Serve America Movement  The Serve America Movement (SAM) is a big tent political organization founded in 2017 by Morgan Stanley lawyer Eric Grossman. The party achieved its first state party in New York with ballot access. The party has stated that they intend to surpass the elections vote limit or use petitions to gain access in other states, in order to contest future elections. The party contested its first election in the New York Gubernatorial election of 2018 with candidate Stephanie Miner, former chairperson of the New York Democratic Party and former mayor of Syracuse. The party has 349 registered members in New York as of February 2020. The party's founders previously worked as staffers for George W. Bush, including CEO Sarah Lenti, who served under Condoleezza Rice as a Director on the National Security Council, and Reed Galen, who worked on three presidential campaigns and is chief strategist of the party. On June 18, 2018 Stephanie A. Miner (initials SAM), a registered Democrat, announced she would run for the 2018 New York gubernatorial election and announced she would run under the party. Miner subsequently picked former Republican Mayor of Pelham, Michael Volpe as her running mate. The party chair, Scott Muller, stated that he intends to register the party in New York before expanding to create a national party. Miner was required to achieve 50,000 votes in the election, or use petitions, to gain permanent ballot access for the next four years. SAM announced in 2018 that they would work with the newly created, Kansas-based Party of the Center to gather the 18,000 petition signatures necessary to certify the party on Kansas ballots. On August 21, SAM achieved ballot access for their first electoral race in the New York Gubernatorial election in 2018. The party gained 40,000 signatures, which far exceeded the 15,000 required, and the petitions were subsequently deemed valid. This enabled them to form a SAM party within the state of New York to contest any future elections they choose to enter. On November 11, 2018, SAM became a ballot-access qualified party in New York state after Miner got 50,672 votes on the party line. The party had no registered members in New York as of January 2019. The party has 161 registered members in New York State as of November 2019. By February 2020 this had increased to 349. The party generally takes a centrist or center-right approach, as it is founded by former George W. Bush administration staff members. As a result of the ideological foundations of the party, it aims to attract both moderate Republicans and centrist Democrats.