On December 5, Massachusetts held a special election for State Senate in the vacant Worcester & Middlesex seat. The election returns are incomplete, but it appears Republican nominee Dean Tran won. Also in the race were a Democrat (Susan Chalifoux-Zephir), an independent (Claire Freda), and a Green (Charlene DiCalogero). No one got a majority. See this story.
Last time this seat was up, in November 2016, the only candidate listed on the ballot was the Democratic incumbent, Jennifer Flanagan.
Neal Simon, CEO of Bronfman Rothschild, may run for the U.S. Senate as an independent next year in Maryland. See this story.
See here for more information about Simon.
On December 6, Joe Trillo said he will run for Governor of Rhode Island as an independent next year. He was a Republican state legislator from 2001 through 2016. See this story.
Pennsylvania makes it illegal for persons associated with legal gambling to make any campaign contributions to candidates for state or local office, or to political parties. They may not even make independent expenditures. On August 15, 2017, several potential donors filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the law. It is Deon v Barasch, m.d. 1:17cv-1454. The case has a management conference on December 20, 2017. It is before Judge Sylvia Rambo, a Carter appointee. Here is the amended complaint.
Greg Orman was an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in 2014, and he got 42.5% of the vote. There was no Democrat in that race. According to this story, he plans to run as an independent for Governor of Kansas in 2018.
On December 6, Russian president Vladimir Putin, 65, said he will run for re-election. He did not specify whether he would be the nominee of his own party, or whether he would be an independent candidate. See this New York Times story.