A Review of US Senate Elections without Two Major Party Candidates
Voters in at least one and in as many as four states will not have candidates from both major parties on the ballot in 2026’s U.S. Senate elections
The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office announced last week that the lone Republican to have filed for the state’s 2026 U.S. Senate race, Christopher Vanden Heuvel, did not submit enough valid signatures and thus will not appear on the ballot.
With the filing deadline now passed, New Mexico Republicans will therefore not field a candidate against Democratic incumbent Ben Ray Luján – marking the first time in state history both major parties will not have a candidate for the office of U.S. Senator across 43 contests.
Prior to 2026, New Mexico was one of 20 states in which voters received ballots with the chance to support either a Republican or Democratic candidate in every U.S. Senate contest during the direct election era.
The remaining 19 states are: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wyoming.
In addition to these 19 states, there are 11 others in which voters have had the choice of a Democratic candidate in every U.S. Senate election (leaving Democrats with an unblemished record in 30 states overall): Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
Republicans have appeared on the ballot in every U.S. Senate contest in 15 additional states (for 34 states overall): Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
New Mexico is the first new state to be added to the list of those where the GOP did not field a candidate since Massachusetts in 2002 when Senator John Kerry won his fourth term facing only a Libertarian nominee on the ballot.
However, the number of states without a Democrat in at least one U.S. Senate election stands at 20 – and that list has been growing in recent cycles.
Since 2000, ten states hosted U.S. Senate elections with no Democratic candidate on the ballot for the first time in state history: Arizona in 2000 (against Jon Kyl), Kansas in 2002 (Pat Roberts), Idaho in 2004 (Mike Crapo), Indiana in 2006 (Dick Lugar), South Dakota in 2010 (John Thune), Alabama in 2014 (Jeff Sessions), Arkansas in 2020 (Tom Cotton), Alaska in 2020 (Dan Sullivan), Utah in 2022 (Mike Lee), and Nebraska in 2024 (Deb Fischer).
[Note: In Alaska’s 2020 race, Al Gross filed with the FEC and ran as an independent, but was also backed by the Democratic Party. In Utah’s 2022 race, Democrats did not nominate a candidate and instead supported independent Evan McMullin’s campaign. In Nebraska’s 2024 race, the party intended to back independent Dan Osborn though he rejected party support].
Overall, of the more than 2,000 U.S. Senate elections held from 1914 through 2024, 34 have had no Democratic candidate and 120 had no Republican.
In addition to New Mexico, a few other states still await candidates from one major party to file for their forthcoming 2026 U.S. Senate elections: Delaware Republicans, Nebraska Democrats, and Wyoming Democrats. Democrats in Nebraska do not plan to put forth a candidate this cycle and will again back independent Dan Osborn. Wyoming statewide candidates have until May 29th to file and those in Delaware have until July 14th.
Both major parties have not fielded a candidate for the nation’s upper legislative chamber in just five states since 1914: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Mississippi, and Virginia.
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– OK nearly became the ’12th state’ in 1990; noted barrister Stephen Jones made a quixotic bid, one not financially backed by the organisation (the Republican party hierarchy had made no effort to target the seat and thus did not actively recruit a candidate, instead focusing on their unsuccessful bid to retain the governor post).
– In contrast to some states of the interior west, the Democrats of ME arguably have been either principled or obstinate in recruiting (official) nominees for their party, even after Senator Angus King demonstrated his considerable appeal among Democratic voters (in a head-to-head matchup, King would likely garner between 58% and 64% rather than a slight majority in each of his bids).
– It should be noted that voters of CA have “received ballots with a chance to support” a Republican candidate *every election* since 1914; by law even voters not registered with the Republican party have been given the option of choosing a declared candidate of that party. And, yes, if a write-in option were available for the final (top two) balloting, even also-ran R candidates like Duf Sundheim (7.8% in 2016) and James Bradley (8.3% in 2018) would have likely garnered double-digit vote shares in the would-be later stages.
There is a nontrivial chance that the party will be without a candidate for governor in the general election as well. Should Duke Rodriguez win the party primary election he could be removed from the ballot over the legal residency question afterwards – with apparently no way for such disqualified nominee to be replaced by the state party.
My surmise is that there have been fewer instances of general elections (since 1914) with one major party not having a nominee for state governor than US senator, proportionately as well as numerically.
Regarding your supposition (GOV vs. US SEN), I would guess you are correct (although the GOP made inroads in the Deep South later in state elections than federal, so there may be a discrepancy there). I need to see if I’ve collected that data on the GOV side to see what the difference is. Or, if not, that’s another project.
CA: 1) In 1936, 1940, and 1952 the Republican incumbents “cross-filed” for nominations of both major parties (depriving voters of a meaningful choice between the major parties). 2) In the 1946 by-election every candidate stood as a “write-in”, thus making its winner, William Fife Knowland, the first-ever write-in candidate elected to the US senate, nearly a decade prior to James Strom Thurmond. 3) In 2016 and 2018 no Republican aspirant managed to advance to the final balloting – but at least voters were given a choice, in contrast to the period when the “cross-filing” maneuver had been permitted.
“Since 2000…” Indeed, the exceptions since then have been in 2012, 2016, and 2018. By way of historical comparison, just as a number of Southern states had had no Republican candidates for US Senate for decades prior to changes in demographics and voting laws, a number of lightly populated states – NM and perhaps DE notwithstanding – seem likely not to have Democratic US Senate candidates, at least in the near future. For the party to avoid these repeated empty slots the perceived priorities of the national party arguably must change. Like it or not every State is accorded two seats regardless of population.
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