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.
The Ohio Libertarian Party has its own primary this year. According to this newspaper story, it is likely two Libertarians will appear on the party’s primary ballot for Governor.
This appears to be the first contested third party primary in Ohio since 1970, when the American Independent Party had a contested gubernatorial primary. Edwin G. Lawton won that primary with 3,463 votes. His opponent, Robert W. Annable, received 1,870.
There aren’t many minor party primaries in Ohio. Newly-qualifying parties don’t have their own primaries. Minor parties only have primaries in Ohio if they are in a second election year of having qualified status. Before 2026, the last time a minor party had its own primary in Ohio was the Green Party in 2016.
On December 24, the Texas Secretary of State filed a brief in Hunt v State of Texas, n.d., 2:25cv-200. This is the lawsuit in which the Republican Party hopes to obtain a closed primary for itself. The Secretary of State is opposed to the lawsuit. Her latest brief says the lawsuit should be dismissed because it isn’t ripe. She says the Republican Party hasn’t even decided the details of how its closed primary would work, and the case therefore can’t continue.
Connecticut held a special election on January 13 to fill the vacancy in the State House, 139th district. The results: Democratic 61.91%; Republican 28.45%; Independent Party 7.06%; Working Families 2.58%.
In November 2024, the results had been: Democratic 50.74%; Republican 45.33%; Independent Party 1.34%; Working Families 2.59%.
In both elections, the Working Families Party nominated the Democratic nominee.
The January 2026 results for the Independent Party were very impressive, because its nominee, Mark Adams, was a write-in candidate. He had expected to be on the ballot because the Independent Party was ballot-qualified in that district, but the Secretary of State kept him off the ballot due to a paperwork error.
