March 6 is the deadline for California primary candidates to file. Ian Calderon, one of the nine prominent Democrats who have been campaigning for Governor, did not file. The other eight leading Democrats did file.
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On March 5, the Tennessee Republican Party notified the Secretary of State that it had removed 149 candidates from its May 2026 primary ballot. Many were removed because of a party rule that candidates must have voted in at least three of the last four statewide Republican primary ballots. Many others were removed because they didn’t pay filing fees to the party. These fees are not in state law, but the party promulgated them. The Democratic Party has no such fees. The Republican fees range as high as $5,000 for gubernatorial candidates. See this story.
On March 5, the Oklahoma Secretary of State determined that the initiative for a top-two system doesn’t have enough valid signatures.
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.