Chris Getty will be an independent candidate for U.S. House in the 4th district of Illinois. He is Mayor of Lyons, a suburb of Chicago. See this story.
2026 is shaping up as a year with an unusual number of independent congressional candidates who are already prominent.
On March 3, Arkansas held a special election to fill the vacancy in the State House, 70th district. The results: Democratic 57.38%; Republican 42.62%. Here are the returns from the Pulaski County elections office website. Scroll down one page.
When this district had last voted, in November 2024, the results had been: Republican 51.0%; Democratic 49.0%. The district is centered on North Little Rock.
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders had originally set the date of this special election for November 2026, but Democrats sued and won the case, so the election was held in March 2026.
On March 3, Rutland, Vermont held a Mayoral election with no names printed on the ballot. All votes were write-ins. The city managed to count all the votes on election night. See this story.
The Legal Marijuana Now Party of Nebraska is holding contested primaries in May 2026 for both U.S. Senate and Governor. The same party had a contested primary for U.S. Senate in 2024. Except for those two instances, there have been no contested minor party primaries for statewide office in Nebraska in the last one hundred years.
CalMatters has this commentary that suggests the only alternative to top-two is a closed primary. And the Independent Voters News has this similar commentary. Both ran in the last two days.
But California is free to pass a simple law that says independent voters can vote in the primary of their choice. Other states with similar laws are Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. There are other alternatives as well.
