Bill —
The independent wave is building. This week, six key states held primaries that demonstrated, across the board, a growing tide of voters wanting more choice in their representatives.
Tuesday’s Independent Candidates
Forward has been fighting the conventional wisdom in American politics: “If you want to win, you have to pick a team.”
Well, voters are done with being handed two choices that no longer work for them. We are increasingly seeing candidates respond to that frustration by doing something the system has deliberately made difficult – running without a party label.
This cycle, independent candidates are qualifying for November ballots from Montana to South Dakota, to Iowa, and more. They come from different backgrounds, different ideologies, and different regions. What they share is a conviction that the people of their districts deserve a representative who answers to them, not a party.
Even more – in CA-06, the Democrats gerrymandered mid-cycle to try and gain more seats in Washington. Instead, voters are clear that they’ve had enough and an Independent is poised to win the top two primary.
California
California’s uses a nonpartisan Top Two primary system which allows every candidate — Democrat, Republican, independent — appears on the same ballot. The top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to November. Under this system, there is no “spoiler.” Top Two is one of the many reforms that Forward fights for nation-wide because they make our democracy better than it is today.
California’s June 2 primary was a strong test for independents (especially in a state with 30% “no party preference” voter registration). Under a partisan primary system, independent candidates have to wait until November. California’s Top Two system is different. It is, as Forward has long argued, what every state’s system should be: a fair fight, on one ballot, where voters choose who moves forward. Here’s how our candidates fared.
 Rep. Kevin Kiley
California — CA-06 |
Rep. Kevin Kiley did something remarkable this spring: he walked away from the Republican Party, choosing principle over party. After California’s Proposition 50 redrew his district into solidly Democratic territory, Kiley could have retired, switched parties, or found a safe Republican-leaning seat. Instead, he filed as “No Party Preference,” took the gerrymandering issue head-on, and made his case directly to voters. |
| With 53% of the district reporting Tuesday night, Kiley is leading all candidates in the Top Two primary with 26.8% of the vote. Final results are expected early next week.
These results are showing Kiley advancing to the November general election, making him the first sitting independent member of the House of Representatives to survive a primary in 2026. |
 Chris Demers
California — CA-18 |
Chris Demers entered the race as a No Party Preference candidate in a field that included both a major-party incumbent and challengers. Like many of our candidates, he isn’t a career politician. He embodies Forward’s values by wanting to provide something better for his community. |
| With 54.8% of the district reporting, the race has been called for Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Republican Shane Lewis.
Demers did not advance to November. But CA-18 is among the deepest Democratic districts in California – a seat that has never been seriously contested since Lofgren first won it. The fact that Chris Demers stood up, refused PAC money, and made the case for independent representation in one of the hardest possible environments is a step we are proud to see happen.
Every independent candidate that runs in a district like this makes the next one easier. We’re thankful for Chris Demers, and we hope he stays in the fight. |
 Karen Leigh Matthews
California — CA-23 |
Dr. Karen Leigh Matthews is a Navy veteran, physician, radiologist, and small business owner who spent more than 20 years serving in the military. She ran for Congress as an independent because she was tired of being “caught between a party that wants government to fail and a party that wants government to do everything.” That thinking, along with her resume, is something rare. |
| In CA-23, Karen outraised every Democratic challenger in the field. With Democratic support solidifying in the final days, the math narrowed her path to November and she fell short of advancing.
With 61.3% of the district reporting, the race was called for incumbent Rep. Jay Obernolte (R).
We are proud of Dr. Matthews and deeply grateful for her campaign. She showed what an independent candidate can look like when they’re built for the job, not the party. Her district missed out on an exceptional public servant. We hope she runs again. |
| Before an independent candidate can even compete, they have to fight just to get their name on the ballot. Here’s how Forward candidates made that happen in this cycle. |
Iowa
 Michael Bridgford
Iowa — IA-01 |
Michael Bridgford is running in a district where roughly one-third of voters aren’t registered with either major party. He officially filed his nomination petitions on June 1st, the day before the primary. He expects to pass the mark handily and qualify on to the ballot for November, we just need to wait for the Secretary of State to make it official. |
| The general election matchup: Incumbent Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) won her primary with 71.6% of the vote, while Christina Bohannon (D) won her primary with 81.5%. This will mark the third consecutive election in which these two candidates will face each other in the general. Iowa’s 1st District voters know both options. Bridgford offers a third — one that doesn’t arrive with three cycles of partisan theatrics. |
 Dave Bushaw
Iowa — IA-02 |
Dave Bushaw is going to qualify for November’s ballot even though Iowa’s legislature “moved the goalposts in the middle of the night,” according to Dave, by raising the signature threshold mid-cycle. His campaign knocked on more than 7,000 doors and found that 88% of the people they spoke with wanted to sign. On June 2nd, Bushaw officially filed his nomination petitions. His campaign achieved 200% of the required signatures in every single county in IA-02. |
| We are continuing to monitor official approval, as signature challenges can be filed through next week, but Dave should sail through to November.
The general election matchup: Democrat Lindsay James, Dubuque state representative and Presbyterian minister, won with just under 60%, and will face Trump-backed Republican Joe Mitchell, who won with 61.5%. Notably, Democratic primary turnout in IA-02 outpaced Republican turnout: roughly 47,900 Democratic votes to roughly 39,700 Republican votes. Cook Political Report rates the seat Likely Republican, R+4 PVI, but calls it “increasingly competitive.” |
Montana
 Seth Bodnar
Montana |
Seth Bodnar needed 13,327 verified signatures from registered voters statewide to qualify for the November general election ballot as an independent in Montana. He didn’t just meet the mark; he submitted nearly 30,000 signatures from 52 of Montana’s 56 counties, collecting nearly twice the required threshold through a volunteer-driven grassroots petition effort. His campaign has also outraised every Democrat and Republican in the race, demonstrating that independent candidacy paired with serious organization is no longer a longshot strategy. |
| Bodnar officially filed his signatures in late May. As of May 29th, counties have accepted enough verified signatures to put Bodnar on the ballot.
The general election matchup: Kurt Alme (R) won his primary with 76.2% of the vote, while Alani Bankhead (D) won her primary with 43.8% of the vote. |
South Dakota
 Brian Bengs
South Dakota — U.S. Senate |
Brian Bengs is running for U.S. Senate in South Dakota with a grassroots campaign built on small-dollar donors. To qualify for the ballot as an independent in South Dakota, Bengs needed 3,502 valid signatures. He submitted more than 4,500 — and his petition was certified by the Secretary of State with a 93.85% validity rate, the highest of any statewide candidate in South Dakota this election season. That’s better than both the Republican and Democratic candidates. The campaign called it “a testament to the strength of this movement.” We agree. |
| He submitted his signatures in April and is officially on the November 3rd general election ballot, certified by the South Dakota Secretary of State.
The general election matchup: Incumbent Mike Rounds (R) won his primary with 75.8% of the vote, while Julian Beaudion (D) advanced unchallenged. |
| These aren’t isolated data points. They are a trajectory. The independent political infrastructure – from the fundraising networks to the organizing capacity to the legal teams who know how to fight ballot challenges – is being built right now by the candidates and movements that keep showing up. Every campaign that plants a flag makes the next one possible. |
Forward Progress
It would be easy to look at Tuesday’s results and just count votes. However, the snapshot is bigger than any individual race. It is about a country that is waking up to the fact that the two-party system is not delivering for the people it’s supposed to serve.
We don’t just believe America can do better, we are actively building the infrastructure, recruiting the candidates, and making the case that voters deserve more than two choices handed to them by institutions that have long since stopped listening. Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, California, Washington, Minnesota, Maine, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and Nebraska are all seeing independent candidates qualify for ballots and create excitement. The movement is growing.
November is five months away. The work continues. And so does our question, How can we build a just and fair government that truly represents Americans?
One primary at a time. One candidate at a time. One voter at a time.
Please forward this to your friends, family, and coworkers. It helps us introduce them to Forward and to what we are building. Also consider inviting them to one of our upcoming events listed below. We’d love to meet them. |
The good news is that pessimism is not destiny.
Tobias Read
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and President of the Oregon Association of County Clerks (OACC) Dag Robinson are joining Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read for a virtual town hall about elections & voting TODAY, May 11, at 3:15 p.m. The event will be moderated by Sandy Chung, Executive Director of the ACLU of Oregon.
Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, State Representative Rob Nosse, and State Representative Willy Chotzen will hold a community town hall on Friday, May 8 in Portland for a conversation about voting, election integrity, and recent activity in Salem and Washington D.C.
A former presidential candidate came to the New Mexico state Capitol on Friday to announce a new home for voters who are tired of the strife between Republicans and Democrats. “Politics in the state will never be the same,” Andrew Yang proclaimed to about two dozen people at a news conference where he announced the arrival of the Forward Party.
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By now, it is clear that the 2026 midterms are unlike any we have seen in recent memory. The scale of spending, the intensity of coordination, and the precision of messaging all suggest a high-stakes contest—but the full story goes deeper than individual candidates or party control.
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