Libertarian candidates for Iowa governor and lieutenant governor are asking a judge to overturn a state panel’s decision and allow them to appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
Gubernatorial candidate Nicholas Gluba and lieutenant governor candidate Jules Cutler filed the appeal June 23 in Polk County District Court. They argue the three-member State Objection Panel was wrong in its June 15 decision to deny them a place on the ballot.
The panel — comprised of Attorney General Brenna Bird, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, all Republicans — ruled unanimously that Gluba and Cutler did not qualify for the ballot because Cutler failed to submit an affidavit of candidacy by the June 2 deadline.
The panel also removed 3rd Congressional District candidate Marco Battaglia from the ballot because his nominating petitions did not match his legal name, Mark T. Andersen. Battaglia has said he will appeal but had not filed as of June 24.
The panel dismissed a challenge against 2nd District candidate Rick Stewart.
Gluba and Cutler’s inclusion or absence from the ballot could affect Iowa’s competitive governor’s race this fall, which includes Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand and Republican Zach Lahn. Election analysts at the Cook Political Report rate Iowa governor’s race as a toss-up.
“This isn’t complicated,” Gluba said in a statement. “We tried to submit all of our paperwork. The state’s own employee turned part of it away. Now the state is using that as the reason to remove us from the ballot. More than 8,000 Iowans signed our petitions, and they deserve to have their voices heard in November.”
Libertarians say they received incorrect guidance from Secretary of State’s Office
Gluba and Cutler say they relied on the advice of Dani Phillips, an elections specialist in the Secretary of State’s office who processed their paperwork.
Cutler said she tried to present her affidavit of candidacy to Phillips, but said Phillips told her it was “not needed.”
“Gluba and Cutler relied on the statements and official actions of an election official within the Secretary of State’s Office, in good-faith, that Cutler’s affidavit of candidacy was not required to be filed with the nomination papers for their joint candidacy by 5:00 pm on June 2, 2026,” they wrote in the appeal.
Phillips, however, testified to the panel that Cutler did not provide an affidavit of candidacy or ask if she was required to provide one.
The appeal argues that Phillips should have rejected Gluba and Cutler’s nomination papers if they failed to meet the law’s requirements, which would have given them a chance to correct the mistake before the deadline.
“It is no surprise that Gluba-Cutler relied upon Phillips accepting the nomination papers as she had the statutory duty to accept them if they were sufficient and to reject them if they were insufficient,” the appeal states.
Gluba and Cutler argue the failure to submit an affidavit should be excused because they were following Phillips’ advice and that the solution is to allow Cutler to file an affidavit of candidacy before the election.
Libertarian appeal raises issues with grounds for challenge
They also say the State Objection Panel had no authority to hear the challenge to Cutler’s missing affidavit under Iowa law.
Gluba and Cutler argue in the appeal that Iowa law allows for eligible voters to challenge a candidate’s nomination petitions, but they say the law does not apply to affidavits of candidacy.
“Under the unambiguous text of Iowa Code Section 44.4 and 45.4, objections cannot be made to a candidate’s affidavit of candidacy, nor can the Objection Panel legally sustain an objection to an affidavit of candidacy,” the appeal states.
The Libertarians also argue Pate should have recused himself from hearing the challenge to their candidacy, arguing that he “failed to train his election officials properly” and that he had a conflict of interest as Phillips’ boss.
The appeal also says Gov. Kim Reynolds should have replaced Sand on the Objection Panel as it considered the complaint against Gluba and Cutler.
Iowa law says objections “shall be considered by the secretary of state and auditor of state and attorney general, and a majority decision shall be final. However, if the objection is to the certificate of nomination of one or more of the above named officers … their places shall be filled, respectively, by the treasurer of state, the governor and the secretary of agriculture.”
Sand recused himself from hearing the challenge against Gluba and Cutler because he is running for governor, which the Libertarians said “was proper because he had a personal stake in the outcome.”
However, Naig, not Reynolds, replaced Sand on the panel for the hearing.
“The use of the term “respectively” in Iowa Code Section 44.6 means that, in the event of recusal, the State Treasurer replaces the Secretary of State, the Governor replaces the State Auditor, and the Secretary of Agriculture replaces the Attorney General,” the Libertarians wrote. “Therefore, once Auditor Sand recused himself, Gov. Reynolds was supposed to replace him.”
The appeal says the Secretary of State’s office responded to the Libertarians’ concern in a June 14 letter, saying, “‘the order of substitutes in § 44.6 does not apply in this circumstance … [and since] this is outside the scope of § 44.6, we lean on past practice in substituting the Secretary of Agriculture for the Auditor for this objection.'”
Lawsuit says Iowa law gives major parties an unfair advantage
Finally, the suit argues that the sections of Iowa law governing candidate nomination requirements are unconstitutional because they give major political parties an unfair advantage in selecting their nominees for governor and lieutenant governor.
“There is no legitimate or rational purpose for statute placing nonparty political organizations at a disadvantage in selecting their candidate for lieutenant governor compared to political parties,” the Libertarians wrote.
Iowa law allows candidates for governor running for the nomination of the Democratic and Republican parties to submit their nominating petitions without a lieutenant governor candidate. Their pick for lieutenant governor is then ratified at the state party’s convention following the primary election.
In contrast, organizations like the Libertarian Party, which do not qualify for major party status in Iowa, must name a governor and lieutenant governor candidate on their nominating petitions when they gather signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Libertarians also have the option of nominating candidates at a convention, rather than gathering signatures. But Republicans successfully removed three Libertarian congressional candidates from the ballot in 2024 after arguing they failed to follow the law governing nominations by convention.
“As there is no legitimate reason for treating party and nonparty political organizations differently, under any level of scrutiny, Iowa’s laws dictating the early selection requirement for lieutenant governor for nonparty political parties is unconstitutional on its face,” Gluba and Cutler argued.
Attorneys for the state had not submitted a response to Gluba and Cutler’s appeal as of 4 p.m. June 24.
A date to consider the case has not been set.
Stephen Gruber-Miller is the Capitol bureau chief for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com, by phone at 515-284-8169 or on X at @sgrubermiller.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Libertarians file lawsuit to get back on Iowa ballot for governor
Reporting by Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
