On August 8, Emerson College Polls released a poll for Governor of California in the 2026 election. Two of the three leading candidates are Republicans. One is former Fox News host Steve Hilton; the other is Riverside County sheriff Chad Bianco. All of the other nine candidates included in the poll are Democrats. No one has more than 12%, because most voters are not familiar with the field. The primary is not until June 2, 2026.

The fact that there are two Republicans with somewhat significant support (relatively speaking) suggests the possibility that the two leading Republicans might conceivably place first and second, which would make them the only two choices in November. There is no write-in space on November ballots for California congressional and partisan state offices.

Pennsylvania holds two statewide elections for judicial office in November 2025. The only minor party or independent candidate on the ballot is the Liberal Party’s nominee for Superior Court, Daniel Wassmer. He needed 5,000 signatures. The challenge period has passed and no one challenged his petition.

Pennsylvania also has some statewide retention elections for other judicial posts, but they aren’t candidate-versus-candidate elections.

If Wassmer gets a vote total of 2% of the winning candidate’s vote, the Liberal Party will meet the state’s pinched definition of a qualified party. A group that meets that definition gets certain advantages, but not automatic ballot access generally. Instead it gets automatic ballot access in special elections, and is listed as a choice on the voter registration form. Currently the only third party with that status in Pennsylvania is the Libertarian Party. The Libertarian Party will keep that status until November 2026 even though it isn’t running in any 2025 statewide judicial elections.

Arizona is holding a special election for the vacant Seventh District U.S. House seat on September 23, 2025. Each qualified party had its own special primary on July 15, 2025. The Green Party and the No Labels Party each nomianted someone by write-in vote in their own primaries. The Libertarian Party also had a write-in candidate in its primary, but the person who got the most votes in the Libertarian primary can’t be on the September 23 ballot because the rules are different for the Libertarian Party.

The Green Party and the No Labels Party each petitioned in 2024, so they are considered “new” parties. “New” parties can nominate by write-in very easily. Whoever gets the most votes in their primaries is nominated, regardless of how few write-ins they received. The Green Party winner got 42 write-ins and the No Labels Party candidate got one write-in.

But the Libertarian Party is not considered a new party, because it has been continuously qualified since 2000. So write-in candidates in its primary need a large number of write-ins to be nominated.

Here are the election results for the July 15, 2025 primary.