On May 20, Maine Congressman Jared Golden said he will run for re-election as a Democrat. Earlier he had said he might seek the No Labels nomination to run for Governor.
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Georgia is holding two statewide partisan elections in November 2025 for Public Service Commission. Normally Georgia never holds partisan statewide elections in odd years. But the elections for that office were not held in 2022 nor 2024, due to litigation over whether they should be statewide or by district. The courts ruled in favor of statewide elections.
This will be the first statewide partisan election in Georgia since 1986 in which only the Democratic and Republican Parties are on the ballot. For all elections 1988 through 2024, the Libertarian Party was also on the ballot for statewide office (but not district office). The Libertarian Party went off the statewide ballot in November 2024, although it surely would have stayed on if only the Public Service Commission seats had been up. The party always got enough votes to remain on for that office. But nothing was on the statewide ballot in 2024 except president.
On May 19, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed HB 207. It reduces the petition requirement for non-presidential independent candidates from 5% of the winner’s vote for that office at the last election, to 4%. Ironically this still leaves Montana with the nation’s highest percentage petition requirement for non-presidential independents for statewide office. The 2026 petition for U.S. Senate (the only statewide race up in 2026) drops from 15,985 to 12,788.
The bill also says if the independent petition fails, the candidate get a refund of the filing fee. On the other hand, it bans sore losers from running write-in campaigns.
On May 19, the Federal Election Commission filed a brief in National Republican Senatorial Committee v Federal Election Commission, 24-3051. This is the case that challenges the federal law that limits how much money a party can spend on campaigns for its nominees if the party and the candidate coordinate with each other.
The FEC brief says the federal law is unconstitutional. Normally government attorneys defend the constitutionality of challenged laws, but in this case, both sides agree that the law should be struck down. The FEC recommends that the U.S. Supreme Court appoint an amicus curiae to defend the law.
On April 8, the Rhode Island Senate Judicial Committee voted not to pass SB 907, the bill that eases the definition of a qualified party.