Portugal held a presidential election on January 18. Eleven candidates appeared on the ballot. No one got as much as 50%, so there is a runoff on February 8. See this wikipedia article.
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South Carolina has never charged candidates filing fees if they are nominated in a convention. Only candidates running in primaries have ever needed to pay a filing fee. In South Carolina minor parties always nominate by convention instead of by primary.
Also, South Carolina has always had open primaries since primaries first began in the state.
But forty-nine South Carolina Representatives have introduced HB 3643, which requires candidates nominated in a convention to pay a filing fee. Also the bill establishes closed primaries, and provides that voter registration forms ask applicants to choose a party, or independent status. If the bill passed, no one could vote in a primary without being a party member.
The bill has a hearing on January 21, Wednesday, at noon, in the House Judiciary Committee. Here is the text of the bill.
The South Carolina House has 124 members.
The bill does not require independent candidates to pay a filing fee, but independent candidate petitions in South Carolina are very severe. South Carolina is the only state in which no one has ever qualified as an independent candidate for either house of Congress. The requirement for statewide office and U.S. House is 10,000 signatures.
UPDATE: a second bill for closed primaries, HB 3310, would not impose filing fees on convention nominees.
According to this New York Post article, Steve Hilton, one of the two active Republicans running for Governor of California, has raised more campaign contributions than any other candidate running for California Governor. However, Tom Steyer, a Democratic running for California Governor, has a bigger campaign chest because he is a billionaire and is funding his own campaign.
The Democrxatic National Committee is thinking about revising the order of presidential primaries. Traditionally one state from each region of the nation is permitted to hold a primary or caucus before March of presidential election years. In 2024 South Carolina enjoyed the “southern” early primary spot. Virginia wants to replace South Carolina. See this story. The Virginia Democrats argue that the Virginia Democratic Party deserves the spot, partly because the legislature recently took efforts to redistrict the U.S. House district boundaries to elect more Democrats to the U.S. House.
Six Wyoming legislators have introduced HB 37. It provides that most county office elections would switch from being partisan to non-partisan. The offices that would switch are Clerk of the District Cout, Coroner, District Attorney, County Clerk, County Treasurer, Assessor, and Sheriff. County Commissioners would continue to be elected in partisan elections.