Fusion Party is a name for multiple political parties inUnited States history and more recently a federal political party established in Australia. The different parties that used the name don't share any particular political positions; instead, confederations of people from disparate political backgrounds united around a common cause individual to their situation—often opposition to a common enemy—and used the name Fusion Party to reflect the aggregate nature of their new party.
The City Fusion Party of New York City was the vehicle that RepublicanFiorello La Guardia used to defeat the Democrats ofTammany Hall and get elected mayor of New York in 1933, and reelected in 1937 and 1941.[1][2] It was part of theNew Deal coalition and worked closely with PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, who provided federal patronage.
The Fusion Party was the original name of theRepublican Party in thestate ofOhio. In 1854, anti-slavery parties were forming in many northern states in opposition to theKansas Nebraska Act of 1854. While many of these state parties adopted the name "Republican", the Ohio convention adopted the name "Fusionist" or "Fusion Party", which they felt more accurately described the fusion of persons from a variety of political backgrounds, including members of theFree Soil Party, theConscience Whig Party, and theKnow-Nothing Party along with members of theDemocratic Party who were opposed to slavery.
Similarly, in Indiana, the Know-Nothings were not strong enough to run candidates on their own, and so combined with Republicans and other interest groups to run candidates on the Fusion or People's Party tickets in opposition to theAnti-Nebraska movement.[3][4]
InSouth Dakota, the Fusion Party was a short-livedpolitical party that existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The party was formed in 1896 from an alliance ofDemocrats,Free Silver Republicans, andPopulists who were opposed to the platform of the stateRepublican Party.[5] A total of 56 Fusion Party representatives were elected to thestate legislature during its brief existence.[6] In addition,SenatorRichard F. Pettigrew, who served from 1889 to 1901, was the Fusion Party candidate for the Senate in 1900, having left the Republican Party to join the Silver Republicans in 1896.[7]South Dakota GovernorAndrew E. Lee was also an elected to his second term as a Fusionist.[8]
In the very early 20th century, a coalition ofNevada Democrats andSilverites called themselves the Fusion Party upon the insistence ofFrancis G. Newlands, who wanted to emphasize the need for fusion between the two groups if he wanted to hope for victory in the 1902 election. Fusion clubs were established in a number of counties throughout Nevada, and, despite a few temporary setbacks, a successful fusion of the two parties in the state did occur, and Newlands was elected Senator.[9]
Established in January 2022, theFusion Party[10] is an amalgamation of five political parties. The Climate Change Justice Party,Pirate Party,Science Party,Secular Party of Australia, andVote Planet. The merger was initiated by a change in the Australian Electoral Commission legislative change[11] to require a minimum of 1500 active members. Concerned that each of the five parties would not be able to meet the minimum criteria, they joined together under the Fusion Party.
In Indiana as elsewhere there was a movement for a Fusion or People's party. The Know Nothings, perhaps the strongest of all the elements of the opposition but not strong enough to run a ticket of their own, determined to act with the Fusionists, to control the whole movement and to direct it in their own interests
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