Chairman’s Letter to the Reform Party

February 26, 2025

My fellow Reformers,

The American electorate is closely divided. In the 2024 presidential elections, Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States with 49.8 percent of the popular vote. His rival, Kamala Harris, garnered 48.3 percent of the vote. These election results do not create a mandate, and highlight the need for cooperation between political parties to accomplish great things.

I understand that the Reform Party was divided by the 2024 election as well. Some members of the party see our presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services as a good thing. Others do not. Regardless of the differing opinions, our goals remain the same: Support good candidates for election and appointment to public office, advocate for our platform and continue to build our party.

Several times over the past four years, we have lost an election, but our candidate got an appointment to a public board by their opponents. As a minor party, we must take our victories where we find them. Despite what most see as a bittersweet ending, the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy capped a strong four years.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received 681,450 votes for President of the United States. This is the largest vote total since Ross Perot ran on our line in 1996, and shows that the party is growing. In 2004 and 2008, our party couldn't gain 1,000 votes in the same race. This shows that the worst is behind us and there is a clear path for us ahead.

Candidates we supported have gained 10 new offices through elections and appointments in the past four years. This is up from 0 in the previous cycle. We have also made many allies on state, local and national boards that can lead to more appointments in the future.

Many of our losing candidates ran competitive races. These near misses show where we can focus for future gains. In many places where we lost by less than 5 percentage points, we see how victory can be achieved in the future.

Active Reform Party membership has more than tripled over four years. In 2024 alone we saw a 20 percent increase in Reform Party membership.

Our finances have improved. In the 2020 to 2024 cycle, we raised over 21,000 dollars. In the 2016 to 2020 cycle, we only raised 769 dollars. This growth in our financial condition is entirely due to the consistent flow of small donations from those who support our mission. We thank these donors. These donations have allowed the party to further its objectives.

We ask that if you want to support the Reform Party's mission, that you consider signing up to donate at least 1 dollar per month to support the Reform Party's continued growth. Each new donation will be used towards fundraising, advertising and rebuilding our ballot lines.

We have gained many new volunteers, and their hard work made many things possible! If you would like to volunteer to help rebuild state parties, or work on a national standing committee, there is much to do. We need new leaders on every team and leaders at every level. The best way to get involved is to join our internal Discord server.

If you have technical skills and/or time, your contribution is vital to our success. Right now we need people to staff our membership committee. This team brings new people into the Reform Party. Aqueel Cetawayo's group has meaningful conversations with prospective members. This team contacts each new member when they sign up through our website to find new leaders and volunteers. It recruits candidates by reaching out to people. It is also tasked with helping us vet 2028 presidential candidates.

In 2024, former President Donald Trump was elected President of the United States for a second time. Though there are areas of agreement between him and the Reform Party, there are also areas where we disagree.

I will briefly mention three of these.

To quote Ross Perot.

"The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, the public debt should be reduced and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled."

All government spending and regulations must be audited. Spending must be reduced. New revenues must be found. The budget must be balanced.

The United States Constitution gave the power of the purse to Congress. Any action that Donald Trump takes to reduce the deficit can be undone by a future president. It is temporary.

The President needs to lead an effort to permanently restructure the entire government by working with Congress. The United States of America can balance the budget through decisive legislation.

Laying off the inspector generals was foolish. The inspector generals cannot speak out publicly about waste and fraud because of the Hatch Act. Many of these people had concerns about spending behind the scenes. Trump could have empowered them, and tapped them to help write legislation to restructure governmental bodies. The expertise of many reform-minded people was removed from the table.

President Trump spoke about "owning Gaza". The United States made two efforts to nation-build in The Middle East. The actions in Afghanistan and Iraq were failures. If you count the efforts in Vietnam to nation-build, we cannot have a fourth failure. The United States must stay out of the Middle East.

Our party's founder, Ross Perot, spoke of a giant sucking sound of jobs going to Mexico if NAFTA became law. There are both benefits and risks to free trade agreements.

In 1992, Ross Perot argued for small tariffs to remain in place. These tariffs average only 5.25 percent. Trump's proposed 25 percent tariffs are too high. 25 percent tariffs have not been in place since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. We cannot backtrack to this time period.

Trade is good, unless America is being taken advantage of.

We cannot raise tariffs on allies and friends that have stood by us for generations.

We do need to check China. China has taken advantage of America many times. China has stolen much of our intellectual property and put counterfeit goods in our markets. This needs to be checked, and Donald Trump needs to stand up to fraudulent Chinese companies and practices. Anything less is appeasement.

Russia needs to remove itself from Ukraine. Europe however needs to handle the negotiations with Putin. European nations must be empowered to handle conflict on their own continent. The United States cannot be the peacekeepers of the world.

At the same time we must back our NATO allies in Europe, and find a balance between involvement in other nations' issues and doing what is best for the world.

I will finish the section by talking about an issue that is being ignored.

Donald Trump has empowered too many monied interests. He has surrounded himself with three other billionaires, and each profits from numerous government contracts. We are against special interest influence in government, and these men represent everything that is wrong with the special interests. Something needs to change.

To conclude my letter to the members, I will thank everyone that has contributed to our success in the last four years. Thank you. I would like to send a special thank you to the volunteers that staffed our committees, and those that donated to our mission.

The Reform Party is growing. I will reiterate that our goals for the next four years remain the same. We will support good candidates for office, we will promote our platform, we will improve our membership, we will find new donors and we will work towards REFORM in each state and territory of the United States of America.

Thank you for allowing me to lead you again for the next four years.

Sincerely,
Nicholas Hensley
Chairman,
Reform Party of the United States

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