Collin Corbett, a former Illinois Republican Party consultant, has filed 37,000 signatures to be an independent candidate for Governor. See this story. He is not the only minor party or independent candidate for Governor who filed, but he seems to be the only one who may survive a petition challenge, if all the gubernatorial petitions are challenged.

It is possible that in 2026, the only states in which the only candidates for any statewide race are Republicans and Democrats will be Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, and Virginia. Two states, Utah and Washington, don’t have any statewide races this year. Utah will have minor party or independent candidates on the ballot for U.S. House (the office at the top of the ballot), but Washington won’t. New York will have four parties on the ballot but the only statewide candidates will be Republicans and Democrats.

On May 26, Seth Bodnar, former president of the University of Montana, submitted approximately 30,000 signatures to get on the ballot as an independent for U.S. Senate. He submitted signatures from all but four of Montana’s counties. Also he has raised more campaign contributions than any Democrat or Republican who is in the race.

The petition requirement is 12.788.

As already reported, Christopher Getty filed almost 19,000 signatures to appear on the November ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. House, Illinois 4th district. On May 26, the last day to file general election petitions, Byron Sigcho Lopez and Mayra Macias also filed to run for that seat. This post will be amended when I learn how many signatures each of them filed. Sigcho Lopez is a member of the Chicago city council.

UPDATE: a Chicago Tribune story says Sigcho Lopez and Macias each collected approximately 17,000 signatures.