Update: 15 September 2020
Victory! Today the Texas Supreme Court ruled that GPTX' three candidates must be returned to the ballot. We applaud the court for this result in favor of equal treatment & voter choice!
Update: 20 August 2020
Texas Secretary of State - Elections Division
Texas Attorney General
Relevant State & Federal Jurisdictions
To whom it may concern,
Pursuant to an opinion issued by the 3rd Court of Appeals yesterday, August 19, the Green Party of Texas is compelled to inform you that our party's nominees, David Collins, Tom Wakely, and katija gruene, are judged ineligible and must not be certified or appear on the 2020 General Election ballot. This communication is in compliance with that directive.
GPTX has always been forthright with the SOS, which certainly knows which candidates paid fees and which did not, and with the public, in the posting of candidate information on our website. We feel that applying HB2504 to only these candidates, while certifying other candidates that also did not pay the fee, opens serious questions about equal treatment. GPTX believes SOS has an interest in administering the law fairly, so we BEG the SOS to defend the equal treatment of candidates and voter rights in the matters to which it is a party. We encourage the SOS to accede to the injunctive relief regarding the fees so that the law may be applied equally to all candidates who did not pay the fee without depriving voters of choices. GPTX prays that SOS, as a non-partisan government office, will defend our voter's rights to not be selectively targeted for deprivation of ballot access by asymmetrical partisan interests.
GPTX fails to understand how the comparatively minor interest of candidates facing a challenger who may not have paid a filing fee, exceeds the collective interest of voters to have choices on the ballot. We continue to believe that the imposition of the fee is an unconstitutional barrier to ballot access that privileges the rights of money over voter rights, but we recognize that we must abide by the state's implementation of the electoral code.
Sincerely,
Laura Palmer
GPTX co-chair
David B. Collins, 2020 GPTX nominee for US Senate
On 18 April 2020, the Green Party of Texas Convention confirmed GPTX candidate nominations to the general election ballot. There are now seven nominees in total, two of whom are participating in statewide races. They join the Green Party US presidential ticket of Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker.
Statewide Nominees
- David B. Collins (Harris County), US Senate: Web | Twitter | Facebook
- katija gruene (Travis County), Texas Railroad Commission: Twitter | Facebook
HB 2504, passed and signed in 2019, specifies that convention-nominating parties such as the Greens can retain ballot access for 10 years by earning 2% of the vote in a statewide race. If either of these two, or the Green presidential ticket, should garner a 2% share of the vote, that guarantees GPTX ballot access through 2030.
Tom Wakely, 2020 Green nominee for US House from Texas's 21st District
Below is a list of the other candidates nominated for non-statewide offices. Names of candidates who paid the newly imposed filing fees (HB 2504 again), appear in italics.
US House
Texas Legislature
- Julián Villarreal (Bexar), SD-26: Twitter
- Brody-Andrew Mulligan (Tarrant), HD-92: Web | Twitter
- Antonio Padron (Bexar), HD-119 Twitter
The outcome of a pending lawsuit against the Texas Secretary of State's Office will determine whether all seven GPTX nominees will appear on Texas ballots. Neither of the statewide nominees paid filing fee, nor did either of them submit the requisite petition signatures in lieu of the fee.