On November 12, the Arkansas Supreme Court refused to stay the order of two lower courts that had said the Governor can’t delay two special legislative elections until June 2026. See this story. The Supreme Court also refused to expedite the Governor’s appeal. This suggests that when the Supreme Court hears the Governor’s appeal, it will uphold the lower courts.
Mike Collier, the Texas Democratic Party nominee for Lieutenant Governor in 2022, will run for the same office in 2026, but as an independent. His petition drive will be very difficult. No independent has qualified for the ballot for a statewide state office since 2006. He will need 81,030 signatures, and no one who voted in the March 2026 primary will be able to sign.
If anyone can help me with my question, I would appreciate it. As far as I can tell, there are two states that have never elected a minor party nominee (who was not also the nominee of a major party) to a partisan office, since that state started using government-printed ballots. They are Arizona and Delaware.
If anyone can identify any instance of a minor party nominee winning a partisan election in Arizona or Delaware, I would be very grateful. You can either comment, or else e-mail me at richardwinger@yahoo.com. This post originally asked about North Carolina, but commenter Kevin Hayes answered that state.
On November 12, Adelita Grijalva was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House. She had been elected in a special election in Arizona in September.
Her lawsuit is not necessarily moot, because if she wants, she could carry on the lawsuit on the basis that she was improperly denied her congressional salary for the past six weeks.
On November 7, a Georgia state trial court enjoined the Catoosa County Republican Party from evaluating the political views of candidates in the party’s primary. The party in 2024 had tried to keep certain Republicans off the party’s primary ballot for county office, based on the views of the candidates. Henry v Catoosa County Republican Party, Superior Court of Catoosa County, sucv2024211. The Court also fined the party.
The decision makes no mention of the Catoosa County Republican Party’s pending federal lawsuit on the same issue. The state court decision says that the precedent the party had relied on, over whether the Republican Party had a right to exclude David Duke from its 1992 presidential primary, doesn’t apply, because presidential primary procedures are different than procedures for other office.
