Eighteen Texans filed declarations of intent with the Secretary of State to begin the process of qualifying for the November 2016 ballot as independents: 13 for Congress and 5 for Texas House seats:
- CD2: William Large of Houston
- CD4: Tony Arterburn Jr. of Rowlett
- CD6: Greg Lamb of Mansfield and Ashley Nicole Stewart of Grand Prairie
- CD7: Kenneth Abbott Jr. or Houston, David Farrington of Houston and John Flatten of Houston
- CD10: Bill Malone Jr. of Austin and Michael White of Austin
- CD15: Jane Cross of Edinburg
- CD21: David Denton of San Antonio
- CD30: Eric Williams of Dallas
- CD36: Eric Goodman of Baytown
- HD18: William Marks of Cleveland
- HD27: Beverly Walker of Missouri City
- HD108: Nathan Webb of Dallas
- HD115: Paul Stafford of Addison, and
- HD120: Laura Thompson of San Antonio.
Arterburn abandoned a 2014 run for CD4 as a Republican, Williams qualified as an independent candidate for CD30 in 2014 and received 5% of the vote. Stafford received 40% of the vote as a Democrat in the 2014 general election for HD115. These candidates are now listed in our Crib Sheets.
Independent candidates must acquire a sufficient number of valid signatures from registered voters who did not participate in any party’s primary or convention in order to qualify for the general election ballot. Section 142.007(2), Election Code provides that am independent candidate for legislative or Congressional office must obtain the lesser of 500 signatures or 5% of the number of voters casting ballots for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, which is almost always going to be 500. The signatures must accompany a an application and be filed with the Secretary of State by June 23, 2016. Three independent candidates qualified for the 2014 ballot.
The filing period for write-in candidates does not begin until July 23, 2016. They have until August 22 to file their petition and valid signatures.
