Liberal Currents has this essay by Dennis Lytton that argues that political parties are useful but that they work better without government-administered primaries. The essay also argues in favor of proportional representation.
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The website Independent Center Voice features news about 2026 independent candidates for Congress and statewide state office who seem to have strong campaigns. See the website here. The website does not endorse any candidates.
On July 1, Todd Sloan, an independent candidate for U.S. House in New York’s 24th district, filed a lawsuit in state court to get on the ballot. He needed 3,500 valid signatures. He had enough, except that all the signatures collected by one of his petitioners were invalidated because the petitioner listed a residence address that doesn’t match his residence address on his voter registration form. The lawsuit is filed in Albany County Supreme Court. See this story. Sloan argues that the law doesn’t require the petitioner’s address on the petitions to match the address on the voter registration records.
On July 2, an initiative petition was submitted to the New York City Clerk. The initiative would eliminate party nominees in elections for city office. Instead, the city would hold nonpartisan elections in June, with party labels permitted. If no one got 50%, there would be a runoff in November for the top three finishers, using ranked choice voting.
The group submitted approximately 45,000 signatures. The requirement is 30,000 signatures. Now the city council will decide whether to put the initiative on the ballot. If the city council declines, initiative supporters can then collect another 15,000 valid signatures and bypass the city council. See this story.
Currently, all of the largest cities in the United States use completely nonpartisan elections for their own officers, except for New York city and Philadelphia.
On July 15, a U.S. District Court will hear Day v New Hampshire Secretary of State, 1:26cv-499. This is the case over whether New Hampshire can block an independent candidate for U.S. Senate on the grounds that he hadn’t updated his voter registration address as of the day he filed his declaration of candidacy. Aaron Day argues that states cannot keep congressional candidates off the ballot for reasons related to voter registration, given the U.S. Supreme Court U.S. Term Limits v Thornton decision. That decision said states can’t add to the constitutional qualifications for congressional candidates.