On March 10, independent candidate Matthew Dumpert was elected to the Oakland, New Jersey, city council, in a partisan special election. See this story. It is very rare for independent candidates to win partisan elections in New Jerwey. Dumpert defeated his only opponent, the Republican incumbent. The election was held because the same seat had resulted in a tie vote in the November 2025 election.
On February 27, Bo Gritz died at the age of 87. He was the Populist Party’s presidential nominee in 1992. For someone who was not famous, he polled a surprisingly large share of the vote in certain places in Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Louisiana. He received 11.8% in Duchesne County, Htah, and 12.40% in Franklin County, Idaho. Nationwide he polled 107,014, the highest presidential vote the Populist Party ever polled. The New York Times carried an obituary for him on March 10.
He tried to get the American Independent Party nomination in California, but the AIP nominated Howard Phillips instead. Gritz mischeviously met with Phillips and AIP leaders and tried to get them to agree to settle the nomination with a coin toss. But that idea was rejected. Here is an obituary from a Nevada news source.
On March 11, New Hanover County Board of Education member David Perry said he has changed his registration from Republican to Libertarian. New Hanover County has a population of approximately 240,000, and includes Wilmington. The office is partisan and members have four-year terms. Elections are at-large. Perry was elected in 2024.
Greg Ballard, who had previously announced his independent candidacy for Indiana Secretary of State, will use the partisan label “Lincoln Party”. That way, assuming he gets on the ballot and polls at least 2%, a party with that name will automatically become ballot-qualified. See this story.
Ballard is a former Mayor of Indianapolis. When he was Mayor, he was elected as a Republican.
Although no one qualified to appear on the New Mexico Republican primary ballot for U.S. Senate this year, the Republican Party is planning to nominate someone by write-in votes in the primary, which is in early June. See this story.
A previous blog post said that write-ins are not allowed in New Mexico primaries for U.S. Senate, but that was incorrect.
