One thing’s for sure about the general election in Tennessee next November: Neither Donald Trump nor Ben Carson will be running as an independent candidate for president.
State election officials finalized the ballot Thursday for the presidential primary on March 1, and with it is the provision that whatever party you’re running on in the primary is the one you’re stuck with for the general election.
“We have what’s commonly referred to as a ‘sore loser’ provision,” Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett told WPLN in Nashville. “Anybody that’s on the ballot will not be eligible to run under any other banner.”
Both Trump and Carson have made noises about running as independents if they don’t win the Republican nomination. Trump said during this week’s CNN Republican debate that he wouldn’t run as an independent, but Carson demurred. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., who has appealed to Democratic voters who aren’t comfortable with ethically challenged Hillary Clinton, also has ruled out a third-party try.
The high-stakes states of Ohio and Michigan, plus South Carolina, have similar rules in which those candidates who lose in the primary can’t turn around and make runs as independents.