May 9 is the application submission deadline for an individual to appear on the presidential ballot in the state of Texas.
Earlier today, the Texas Secretary of State’s office told MRCTV that no candidate has submitted an application to run as an Independent at this point.
This is significant because Texas has the earliest submission deadline of any state, and a conservative third-party candidate would be unlikely to win the presidency without winning the state’s 38 electoral votes.
Speculation has increased in recent weeks as to whether a serious third-party candidate would emerge to challenge presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger in the November elections, particularly given the highly unfavorable views that a majority of Americans have of Trump and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
One name that was floated as a possible third-party candidate at a meeting of conservative activists held last March was that of Former Texas Governor Rick Perry.
According to the Texas Secretary of State’s website, the process for a candidate to qualify to appear on the Texas ballot is as follows:
“The application must be submitted with a petition, and both documents must be filed no later than May 9, 2016. The petitions can be circulated beginning after March 1, 2016. For 2016, the petition must contain 79,939 signatures of registered voters who did not vote in the presidential primary of either party.”
Additionally, a candidate would have had to abstain from voting in one of the state's primaries because doing so would declare themselves as either a Democrat or Republican.
As it turns out, Governor Perry, did not cast a ballot in the Texas GOP primary contest on March 1. This, despite his endorsement of Sen.Ted Cruz, who eventually went on to win the state's primary contest. This led to speculation among some that he was leaving his options open to mount a third-party challenge against the major party candidates.
Perry insists that he mailed in his ballot, although there is no evidence to suggest that this is true.
Fayette County Elections Administrator Dina Bell confirmed that Perry requested a mail-in ballot for the March 1 Republican primary and one was given to him on Feb. 1. Bell recalled that Perry showed up in person to acquire the ballot, but that her office never received the completed ballot.
As a three-term governor of the Lone Star State, Perry would likely have had little trouble collecting the signatures required to get his name on the ballot. But with only four days left before the May 9 deadline, it appears unlikely that he is interested in pursuing an independent bid.