U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman will hear Collier v Nelson, w.d., 1:26cv-1574, on Tuesday, July 28, at 3 p.m. This is the case in which independent candidate Michael Collier, who is running for Lieutenant Governor of Texas, seeks injunctive relief to get on the ballot. The law says that an independent candidate can’t begin petitioning until after the run-off primary, if that particular race happens to have had a run-off primary. There was a run-off primary for Lieutenant Governor. That means Collier was given only 30 days to collect 81,030 valid signatures. No independent candidate for statewide office in Texas has ever managed to qualify in the compressed time limits.