Tennessee Has a State Legislative Election with No Names on Ballot

This year, Tennessee is electing all members of its legislature. In the 93rd State House district, no one is on the general election ballot. No one had petitioned to run in either the Democratic nor Republican primary except the incumbent, G. A. Hardaway, a Democrat. He needed 25 valid signatures. He submitted 47, but only 24 were valid. This was discovered on March 17, and the deadline for anyone to run as an independent had already passed, on March 10.

Tennessee permits write-ins in primaries, but no one can be nominated unless his or her write-in total is 5% of the number of voters who cast a ballot. Probably Representative Hardaway could have surmounted that barrier, but on April 23 he died. No one filed as a declared write-in candidate in either major party primary, so by then it was impossible for anyone to be on the November ballot.

Fortunately, the deadline to be a declared write-in in the general election was not until September 14, and there is one Democrat who filed to be a write-in candidate, Kyler Gilkey. The 93rd district is in Memphis.

Yankee National Party Has One Nominee in Ballot in 2026

The Yankee National Party was founded in 2020 to work for independence for the New England states. In 2026 it has one nominee on the ballot with the party label. Deena Steinberg is running for Connecticut State House, 12th district.

The only other party in the U.S. still in existence that favors independence for any particular state is the California National Party. It ran its state chair, Sean Forbes, for Governor in the June 2026 primary. He was not on the primary ballot but he filed as a declared write-in, and received 22 votes.

Tenth Circuit Won’t Place Forward Party Nominees on Ballot

On September 15, two judges of the Tenth Circuit declined to put the Forward Party nominees for statewide office on the ballot. They did not explain why. There is also no explanation for why only two judges, instead of three, participated in the decision. New Mexico Forward Party v Toulouse Oliver, 26-2145. The two judges are Nancy Moritz, an Obama appointee; and Veronica Rossman, a Biden appointee.

Here is the order.

The only thing of substance the judges said is that the New Mexico Attorney General’s amicus was not proper for this type of procedure.