On January 15, California Republicans filed notice of appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in Tangipa v Newsom, c.d., 2:25cv-10616. They also asked the 3-judge U.S. District Court to put its recent ruling (upholding the new U.S. House districts) on hold, pending the appeal. Here is the brief asking for a suspension of the ruling.
WASHINGTON, D.C. WILL USE RANKED CHOICE VOTING FOR PRIMARIES AND GENERAL ELECTIONS IN 2026
WILL EASE PATH FOR MINOR PARTIES TO GAIN QUALIFIED STATUS
On December 16, the D.C. City Council voted that the District will use Ranked Choice Voting starting this year for all partisan elections. D.C. becomes the third jurisdiction to use RCV in federal elections, following Maine (in 2018) and Alaska (in 2022).
Results from Maine and Alaska show that RCV boosts the percentage of votes cast for minor parties. In Maine in 2020, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate polled the highest percentage for any third party candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine history. For President that year, the percentage for the Green Party in Maine was 1.00%. That was the party’s best percentage in any state that year, and triple the national percentage in the states in which it was on the ballot.
In Alaska, the Alaskan Independence Party benefited from RCV in 2024, when it polled the third highest percentage for U.S. House in the party’s history, a history that goes back to 1974. Only 2008 and 1992 were higher.
On January 15, an Alaska State Appeals Court heard arguments in Tupe Smith v State of Alaska, the case over American Samoans who ran for local office in Whittier, Alaska. See this story.
On January 15, former Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester appeared to endorse an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate seat that is up this year. Seth Bodnar, president of the University of Montana, may become an independent candidate for Senate this year. The incumbent is Republican Senator Steve Daines. See this story.
On January 13, the Texas Supreme Court refused to reinstate David Rogers to the Republican primary ballot. He us the only opponent of an incumbent member of the Texas Supreme Court in the primary. See this story. In re David Rogers 26-0010. Rogers had a miniscule error in his petition, which required 50 signatures in each of the 15 state appeals districts.
