The Unity Party grew out of the grassroots group named
Runners for Clark which supported
General Wesley Clark's 2004 presidential campaign by raising campaign contributions and awareness of Clark's run for the presidency; Runners for Clark morphed into Unity Runners and then into the Unity Party. Bill Hammons of Texas, New York and Colorado founded the Unity Party in 2004 as chairman and ran as the Unity Party of America candidate for Colorado's 2nd congressional district, centered on Boulder, in 2008 and again in 2010. By that point, the Unity Party had expanded beyond Colorado to 27 states. He then ran for the U.S. Senate in Colorado in 2014 before running for the Senate again in 2016 and then for Colorado governor in 2018 (the "Unity" voter affiliation option in Colorado is a direct result of his Senate candidacy). In 2016 Bill Hammons stood as the party's candidate during the
2016 United States Senate election in Colorado, earning 9,336 votes, or 0.34% of the electorate. In June 2017, the Unity Party achieved full recognition as a minor party by the state of Colorado, and its candidates in the state no longer need to petition onto the ballot, but instead just need a "show of hands" at a party assembly. By 2017, the party had spread to 37 states. In September 2017, Unity Party members decided to begin referring to themselves as "Uniters." In October 2018, Hammons was quoted as saying, "God did not ordain two parties in the United States," and went on to say one goal of his gubernatorial run was to help put a Unity Party presidential candidate at the top of the ballot in Colorado in 2020. In June 2019, Rebecca Keltie of Colorado Springs became the first female Unity Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, and in September 2019 the Unity Party U.S. Senate candidacy of Arvada's Joshua Rodriguez created the first-ever contested Unity Party nomination race. Hammons and Bodenstab made it onto the ballot in Colorado, Louisiana and New Jersey. On 18 September 2020, Ian Silverii, columnist for the
Denver Post, gave the Unity Party as an alternative to the
Colorado Republican Party after the Republicans failed to give any official platform for their 2020 state convention, instead republishing their 2016 platform. During the
2022 House of Representatives election in
District 2, the Unity Party stood Tim Wolf as their candidate, in a crowded field which saw three third parties, including the ideologically similar
Colorado Center Party, contest the election. On 24 August 2023, Richard Ward, the
Libertarian candidate for
Colorado's 8th congressional district in
2022 who won 3.9% of the vote, announced that he would be switching party affiliation to the Unity Party, citing the rightward shift in the
Libertarian Party after their takeover by the
Mises Caucus.
Cole-Hammons split On 23 June, 2023, Tijani “TJ” Cole, a judge, lawyer, football coach, and failed Democratic candidate for the
University of Colorado regent at-large seat in 2023, was elected chairman of the Colorado affiliate of the Unity Party, the formal core of the party, and the only branch of the party with ballot access. Cole and Hammons, the party's federal president, quickly entered a dispute over who should be the Unity Party's 2024 nominee, with Hammons supporting
Paul Noel Fiorino while Cole sought a
big name such as
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before giving
Cornel West the state ballot spot instead of the party's official candidate. Cole and his wing of the party seized control of the party's website
unityparty.us forcing Hammons to make a new website;
unitypartyamerica.us with Cole announcing on his website that the Colorado affiliate was the only affiliate of the Unity Party, and to disregard any statements made by Hammons, and vice versa. Hammons' campaign against Cole, dubbed the
Double Yellow Line Project, denounces Cole as "Communist and/or Fascist filth" and that he'd be "better off saving [his] energy by [trying to] launch [his] own party." Hammons has sought an appeal with the
Federal Election Commission to force Cole to
cease and desist using the Unity Party moniker while also trying to get him disbarred since "A judge should not act as an arbitrator or mediator or otherwise perform judicial functions apart from the judge's official duties unless expressly authorized by law." The two factions of the party would have rival conventions in 2025, with Hammons holding one on April 19 online, while Cole held one on June 21 in
Lafayette. Both factions dug in at their conventions and tried to discredit the rival faction. == Party structure ==