Tennessee held general elections for county office on August 6.  In Moore County, incumbent sheriff Justin Tyler Hatfield, an independent candidate, defeated his only opponent, the Republican nominee William Raline.  The vote was 1,570 to 417.

The ballot listed Hatfield on the top line.  The Republican Party had complained that Raline should have been listed first, but the complaint was filed so close to the election, nothing was done about it.  Tennessee law says independent candidates should be listed underneath the nominees of political parties.

Back in February 2026, Hatfield had been disqualified because he had submitted his declaration of candidacy late, but he sued and won on the basis that the elections office had given him the wrong information about the deadline.  That lawsuit was Hatfield v Sanders, Chancery Court, Moore County, case 3322.

On August 7, the New Jersey Supreme Court declined to put Lana Leguia on the ballot as the Libertarian nominee for U.S. House.  She is off the ballot because she used some out-of-state petitioners.  The Supreme Court did not take a position on the ban on out-of-state issue, but it said Leguia should have mounted a constitutional challenge to the ban earlier in the process.  See this story.

On July 17, Jane Nelson, Texas Secretary of State,ceased to be Secretary.  Texas Secretaries of State are not elected; they are appointed.  Governor Greg Abbott replaced her with Robert Howden.  Nelson had been opposing the Republican Party lawsuit that demands a closed primary for the party.  The Attorney General had been supporting the lawsuit, even though normally Attorneys General are supposed to defend state laws.

On August 6, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered the new Secretary of State to reveal whether the new Secretary will switch sides.  If the new Secretary does switch sides, then there will be no government official left to defend the existing open primary law.  However, in that case, there will be private organizations who will ask to intervene in the lawsuit.