At the August 6, 2024 Washington state primary, Damond Townsend ran for Secretary of State with the ballot label “No Labels.” He ran against two Democrats and one Republican. He placed fourth, with 96,586 votes, 7.31%.
Because of the Washington top-two system, he won’t be on the ballot in November. But under Washington state’s old pre-top-two law, he would have been on the ballot in November. The old law said a party gained qualified status by polling 5% for any statewide race. It seems very likely that under the old law, he would have polled at least 5%, and the No Labels Party would have become ballot-qualified.
The No Labels organization, which was fiercely opposed to anyone running for any office other than President, did not take any steps to interfere with Townsend’s ballot label.
No other organized minor party ran any candidates in the Washington 2024 primary for statewide office, except that the Libertarian and Green Parties had candidates for Governor, and the Socialist Workers Party had a candidate for U.S. Senate. None of them got as much as 1%. No organized minor party had any candidates for U.S. House, except for one Green in the Second District.
