This year the Working Class Party petitioned to place Jordan Villas on the Illinois general election ballot for State Senate, 12th district. The petition has been challenged. If Villas survives the challenge, he is certain to poll more than 5% of the vote, because he is one of only two candidates in the race. The other candidate is the Democratic nominee. If Villas polled more than 5% of the general election vote, that would make his party a ballot-qualified party in that State Senate district.

The Illinois Working Class Party is already a ballot-qualified party in the U.S. House 4th district. Therefore its nominee this year for that seat, Edward Hershey, is safely on the general election ballot.

Villas is the only minor party candidate who petitioned this year for a seat in the Illinois legislature.

The Green, Libertarian, and Peace & Freedom Parties will each have one member on the November 2026 ballot for state legislature.

Libertarian William Brown filed to have his name on the primary ballot for State Senate, 12th district, in the San Joaquin Valley. Two Republicans also filed. Brown placed second, with 23.9%. See the returns here.

Peace & Freedom Party member Kevin Akin filed as a write-in candidate in the 63rd Assembly district, in Riverside County. Only one person was on the ballot, and Akin was the only declared write-in candidate. He polled 113 write-in votes. Even one write-in would have been enough for him to place second.

Green Party member Victor Hernandez filed to be on the primary ballot in the 59th Assembly district in northern Orange County. No one else filed to be on the primary except the incumbent Republican. Hernandez polled 30.4%. See the returns here.

There are four Assembly districts in which only one person filed to be on the primary ballot, and no one filed as a declared write-in. So if minor party members had filed as a declared write-in in any of those districts, such candidates could have appeared on the November ballot.

All of the Illinois statewide petitions for minor party and independent candidates have been challenged. They include the petitions of the Green Party, the Independence Party, the New Party, and the independent gubernatorial candidacy of Collin Corbett.