It’s easy to roll your eyes at Elon Musk’s America Party. Another billionaire with a microphone and a messiah complex? Sure, we’ve seen it before.

But I’ll admit it, when I first heard the news, it gave me pause. Not because I agree with Musk’s ultra-libertarian views or how he used that philosophy to decimate federal agencies. I don’t. But very few people in American politics have had the resources or spine to attempt to hold Donald Trump accountable. I thought maybe, just maybe, Musk could successfully push back.

Not with hashtags or cable news talking points, but with real political force.

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Perhaps he could enter Republican primaries, fund serious challengers to Trump’s most loyal candidates, and call out the hypocrisy that’s hollowed out the party. He has the money to survive the backlash and the platform to reach voters who wouldn’t otherwise listen. He could’ve pulled back the curtain on a party that continues to bend itself into a pretzel to defend the indefensible.

But instead of building a power base within the GOP or funding challengers, Musk decided to do what so many before him have done and failed at: launch a new political party from scratch.

Musk says that his America Party will appeal to voters who are frustrated with both Democrats and Republicans. And the party could begin fielding candidates as early as 2026. Other than that, we don’t have much more detail about its policy or strategy.

If Musk really wanted to push back on Trump’s Republican party, he’d need a lot more than money and frustration. To be successful, any party needs well-known, well-liked candidates and a whole lot of infrastructure. Third parties struggle to do that.

Especially here in Hawaiʻi.

Setting up a new party in Hawaiʻi is easy enough. You need to file a petition at the Office of Elections that includes at least 0.1% of the total number of registered voters. According to the Office of Elections, parties that are filing a petition for 2026 will need 861 signatures to qualify.

Once you’re set up, staying on the ballot is a little harder. If a new party doesn’t receive a certain percentage of the vote each election, they need to go through the process again.

But even that’s not the real challenge.

The more I’ve thought about how Musk’s America Party would do in Hawaiʻi, the more I keep coming back to something a mentor of mine told me when I first started to get interested in politics.

She said that if you’re running as a third-party candidate in Hawaiʻi, people just assume you don’t play well with others. It sounded harsh at the time. And, of course, it’s not always true. I would argue that most people know that a Green Party candidate who’s running for office is doing it because they believe in a serious policy platform.

Generally speaking, though, her words do reflect something real about our political culture.

In this state, politics is built on relationships. You have to show up at funerals, knock on doors, volunteer in the community, and know which cousin belongs to which aunty. We value humility. We value cooperation. And we tend to distrust hyped-up political movements that seem more about personal control than public service.

Even the best-known third-party efforts — like former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s Independent Party run for governor in 2014 or former Mayor Frank Fasi’s creation of the “Best Party” in the 1990s — didn’t succeed in capturing seats. These were major public figures with name recognition, ground game and money. And they still couldn’t win.

That history should tell us something. In Hawaiʻi, even respected local leaders struggle to build support outside the major parties. It’s not because voters aren’t open to alternatives, but because they expect more than a brand or a personality. They expect someone who can work as part of a team, who can relate to the people around them, and who knows how to get along with others.

I think that’s especially true in Hawaiʻi. You can’t just show up and say, “Trust me, I’m right.” People need to know you. They need to know you’re close to the issue, not just dropping in because you’re angry or rich or bored.

And that’s the core problem.

It’s not that a new party can never succeed. If they’re rooted in a real ideological difference, if they grow from communities, if they put in the time, and if they show they’re a part of something much bigger, they do have a chance.

But most of them aren’t doing that. Most new parties are about one person thinking they can do it better. And maybe they can. But more often than not, it’s ego that drives them. Not ethics. Not values. Just ego.

And people can see through that.