Hector Mujica is the leading Democrat running for U.S. House in the 28th district. He has been head of Americas Phianthropy at Google. But his Democratic opponent has challenged his ballot position, because voter registration records show that Mujica was a registered independent between June 4, 2025, and July 26, 2025. Florida law says no one may run in a primary if the individual was not a registered member of the party for the 365 days preceding the opening of the candidate qualifying period, which was in April 2026. Section 99.021(1)(b)2.
Mujica denies that he was a registered independent at any time in the past. See this story. The Broward County Elections office asserts that there is no mistake, although so far no one has produced any actual voter registration form signed by Mujica showing himself registering as an independent.
The irony is that the U.S. Supreme Court said in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut in 1986 that the First Amendment, freedom of association clause, forbids a state from telling a party that it can’t nominate a non-member. If the Florida Democratic Party had its own bylaw contradicting the state law, the party could prevail in court. But the Florida Democratic Party has no such bylaw.
Another constitutional problem for the law is that it appears to require that a congressional candidate must have been a registered voter for the preceding 365 days before the opening of the qualifying period. Yet four U.S. Courts of Appeals have ruled that states cannot require congressional candidates to be registered voters. The circuits are the 9th, 10th, 2nd, and 5th. Also the law appears to require congressional candidates to have lived in Florida for the period, and that also violates the principle that states cannot add to the constitutional qualifications for congressional candidates.
ballot access now = a W-A-R type event
NOOO PRIMARIES
EQUAL BALLOT ACCESS VIA EQIAL NOM PETS/FILING FEES
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/arizona-supreme-court-denies-prosecutor-170640832.html
2020 FELON FAKE ELECTORS CASE IN AZ
https://manhattan.institute/article/understanding-how-proportional-representation-might-work-in-new-york-city
P,R, IN NY CITY REPORT VIA ELB
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/california-continues-counting-nail-biter-100707902.html
CA PRIMARY VOTES — MACHINATIONS / CONSPIRACY NOISES
The requirement is for a partisan candidate to have been registered with a party for a year to be able to run in its primary. Why is that unconstitutional? It does not prevent an eligible candidate running for office.
However, the statute also provides that an independent candidate must not have had a partisan registration in the previous year. The combination of the two provisions may be unconstitutional. A candidate who was an independent can not run in the Democrat primary; but a candidate who was a Democrat can not run as an independent.
The statute did not become law until April of this year, so it has retroactive effect. Mujica might have chosen to become an independent in 2025, then changed his mind. It would not have mattered unless it was made a campaign issued.
The statute also had a provision regarding name changes (with exemptions for changes related to marriage, divorce, and adoption).
The statute may have been passed for entirely innocent (or at least understandable) reasons. Florida’s laws for cancelling elections or primaries has resulted in mischievous results. Consider an election with two D’s running. If there are no other candidates, the primary will be opened. In the past, “independents” or “Greens” have even run as write-in’s to keep the primary closed. The bill passed 113-0 in the House and 37-0 in the Senate.
Florida permits online registration changes, so there might not be a paper record with a wet signature. Looking at the transaction records https://floridapolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Mujica-party-change-document.png it appears that the first change also included a removal of country of birth. Mujica was born in Venezuela and immigrated to the US as a child. Maybe he was removing country/state of birth, and someone goobered it into removing his party affiliation, and then later restored it.