On June 2, the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 2491. It moves the presidential primary from late April to early March. An identical bill has already passed the House.

Hector Mujica is the leading Democrat running for U.S. House in the 28th district. He has been head of Americas Phianthropy at Google. But his Democratic opponent has challenged his ballot position, because voter registration records show that Mujica was a registered independent between June 4, 2025, and July 26, 2025. Florida law says no one may run in a primary if the individual was not a registered member of the party for the 365 days preceding the opening of the candidate qualifying period, which was in April 2026. Section 99.021(1)(b)2.

Mujica denies that he was a registered independent at any time in the past. See this story. The Broward County Elections office asserts that there is no mistake, although so far no one has produced any actual voter registration form signed by Mujica showing himself registering as an independent.

The irony is that the U.S. Supreme Court said in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut in 1986 that the First Amendment, freedom of association clause, forbids a state from telling a party that it can’t nominate a non-member. If the Florida Democratic Party had its own bylaw contradicting the state law, the party could prevail in court. But the Florida Democratic Party has no such bylaw.

Another constitutional problem for the law is that it appears to require that a congressional candidate must have been a registered voter for the preceding 365 days before the opening of the qualifying period. Yet four U.S. Courts of Appeals have ruled that states cannot require congressional candidates to be registered voters. The circuits are the 9th, 10th, 2nd, and 5th. Also the law appears to require congressional candidates to have lived in Florida for the period, and that also violates the principle that states cannot add to the constitutional qualifications for congressional candidates.