The Federalist has this article by Victoria Marshall, detailing Democratic Party efforts from 2004 through the present to prevent voters from voting for parties or candidates to the left of the Democratic Party.

The story says nothing about the period 1936-1980. Democrats tried to keep the 1936 Union Party off the ballot in Pennsylvania; to keep the Progressive Party off the ballot in 1948 in Illinois; to keep independent presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy off the ballot in New York in 1976; and to keep independent presidential candidate John Anderson off the ballot in 1980 in Massachusetts and North Carolina.

By contrast, Republicans did not take action to keep minor party or independent presidential candidates off the ballot in any state until 2008, when the Republican Party tried to keep Libertarian nominee Bob Barr off the Pennsylvania ballot.

David Brooks has this op-ed in the New York Times, about the No Labels Party. The party is petitioning for party status in at least eight states, for the 2024 election. The group is doing the same kind of work the Americans Elect did in 2011 and early 2012. It is preparing the way for a centrist presidential candidate who would run in November, by doing as much of the ballot access work as possible before such a candidate is nominated.

The North Carolina Green and Libertarian Party nominees for U.S. Senate will debate each other on September 15 at Davidson College.

See this announcement.