Yes this was a fine idea, so we are doing it. With thanks to Ryan for suggesting it!
Election Eve Third Party Thread!
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May 9, 2026
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Yes this was a fine idea, so we are doing it. With thanks to Ryan for suggesting it!
Comments are closed.
Massachusetts: The Libertarians procured major party status. In the end, the Green-Rainbow and Workers parties failed to obtain major party status. Massachusetts other third party, the Republicans (9% of the registered vote) elected no one to statewide office, no one to Federal office, no one to Congress, no one to the Governor’s Council, but did re-elect their three State Senators (the other 37 Senators are Democrats; at least one Republican ran unopposed).
Sorry to hear about Marshall Burt in Wyoming. His vote total seemed to have dropped in half from his previous election when he won. It appears it was much easier for him to defeat a Democrat than a Republican there.
The race for Auditor in New Mexico shows Travis Sanchez with 38% of the vote with nearly complete returns. That will easily maintain major party status for the LPNM. There was no Republican in the race.
Governor of Idaho:
Brad Little (Rep-inc) 60.7%, Stephen Heidt (Dem) 20.9%, Ammon Bundy (Indy) 16.4%, Paul Sand (Lib) 1.2%, Chantyrose Davison (Con) 0.9%
Governor of Oregon:
Tina Kotek (Dem) 45.7%, Christine Drazan (Rep) 44.7, Betsy Johnson (Indy) 8.8%, Donice Smith (Con) 0.4%, Leon Noble (Lib) 0.3%
U.S. Senator from Utah:
Mike Lee (Rep-inc) 55.4%, Evan McMullin (Indy) 41.0%, James Hansen (Lib) 2.4%, Tommy Williams (IAP) 1.1%
U.S. Senator from South Dakota:
John Thune (Rep-inc) 69.6%, Brian Bengs (Dem) 26.2%, Tamara Lesnar (Lib) 4.2%
U.S. Senator from North Dakota:
John Hoeven (Rep-inc) 56.5%, Katrina Christiansen (Dem) 25.0%, Rick Becker (Indy) 18.5%
Indiana statewide and Congress results with minor party/independents. 89% reporting of the state this morning:
U.S. Senate: Todd Young (Rep-inc) 58.9%, Tom McDermott (Dem) 37.6%, James Sceniak (Lib) 3.5%
Secretary of State: Diego Morales (Rep) 54.2%, Destiny Wells (Dem) 40.3%, Jeff Maurer (Lib) 5.6%
State Auditor: Tera Klutz (Rep-inc) 59.9%, Zenai Brooks (Dem) 36.7%, James Sceniak (Lib) 3.5%
Congress 2nd District: Rudy Yakym (Rep-inc) 64.6%, Paul Steury (Dem) 32.4%, William Henry (Lib) 3.0%
Congress 3rd District: Jim Banks (Rep-inc) 65.7%, Gary Snyder (Dem) 29.6%, Nathan Gotsch (Indy) 4.7%
Congress 7th District: Andre Carson (Dem-inc) 66.9%, Angela Grabovsky (Rep) 30.6%, Gavin Maple (Lib) 2.4%
Congress 8th District: Larry Bucshon (Rep-inc) 66.0%, Ray McCormick (Dem) 29.7%, Andrew Horning (Lib) 4.4%
Congress 9th District: Erin Houchin (Rep) 64.2%, Matthew Fyfe (Dem) 32.8%, Tonya Millis (Lib) 2.9%
Ballot access for the Libertarian Party in Indiana until 2026 is retained running higher than 2% in the Secretary of State race.
Two other goals however was 10% statewide (would make us a major party in the state and garner us a primary), looked within reach based on polling and what commentators were saying prior to election, and taking 2nd place in any counties in the Secretary of State race (would get 1 of the 3 seats on that county’s election board). This was possible in mostly rural counties that the Democrats have in effect given up on as our Governor candidate Donald Rainwater got 2nd in a third of the state’s counties 2 years ago. Looks the closest that was to happening was in Morgan County to Indianapolis’s southwest, where the Democrat took 24.1% and the Libertarian took 11.9%, and in Decatur County where the Democrat took 21.2% and the Libertarian took 10.5%.
Two outcomes in Florida:
Libertarian candidate for Governor, Hector Roos, (who is third on the ballot, fyi) came in fourth with less than 20000 votes. Libertarian US Senate candidate Dennis Misigoy came in third with 32099 votes. Considering the LPF won 223356 for Governor in 2014 and 196956 for US Senate in 2018, this is a bad night for Libertarians. Since the current leadership took over in 2017, the LPF has lost momentum and relevance. What have Marcos Miralles, Steven Nekhalia, and the Mises Caucus accomplished since 2017? Wasting any potential the LP had and acting like they are political experts, that’s what happened.
On the other hand, Brian Moore (disclaimer, I am his campaign manager) won over 64000 votes in a heavily MAGA district. He did good job fighting the good fight and he will continue to do so.
Too bad for Marshall Burt. Too bad for Wyoming.
Mike Kolls appears to be the 2nd Libertarian to reach 30% in a federal election. (US House Texas 26).
In Wyoming state legislative elections, Bethany Baldes got 39% after getting 49% in the previous two elections. And Marshall Burt got 25%, so he will be leaving office. The other four Libertarian candidates, all of whom only had one opponent, were in the high teens up to 30%.
The Alabama statewide candidates who had only a Republican opponent are all in the 15% range. So they did not meet the 20% threshold to retain ballot access. But, they recorded the 3rd best result for a Libertarian candidate for Treasurer and the best for Lieutenant Governor.
I honestly expected a lot better.
It appears Missouri’s major party status for the Libertarians will continue, thanks to the 3% earned by State Auditor candidate John Hartwig.
Congressional candidates finished in the 2% to 3% range.
Brad Touchette, the candidate for county council District 7 in St. Charles County, earned 28.68% of the vote in a head-to-head race against Republican Tim Baker.
In Illinois, it appears another long petitioning season will be in order for Libertarians in 2024. With no statewide races outside of the presidential race, it may prove a difficult drive.
U.S. Senate candidate Bill Redpath is at 1.64% statewide as of 11:45 p.m. CST. His strongest county was in Mercer County within the greater Quad Cities IL/IA metro area.
Gubernatorial candidate Scott Schluter and running mate John Phillips Jr. have 2.65% overall. Despite the result, at least 15 counties would vote for Schluter at roughly 3% or higher. His strongest county was Stark County with 3.83%.
Secretary of State candidate, 2018 gubernatorial hopeful, and former professional wrestler Jon Stewart has 2.08% overall. His strongest support was 3.94% out of Stephenson County in northwestern Illinois.
Attorney General candidate Daniel Robin currently has 2.14% of the overall vote. Robin performed best in my home county of Montgomery County with 5.29% of the vote in the county. (There are 43 mail-in ballots to count, but per the Illinois Election Code, Montgomery County will be joining Cook, DeWitt, Kankakee, McHenry, McLean, Peoria, and Tazewell counties in holding Libertarian primaries in 2024 and 2026. As it is a rural county, party caucuses will also take place for township elections in 2025.)
Other statewide candidates include Preston Nelson (Treasurer, 2.2%) and Dierdre McCloskey (Comptroller, 1.8%).
County races – Illinois:
COOK
County Assessor: Nico Tsatsoulis 18.3% (extends their ballot access to 2026)
County Clerk: Joseph Schreiner 2.2%
County Treasurer: Michael Murphy 2.3%
County Board President: Thea Tsatsos 3.1%
County Sheriff: Brad Sandefur 2.8%
Board of Commissioners 1: Jim Humay 7.71%
Board of Commissioners 5: Jason Decker 10.10%
Board of Commissioners 11: Brandon Sizelove 3.54%
DEWITT
No races
KANKAKEE
County Board 5: Jacob Carlile 7.39%
MCHENRY
County Treasurer: Jim Young 3.56% (still has ballot access until 2024)
County Board 1: Ken Mattes 2.77%
County Board 2: Jake Justen 2.69%
MCLEAN
County Treasurer: Charles Sila 23.97% (extends ballot access to 2026)
PEORIA
No races
TAZEWELL
County Board 2: Eric Stahl 28.47% (this was an eight-way race for seven seats for the district)
Mark Victor, who attempted to drop out of the Arizona Senate race and endorse the Republican, appears to have failed. He is still getting 2.3% of the vote. It appears that the Republican is still well behind in the vote.
For the statewide offices in New Hampshire (there are two of them), the Libertarians did not it appears get 4% of the vote, so the LPNH will not be a major party in the next cycle.
It appears that at least one of the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party candidates is over 3%, meaning major party status for the GRP in Massachusetts. Cris Crawford, Libertarian for State Treasurer, is in a two-way race for State Treasurer, and appears to be running near 20%, just as she polled.
Crawford is now doing better than that, perhaps 24%.