Daily Brew: September 5, 2025
Welcome to the Friday, Sept. 5, Brew.
By: Briana Ryan
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Thirty-eight states have confirmed dates for their 2026 statewide primaries
- School boards, conflict, and student achievement — takeaways from our Virtual School Board Listening Tour, by Leslie Graves, Ballotpedia Founder and CEO
- The number of certified statewide ballot measures for 2025 is trending in line with the odd-year average, while 2026 is trending above the even-year average
Thirty-eight states have confirmed dates for their 2026 statewide primaries
Thirty-eight states, Guam, and the District of Columbia have confirmed the dates of their 2026 statewide primaries. Thirty of the 38 states have published materials confirming filing deadlines for primary candidates.
So far, Wisconsin has confirmed the earliest primary date, Feb. 17. Louisiana will hold the first round of its majority-vote system elections on Nov. 3 to close out the 2026 primaries. In 2024, the last even-year election, Alabama, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, and Texas all shared the earliest 2024 statewide primary date—March 5—due to presidential primaries. The first round of Louisiana's 2024 statewide election happened on Nov. 5.
States with notable changes in primary dates from 2024 to 2026 include Alabama, Maryland, and Ohio, all of which have later primaries this year than in 2024. Alabama had the largest change between 2024 and 2026, moving its primary election from March 5 in 2024 to May 19 in 2026.
In 2024, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) signed HB17 into law. The bill created closed partisan primaries and primary runoffs for the U.S. Congress, the state Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Louisiana Public Service Commission, and the Louisiana Supreme Court beginning in 2026. This year, the state will hold an April 18 party primary and a May 30 party primary runoff election for these offices. Previously, candidates running for state or federal office appeared on the same ballot in November of even-numbered years, regardless of their partisan affiliations.
Candidates must meet various state-specific filing requirements and deadlines to run for office. These regulations, known as ballot access laws, may include collecting petition signatures, paying filing fees, or both.
The earliest confirmed filing deadline for the 2026 election cycle is in Illinois on Nov. 3, 2025, and the latest is in Delaware on July 15, 2026. Tennessee has the longest time between a filing deadline and a statewide primary, 149 days, and Delaware has the shortest, 63 days. The median number of days between filing deadlines and primary dates is 88.
The earliest filing deadlines for the 2024 election cycle were in November 2023, with Alabama on Nov. 10 and Arkansas on Nov. 14. The latest filing deadlines were in September 2024, with Delaware and North Dakota on Sept. 3. The median number of days between filing deadlines and primary dates was 88, the same as this year.
Click here to read more about 2026 election dates.
School boards, conflict, and student achievement — takeaways from our Virtual School Board Listening Tour
Daily Brew readers will have read about the release of Ballotpedia’s findings from a year-long project we call the Virtual School Board Listening Tour.
Our interviews with 100 school board members from across the country provided us with invaluable insights into how school boards work and the challenges they and their colleagues face.
In this column, I want to expand on two important takeaways from these interviews: how school boards handle conflict and their role in measuring and promoting student achievement.
One of the most striking findings from our interviews is that conflict is a pervasive issue within school boards. Conflict often arises from everyday decisions rather than the high-profile controversies that many of us may remember from COVID-era school closures or more recent culture war flashpoints.
For example, discussions about budget cuts can lead to disagreements over which programs to eliminate, be it foreign language instruction in high school or the music program in elementary schools. Debates over issues like this can quickly escalate into significant conflicts that have lasting effects on board relationships and the ability to function properly.
The ability of school boards to resolve conflicts varies widely. In simple terms, the boards fall into three groups:
- Engaged Boards: Members have the ability to move past conflicts and stay focused on improving student outcomes.
- Stuck Boards: Members of this sort of board find themselves mired in ongoing conflicts, struggling to make progress.
- Detached and Passive Boards: This was an interesting finding. A notable percentage of board members said the conflicts they’ve faced left them with a sense of resignation and a feeling that they have little power to change things. This kind of detachment can lead to a lack of engagement. Board members continue to serve, but they are largely just going through the motions.
Another interesting finding from our interviews is that, contrary to what many people might think about school board conflicts, they are largely independent of political ideology.
While board members may have differing philosophical views on specific issues, how they react to conflict and their flexibility in handling disagreements play a far bigger role in which of the three groups listed above a board falls into.
In other words, a collaborative environment where board members can effectively engage with one another, regardless of their political beliefs, appears to be a bigger factor in board dynamics and more important than the beliefs themselves.
Another major takeaway was the difficulty school boards face in assessing how students are learning — what we might otherwise call student achievement.
Many board members told us they were frustrated because they lacked access to clear and comprehensive data on how well kids were learning. Board members need to know what works and what doesn’t in the classroom so they can make informed decisions on curricula, staffing, and more.
The year-long series of discussions we had with school board members opened our eyes in several ways. We learned that conflicts are a routine, but generally aren’t on the headline-driving topics we find in other parts of our political life.
In many ways, what we learned from our interviews is that the relations between school board members are a lot like the relationships we have with people in our own lives.
Some of us can get past the conflict and return to where we want to be in that relationship. Yes, we argue. But the occasional argument doesn’t destroy our overall relationship.
And some of us struggle with that. We may lack the skills to get beyond the argument, so the hard feelings linger, eventually undermining the entire relationship.
And that turns out to be true on school boards, too.
The number of certified statewide ballot measures for 2025 is trending in line with the odd-year average, while 2026 is trending above the even-year average
The California Legislature voted to put a redistricting amendment to the Nov. 4 ballot—bringing the nationwide total number of certified statewide ballot measures for 2025 to 30. That's equal to the average for odd-year elections since 2011.
On Aug. 21, the California Legislature voted to put Proposition 50 on the ballot. The measure would allow the state to use a new congressional map for 2026 through 2030, if another state adopts a new map first.
The Texas Legislature approved a new congressional map on Aug. 22, and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed it on Aug. 29. Click here to read more about congressional redistricting efforts before the 2026 elections.
Proposition 50 is the first statewide measure in California to appear during an odd-year election since 2005, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) called a special election that included Proposition 77. That measure would have transferred the duty of redistricting from the Legislature to a panel of three retired judges. Voters defeated the measure 60% to 40%.
Fifty-five measures have been certified for the 2026 ballot in 28 states. That's eight more than the average of 47 for this point in an even-year election since 2010.
Eight of those measures are initiatives, and state legislatures put the other 47 on the ballot. Two other measures in Michigan and Missouri are automatic ballot referrals, which must appear on the ballot at certain intervals. An average of 53 initiatives and 108 referred measures were on the ballot during even-year elections between 2010 and 2024.
The following heatmap shows the monthly number of statewide ballot measures certified from 2012 to 2026, grouped by two-year election cycles leading to even-year general elections. Each row includes certifications from both the odd- and even-years in that cycle, highlighting how active each month tends to be. The bottom row displays the monthly averages across all years.
Click here for a deep dive into the measures certified for the 2026 ballot. You can also check out certifications for the 2025 ballot here.
