Both the North Carolina Republican Party and the Virginia Republican Party are considering adopting state rules that require presidential primary candidates to take a loyalty oath to support the party’s eventual 2016 presidential nominee. See this story. It is likely that courts would uphold the ability of parties to keep people who refuse to sign off their primary ballots.

The Texas Democratic Party had a similar oath for presidential primary candidates in 2008, and Dennis Kucinich refused to sign it. He sued to get on the Texas Democratic presidential primary ballot, but the U.S. District Court and the 5th circuit upheld the authority of the party to keep Kucinich off the presidential primary ballot. Kucinich asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, but it refused. Thanks to several people for the link.

UPDATE: see this Washington Post story.

Ballot Access News
August 1, 2015 – Volume 31, Number 3

1. MINOR PARTIES WIN PENNSYLVANIA BALLOT ACCESS CASE
2. TENNESSEE BALLOT ACCESS WIN
3. ARKANSAS LEGISLATURE CREATES ABSURD DEADLINES
4. CALIFORNIA MINOR PARTIES ASK U.S. SUPREME COURT TO HEAR TOP-TWO CASE
5. MARYLAND BALLOT ACCESS LAWSUIT FILED
6. PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DATE CHANGES
7. SOUTH DAKOTA REFERENDUM PETITION
8. U.S. SUPREME COURT
9. OKLAHOMA DEMOCRATS LET INDEPENDENTS VOTE IN THEIR PRIMARIES
10. FLORIDA TOP-TWO INITIATIVE
11. PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES
12. COMPARE DEADLINES FOR PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY CANDIDATES vs. INDEPENDENTS
13. NUMBER OF NAMES ON BALLOT IN REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES
14. PENNSYLVANIA GETS AN INDEPENDENT STATE TREASURER
15. CONSTITUTION PARTY CONVENTION
16. MAINE LEGISLATOR BECOMES AN INDEPENDENT
17. PARTY FOR SOCIALISM AND LIBERATION NOMINATES TICKET
18. FREE & EQUAL ANNOUNCES DATE AND LOCATION FOR FESTIVAL
19. 2016 PETITIONING
20. SUBSCRIBING TO BAN WITH PAYPAL
    

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If Donald Trump were to leave the race for the Republican nomination and run as an independent or minor party candidate in November 2016, he would be aided by many precedents set in the past by previous presidential candidates who ran in major party presidential primaries and then ran in the general election outside the major parties. These precedents show that sore loser laws don’t apply to presidential primaries, because no one is defeated for a presidential nomination in any single state’s presidential primary.

John Anderson ran in 22 Republican presidential primaries in 1980 and still got on the ballot in all states in November as an independent or minor party candidate. After Anderson, the individual who set the most precedents is Lyndon LaRouche, who sought the Democratic nomination in 1984, 1988, and 1992, and then ran as an independent in all three elections.

In 1992 alone, LaRouche set precedents in states in which Anderson had not set such a precedent. LaRouche ran in Democratic presidential primaries, and then got on the ballot as an independent the same year, in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin. In nine of those eleven states, that set a new precedent that Anderson had not set. Anderson had not run in presidential primaries in any of those LaRouche 1992 states except Louisiana and Massachusetts.

Notwithstanding that LaRouche’s past activity now helps Trump maintain flexibility, LaRouche does not approve of Donald Trump. See this August 14, 2016 article about Trump in the LaRouche organization’s publication Executive Intelligence Review.