December 14 was the deadline for presidential primary candidates to file in Texas. Thirteen Republicans and eight Democrats qualified. The most crowded Texas Republican Party presidential primary in the past had been twelve candidates in 1996.
Democrats had to either pay $2,500 or submit 5,000 signatures of registered voters. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who qualified by petition instead of by filing fee.
Republicans had to either pay $5,000 ot submit 10,800 signatures. All the Republicans who qualified paid the fee. See this story. Thanks to Jim Riley for the complete list.
There are 8 Democratic candidates. You omitted Calvis Hawes, Keith Judd, Rocky De La Fuente, Star Locke, and Willie Wilson. It is possible that there is an additional Republican candidate. She is listed on the RPT website, which notes that is preliminary, but it had not made it to the SOS web page.
Filing is with the state party chairs. In olden days, the state party chairs would send the list of candidates on to the county party chairs, who would then prepare the ballots in their counties.
The county party would conduct the primary in their county, canvass the vote, and then the state party would canvass the vote for statewide and multi-county nominations. Only then would the SOS be informed of who the nominees were.
The same procedure is still used. But instead of the state chairs sending a notice to the counties, they post the list of candidates on the SOS website, and tells the county chairs to check there. The SOS disavows any responsibility for the information on the list there.
Because the political parties conduct the primary, they are state actors. That makes Sanders’ petition public record. The Green Party ought to check to make sure that it is valid.
Also the Republican petition requirement is 300 signatures from at least 15 congressional districts. The article apparently thinks that it was 300 from all 36 congressional districts.
Qualification for US senator under state law is $5000 or 5000 signatures, so the Republican requirements are in line with other state offices. The DNC has imposed a cap on state parties, so Texas is stuck with the same fee as much less populous states.
Thank you.
The Green Party would never challenge a Bernie Sanders ballot access petition.
Elizabeth Gray is the 13th Republican candidate. She had been listed on the RPT site, but not the SOS site, and RPT site said that only applications that had been reviewed would appear on the SOS web site.
Signing the Sanders petition causes a voter to become affiliated with the Democratic Party, and unable to participate in Green Party nominating activities. Sanders also would have had to sign the Democratic party loyalty oath.