North Texas Daily

Bryce Goodman quietly withdrew from the race for US Congressional District TX-26 with no official announcement on his campaign Facebook page or his now defunct, he told the Daily.

Goodman, who announced his candidacy as an Independent in April, said a lack of signatures and a new job were the main factors causing him to drop out of the race.

“When I started this, I was working with someone and then we got a couple people together to work on everything,” Goodman said. “[when] personal stuff came up, the group kind of splintered and rather than trying to revamp and get more people into it, I figured ‘I got a new job ‑ stuff coming up ‑ I might as well focus on those rather than trying to rebuild the ship right before it sinks.’”

Credit: Lizzy Spangler

Goodman filed his Declaration of Intent to Run as An Independent candidate with the Texas Secretary of State’s office in December 2017 and ran. However, he was not able to obtain the 500 signatures needed by the June 21 deadline that would allow his name to appear on the ballot in November.

What made the process difficult for Goodman was that the only people who were able to sign the petition “must be registered voters who have not participated in the general primary election or the runoff primary election of a party that has nominated, at either election, a candidate for the office you seek,” according to the Texas Secretary of State’s office.

Goodman has no plans of running for office in the future.

Linsey Fagan, the Democratic nominee for TX-26, talked about the difficulties of gaining signatures.

“I got on the ballot with signatures and it was incredibly hard,” Fagan said through Facebook Messenger. “We turned in 1,400 and we put our blood, sweat and tears into getting them. It took us eight months.”

Fagan said she is focused on her race and less on what other candidates are doing or saying.

Shane Warren, a political science sophomore and vice president of the UNT College Democrats, said through Twitter he was not surprised Goodman did not get enough signatures.

“He announced his run after the primaries ended, and people who already voted in primaries aren’t allowed to sign a petition to get an independent candidate on the ballot,” Warren said through Twitter. “This is important because many people who already knew Bryce through local Democratic organizations were naturally more likely to vote in the primary.”

Warren, while opposed to Goodman’s run when he announced, said he thinks an Independent challenge can be a good thing.

“I believe anybody who bases their Independent campaign on a complete rejection of the two-party system should do so as soon as primary season starts so that people who are used to voting for one party or the other can have some time to hear their case and compare it to the candidates in the major parties,” Warren said.

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