A growing number of candidates are seeking federal office without the backing of either major party, as more Americans identify as political independents heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
A Newsweek analysis of independent congressional candidate lists found 217 entries across U.S. House and Senate races in the 2026 cycle: 170 for the House and 47 Senate hopefuls.
When multiple candidates running in the same House district or Senate state are combined, the lists cover 153 distinct contests—129 House districts or at-large seats and 24 Senate races. The largest concentrations appear in Texas, Illinois, New York, California, Washington and Virginia.
I’d probably switch my party designation if we didn’t have closed primaries here in Oregon. They’ve made it so you have to kiss the ring in order to participate in democracy.
That’s honestly how it has been, since the writing of the constitution, for the entire country…
The ring belonging to the rich, of course.
I haven’t declared any party and never will. In my state you just pick which primary you want to vote in. I even moved states to another state that didn’t require it.
In retrospect, my point was slightly tangential. I was lamenting the fact that the system itself is designed in such a way that anyone who wants to run for office is incentivized to seek funds from those with wealth - they must kiss the ring. It’s meant to ensure that only capital-approved candidates ever make it onto the ballots. Only massive organizing efforts can push through that barrier. If you piss enough people off, they’ll overcome such barriers and that scares the ever-loving shit out of the rich who know what’s up.
In Virginia there is no party registration, but you can only vote in one or the other on primary day…
When there is no one candidate that stands out on the Democrat side, I’ll usually pull a Republican primary ballot and vote for the most left leaning republican of the bunch… They never win, but anything to undermine their standing as shoe-in is better than nothing.
Same in South Dakota, only Republicans get primaries here.