Theo Godfrey, Contributing Photographer

Yash Chauhan ’26 founded Yale’s newest political party, the Moderate Party, in the spring. 

After failing to meet the Yale Political Union’s membership requirements last year, Chauhan and the Moderate Party leaders are now making a second attempt at gaining YPU member status.

Chauhan told the News that the new party has a political vision based on the Democratic Leadership Council from the 1980s — one of a practical, more moderate Democrat who “just cares about the issues” and has a practical sense of how to solve problems. 

“I don’t really care what your party is,” Chauhan said. “Our basic thing is, ‘I just want to do things and I want to help’ … That’s what we’re about.”  

The Moderate Party has a membership of 110, according to Chauhan, although he said that only two-fifths of those students are active members. 

Chauhan told the News that the Moderate Party has planned a strong start for the semester. After hosting a talk last week with Holocaust survivor Sami Steigmann, the party is planning to put on more events, such as inviting local public figures for talks and hosting weekly debates. 

Among the party’s invitees is Yale Police Chief Anthony Campbell, who Chauhan said will discuss how best to “bridge the divide between the Yale community and the New Haven community.”   

Andrew Beingessner ’26, an officer for the Moderate Party, wrote to the News that the party’s goals are based on a responsibility for Yale students to engage with the New Haven community.   

“As Yale students, we have a duty to address the issues that prevent our neighbors — particularly those in New Haven — from getting ahead,” Beingessner wrote to the News. “By debating concrete issues with real-world consequences and advocating for the policy solutions that we identify, the Moderate Party does just that.” 

According to Chauhan, the party’s main focus this semester is policing in New Haven. Through discussions and speaker events, like the one with Campbell, the party intends to explore and deliberate over what community policing might look like. Chauhan added that the party hopes to work with the city’s Board of Alders to find strategies to combat homelessness in New Haven.

Struggle to join the YPU

The YPU currently consists of seven parties: the Independent Party, the Conservative Party, the Progressive Party, the Party of the Left, the Tory Party, the Party of the Right and the Federalist Party. The Moderate Party, formed in the spring, is not currently part of the YPU.   

The Moderate Party’s petition to join the YPU failed last spring. Chauhan hopes to change that. 

Chauhan, who is a sophomore, has been part of the YPU since he arrived at Yale, noting that YPU was a factor that contributed to him applying in the first place. He said he wants the Moderate Party to become a part of the YPU because he has not “given up” on the union and said he wants to turn the focus of the YPU toward real people — “because that’s what politics is about.”   

“It’s like an old institution, it takes time to change,” Chauhan said. “I was surprised by how conservative it was, not in terms of political orientation, but how much it really embraced this old traditional image,” he remarked.  

Following the Moderate Party’s failed attempt to petition, Chauhan said he was disappointed, as he felt it signaled that the YPU “doesn’t want to change.”  

YPU leaders did not respond to the News’ request for comment regarding Chauhan’s claims. 

According to YPU Chair Daniel Sorial ’24, the YPU constitution states that in order to join the YPU, a new party needs to petition by providing the speaker and executive board a list of over 25 signatures from members of the new party. The party must have at least 25 of these signees attend two YPU debates per semester for two semesters to qualify them to formally vote in the YPU, Sorial wrote in an email to the News.  

Per Sorial, the Moderate Party offered a list of 56 signatures last spring, but it was rejected because the signatures were provided by people who were simply signing up to join the club — not individuals intending to petition for the party to become a member of the YPU.  

“It was rejected as the Executive Board felt it was created in bad faith (some members of other parties signed the petition, not realizing their signature represented membership of the Moderate Party, not support for it),” Sorial wrote.   

Some Moderate Party members told the News they felt the rejection unfair as it was based upon a “technicality.” 

But party leaders said they will continue to petition for YPU membership, and added that they are excited for the semester ahead.  

“I still believe in the YPU,” Chauhan said in response to the YPU’s rejection. “The current leadership is not believing us about the fact we’ve got to have a new party,  I’m not going to give up on that.” 

The Yale Political Union was founded in 1934 by professor, and later University President, Alfred Whitney Griswold.