Glenn Rogers, a columnist for the Dallas Morning News, has this column, explaining the Texas ballot access laws for independent candidates and criticizing them.

One point he failed to make is that before 1967, Texas did not require any petition for new or minor parties to get on the ballot. They merely needed to hold a state convention and county conventions in at least twenty counties. Yet Texas did not have crowded ballots before 1967. Texas never had a government-printed general ballot with more than six parties.

Rogers is mistaken to say George Washington hated political parties. Washington criticized “the spirit of party”, i.e., partisanship. Washington was head of the Federalist Party during his administration, but he was careful to have cabinet members from both parties. The chief division between the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party in the 1790’s was over foreign policy. The Federalist Party was horrified by the French Revolution, but the Democratic-Republican Party was not.

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.