Unite Colorado announced a slate of independent candidates for both the Colorado House of Representatives and the Colorado Senate. In addition, Unite America endorsed independent candidates for state office in Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. All but four were defeated.

References

The tables (which I didn't embed) are the big issue here, as most of the cited sources are the candidates' About pages. There are no cited sources for the election results and it's not clear where that information comes from or if it's accurate.

I would like to replace the passages and tables identified above with the following five paragraphs that could all live in the History section:

Proposed History section update

In 2016, Nick Troiano, a former congressional candidate, joined the organization's board as executive director. Troiano pushed the organizations towards supporting structural election reforms, such as nonpartisan redistricting.

In 2017, the Centrist Project opened its national headquarters in Denver, Colorado. The organization then changed its name to Unite America. That same year, an affiliated state-based organization, Washington Independents, launched to support independent candidates in Washington.

In 2018, Unite America and its state-focused local affiliate, Unite Colorado, endorsed independent candidates for the Colorado State Legislature. The organization picked Colorado because of its narrowly divided Legislature and a belief that voters there would be receptive to independent candidates. That same year Unite America also supported a slate of independent national candidates for state gubernatorial offices and the U.S. Senate.

In March 2019, a new statewide chapter, Unite Virginia, launched to support centrist Democratic and Republican candidates.

In September 2019, Unite America announced more than $5 million in commitments through the Unite America Fund to support election reform campaigns in Alaska, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York. The two largest donors to the fund were Kathryn Murdoch and Marc Merrill. In November 2019, New York City voters approved ranked-choice voting through a City Charter amendment. The change only applied to primary and special elections for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and City Council.

References

These five paragraphs cover the same time period and events. Nearly all of the cited sources I used are news coverage from notable media outlets. I did cite content on the Unite America website twice. In the first instance, I found countless news sources that confirmed Nick Troiano is a former congressional candidate who serves as Unite America's executive director, but only the UA website's "Our Story" page confirms exactly when he joined, so I used said page as a secondary citation in order to support a chronological accounting. In the second instance, I cited a UA press release to confirm the dollar amount and to specify that the investments came from the Unite America Fund, but all of the specific investments were covered by media outlets (which I cited).

Per my explanation above, removing the identified passages and tables and replacing them with this short summary would (I hope!) greatly improve the article. So much of the current content is poorly sourced and excessively detailed.

Hopefully MediaKyle, Tessaract2, Spintendo, or any other editor watching this talk page can review what I've put together. I tried to reach out to other editors who have been active in developing page content in the past, but those outreach messages were removed for reasons I don't entirely understand. KS at Unite America (talk) 16:30, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

If you could purge all of the references from Unite America that would also be helpful. Since Unite America has their own page on the web, that would be a better place for the organization to make statements about its activities. Where you state but those outreach messages were removed for reasons I don't entirely understand. I'm not sure what happended there, but messages posted by you should not be removed by anyone (unless it was posted to an editor's own talk page, where those editors have somewhat of a free-er range of action). Regards,  Spintendo  18:23, 13 July 2026 (UTC)

Hi Spintendo. I've got a few updates for you here, followed by what I guess is a Talk page announcement. First, perhaps this wasn't clear above, but I'm proposing that we remove the ten (at least) existing citations to the Unite America website from the article. My draft, comparatively, uses the UA website only twice as a secondary citation, once to confirm a date and once to confirm a specific dollar amount. I looked into this ahead of posting, and those are allowable uses of an organization's website ("basic facts about its history, products, employees, finances, and facilities"), especially when supported by news coverage that supports the notability & accuracy of the claims themselves. E.g. Nick Troiano joining UA as executive director is clearly newsworthy, but the only source I could find that confirmed the exact date he joined was the UA website. This is the type of basic factual confirmation that an organization's website can be used for. Can you please look again? I also posted above regarding your feedback on the first paragraph. Are you able to fix the formatting on this page? I'm not sure why this conversation is collapsed within the previous request. Finally, I'm actually leaving my current role at Unite America, so this might be my last post here. Another team member will be creating a Wiki account soon and will take over engagement. Thank you again for your assistance in guiding me through the request process. — Preceding unsigned comment added by KS at Unite America (talk • contribs) 14:49, 14 July 2026 (UTC)