On March 5, the Tennessee Republican Party notified the Secretary of State that it had removed 149 candidates from its May 2026 primary ballot. Many were removed because of a party rule that candidates must have voted in at least three of the last four statewide Republican primary ballots. Many others were removed because they didn’t pay filing fees to the party. These fees are not in state law, but the party promulgated them. The Democratic Party has no such fees. The Republican fees range as high as $5,000 for gubernatorial candidates. See this story.

Chris Getty will be an independent candidate for U.S. House in the 4th district of Illinois. He is Mayor of Lyons, a suburb of Chicago. See this story.

2026 is shaping up as a year with an unusual number of independent congressional candidates who are already prominent.

On March 3, Rutland, Vermont held a Mayoral election with no names printed on the ballot. All votes were write-ins. The city managed to count all the votes on election night. See this story.