On May 13, the Louisiana legislature amended HB 842, an omnibus election law bill, to provide that for 2026 only, U.S. House elections will be handled as they were between 1998 and 2024. All candidates can get on the November ballot by paying a filing fee. No petition is needed. If anyone gets 50% in November, they are elected. If no one gets 50%, there is a December run-off.
Without this bill, Louisiana would have used a closed primary in 2026 for U.S. House, in which only Democrats and Republicans would have been allowed on the November ballot without a petition. This bill only passed because Louisiana is redrawing its U.S. House districts, and there isn’t time to hold a closed primary and a run-off primary.
The bill says candidates may file for U.S. House this year between August 5 and August 7.
The bill also has unrelated provisions, including one that says in the future, when voters sign a petition, they must include their year of birth.
It sounds to me like the US Supreme Court decision was good both for long overdue fairness for Southern White folks as well as minor party and independent ballot access.
I’ve supported minor parties and independents ever since Gov. Wallace ran for President, with rare exceptions (only Reagan and Trump when it comes to the Presidency). Parties I’ve supported candidates of at times include American, American Independent, Libertarian (Ron Paul and Bob Barr), Reform, Constitution, and Southern (no presidential candidates since they supported Secession and thus had no interest in electing anyone as POTUS).
I’ve supported Civil Rights for Whites ever since I can remember. My father was a good friend of (then future) Gov. Lester Maddox since the 1940s as long as they lived, and Governor Maddox was my political mentor.
Daddy was also a nearly-founding member of the John Birch Society in the 1950s, and I remain a member in good standing now.
“All candidates can get on the November ballot by paying a filing fee. No petition is needed”
How much is the filing fee?
Probably about like gas rn
https://theonion.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Gas_Station_Price_SB_IHA_GR.jpg?resize=1024,776
I think it’s $750
Gas? Is that per gallon? Per litre?
The filing fee is $1500+($750)+$25. The $1500 is for US representative, the $750 is assessed by the political party and is apparently optional, but both Democratic and Republican parties assess it.
$25 is for candidates for all offices, which goes into the Campaign Sign Recycling Fund (if your last name is something like “Landry”, “Broussard”, “Carter”, etc. you can use old signs and slap a new office on it)
Governor Landry has signed the bill, and SOS Landry has issued the following instructions:
https://www.sos.la.gov/OurOffice/PublishedDocuments/05.14.26FallHouseRaces.pdf
Under the law originally passed for the 2026 election, Libertarian, Green, other and Non-Party candidates could only qualify by petition, since the party primaries were for Democrats and Republicans only. The partisan primary is Saturday, May 16. HB 842 forbids counting of the votes for the US representative, or any disclosure of results. Voting will count for the other offices on the ballot, in particular the US Senate race.
A new congressional map has passed the Senate, but not the House. HB 842 has reduced the petition requirement for this year’s election from 750 to 250. For the open primary, a petition is an in lieu of petition, and can be substituted for the filing fee. An interesting provision is that signatures do not have to be from any part of the state (not limited to a district) and the district number does not have to be inserted until the petition is filed.
Pig Farmer and Jim Riley
Ppl read comments that long?
I read all of Jim Riley’s comments, and at times find them interesting and/or informative.
I don’t know how many people read mine, if any. I do tend to wander off on tangents, and don’t have the discipline to retroactively eliminate them. When I’ve tried, I simply go off on new ones.
It is what it is, as the younger generations of my family say. Even some of my grandkids have grandkids of their own now.
I’m not as old as that might make me sound. I was old enough to volunteer and travel to several states for Wallace for President in 1968, but not old enough to actually vote in that election (you had to be 21). By the 1972 primary, when you only had to be 18, I was old enough to vote for George Wallace for President – the first, last, and only time I voted in a Democratic Party presidential primary.
We’re a fertile people and start early when compared to Yankee norms. My first kid was born when I was exactly 18, my first grandchild when I was 36, my first great-grandchild when I was 54, and my first 3G quite recently when I was 72.
I still work on the pig farm every day, but younger relatives do the bulk of the work now.
Do I care whether you read all that or not? No, I do not.
Jim Riley,
When you’re Landry road sign, you can go to another Landry, or you can retire to the landfill. It doesn’t make much difference, does it?
Pig Farmer is my uncle. He’s in his 70s,which means he is older than dirt despite whatever fibs he might tell u.
Meanwhile there’s this, and check out the unrelated video at the end
https://babylonbee.com/news/millennial-figures-out-how-to-use-6-7-signaling-the-end-of-the-fad
Pig Farmer, are you talking crap about me? I thought you were a fellow conservative?
BTW, implications above notwithstanding, I’m unrelated to SOS Nancy Landry. I’m the only Landry I know of any family relation to in political office.
@orcusPay Agricolaway acitusTay,
https://medium.com/in-medias-res/porcus-does-not-mean-pig-d413592572fb
Jim Riley,
Thanks – I actually knew that. Without looking at your link, it means piglet. My uncle is “Pig Farmer,” so I’m “Piglet Farmer.”
My brother Pat is P.A.T., or Porcus Agricola Tacitus.
For additional context see
https://www.historyhit.com/how-much-of-tacitus-agricola-can-we-really-believe/
In fairness, I thought Porcus meant Pig when I came up with the handle. But a (different, I think) Jim corrected me some months ago, and I concluded it’s if anything more fitting..
Jeff, it wasn’t an insult. Have you ever been comedy roasted? That’s what I was going for, guvna.
Pat, and Pat’s sibling:
There’s a reason you whippersnappers aren’t allowed to work with full grown porcines yet. But I won’t boar the audience with it; we’ll discuss it in person when you’ve matured sufficiently.
Pat’s sibling,
Also without further research to refresh my memory, I’ve read that 6 7 refers to the height of an average NBA player nowadays in feet and inches. As you would know, but not readers who haven’t met us in person, that also happens to be my height, equal to exactly 200 cm.
To those unrelateds, if any care.
Back when I was young enough to theoretically qualify for the NBA, but nowhere near agile enough with the ball, it was tall even for that league. I demonstrated far more aptitude in other pursuits which had far less to do with my height, however.
Jim, no comment on my landfill joke? I am disappointed, sir.