On Deadline Day, Democrats Still Have 25 Legislative Races Unfilled
Today is the deadline for the June primary ballot. All candidates wishing to have their candidacy listed with a partisan affiliation must have their paperwork in the Secretary of State’s office by 4:00pm today. I’m told the paperwork must be in the office, and not just postmarked, by 4:00pm.
Our most recent update of candidates in those races is below.
Not surprisingly, just before the deadline, Democrats added several candidates, including three more candidates in oil patch counties where candidate recruitment has been disastrous for Democrats.
There are 72 legislative races on the ballot this year, representing all the odd-numbered districts in the state. Currently Democrats have 47 candidates for those races (including 10 incumbents), leaving 25 legislative seats unchallenged so far. They added nine candidates over the weekend.
Republicans stayed at 66 candidates for 72 races, with 6 legislative seats in the very left-wing Districts 9 and 11 unchallenged. They have 49 incumbents.
In the oil patch districts – 1, 31, 33, 37 and 39 Democrats now have six candidates total for 15 open seats but lack a full slate of candidates in any one of those districts.
At this point, there are still a lot of candidates on my list that represent people who have announced their campaigns to the public but aren’t yet listed on the Secretary of State’s official list. I’m assuming that these candidates, both Republicans and Democrats, will get their paperwork in, but if they don’t tomorrow’s race update after the deadline could have some major revisions.
Also worth remembering is that a lot of these legislative candidates are people jumping into the races long after their local district conventions. Typically those sort of candidates are seen as placeholders and are in their races more to avoid the embarrassment of unopposed races than any expectation of winning. But legislative races are often won by margins so small that even placeholder candidates can quickly become competitive.
