April 22, 2026 – The United States Transhumanist Party (USTP) has endorsed two additional candidates for office during the 2026 election season: Pete Karas, who is running as a Green Party candidate for Secretary of State in Wisconsin, and Blase Henry, who is running as an independent candidate to become one of the two Representatives for Arizona’s Legislative District 17. This brings the number of currently active candidates endorsed by the U.S. Transhumanist Party to five – the largest number of candidates that the USTP has ever endorsed during a single election season.

Endorsement of Pete Karas

During April 15-19, 2026, the U.S. Transhumanist Party held a vote of its members on the question of endorsing Pete Karas, who is officially running as a Green Party candidate in the State of Wisconsin and is seeking broad support from multiple minor political parties for his campaign to challenge the two-party duopoly.

The vote results showed considerable support for Pete Karas’s candidacy among USTP members. Of the 43 members who cast their votes, 37, or 86.0%, voted in favor of endorsing Pete Karas. 2 members (4.7%) voted in opposition, and 4 members (9.3%) voted to abstain.

Upon learning of the results of the endorsement vote, Pete Karas commented, “I’m honored to receive the endorsement of the Transhumanist Party, whose values align closely with our campaign’s mission. We’re running a unity campaign focused on the failures of the two-party system and opening the door for genuine third-party representation. Our goal is to empower voters to feel confident choosing third-party candidates and to advocate for legislation that removes the structural barriers holding minor parties back. Together with the Transhumanist Party, we’re building the multi-party democracy Wisconsin deserves.”

On April 19, 2026, at a meeting of the Pirate National Committee, the United States Pirate Party, the USTP’s partner organization in the All Hands for a Free Future political coalition, also endorsed Pete Karas’s candidacy, adding Pete Karas to the candidates who are jointly endorsed by All Hands for a Free Future.

On March 29, 2026, Pete Karas was the guest of honor at the USTP Virtual Enlightenment Salon, where he discussed his campaign and key ideas, as well as areas of alignment with the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform. Throughout the conversation, Pete Karas discussed his platform, which emphasizes transparency, the modernization of government systems, and leveraging technology to improve democratic participation. He highlighted his opposition to the two-party system, advocating for electoral reforms like ranked-choice voting and fairer ballot access to empower independent and third-party candidates. The panel also explored broader political topics, including the challenges of media polarization and the potential for utilizing digital tools to enhance civic engagement and public access to information.

“Pete Karas has arrived at a promising approach to challenging the duopoly’s dominance in Wisconsin,” commented U.S. Transhumanist Party Chairman Gennady Stolyarov II. “By running for a position without many major duties, he may convince enough voters who are frustrated with the two-party system that it is safe to take a chance on a candidate who is outside of the duopoly. While the Secretary of State position in Wisconsin only involves a few specified duties, it would also provide Pete Karas with visibility and enable him to articulate the case for the importance of genuine political choice to a broader audience.”

Pete Karas’s campaign website can be found at https://petekaras.com/.

Endorsement of Blase Henry

Blase Henry is the Scribe of the United States Pirate Party and the Captain of the Arizona Pirate Party. He announced his campaign for the 17^th Legislative District in Arizona on August 14, 2025, and was endorsed by the U.S. Pirate Party at that time. On September 4, 2025, the U.S. Transhumanist Party entered into the All Hands for a Free Future political coalition with the U.S. Pirate Party and thereafter began an effort to realize one of the key benefits envisioned as part of the coalition – a cross-endorsement process that would enable the two parties to easily endorse one another’s candidates. After reaching Blase Henry, the U.S. Transhumanist Party learned that, despite a diligent effort, he was unable to meet the threshold for petition signatures for ballot access in Arizona, due to an arbitrary change in that threshold, as well as a two-week shortening of the time window for gathering the signatures, enacted when the campaign season was already underway. Despite this, Blase Henry undertook a valiant effort, personally gathered 333 petition signatures, and was undeterred by the barriers imposed by the duopoly, resolving to continue with a write-in campaign in the coming months.

On April 19, 2026, the U.S. Transhumanist Party held a Virtual Enlightenment Salon with Blase Henry. The Salon explored Blase Henry’s grassroots political work, the challenges of ballot access in a system where the duopoly sets the rules and is able to change them, and the importance of building community-focused political parties.  The panel engaged in a robust exchange regarding key policy issues such as copyright reform, the necessity of a Digital Bill of Rights, police reform, and the environmental implications of AI data centers in drought-prone regions. Additionally, the conversation touched on the philosophical aspects of AI sentience and personhood, ultimately highlighting a shared commitment to civil liberties and the principle that piracy is not theft if current systems of intellectual property deny consumers actual ownership.

During the course of the Virtual Enlightenment Salon, Blase Henry accepted the USTP’s endorsement.  “Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity. I will not waste it. I will not take it for granted,” he remarked.

“Captain Blase Henry deserves our support for maintaining a principled, service-oriented approach to his candidacy rather than focusing solely on winning,” stated U.S. Transhumanist Party Chairman Gennady Stolyarov II. “The people of Arizona need his voice and his thoughtful approach to policy in order to understand that alternatives to the duopoly exist and that casting one’s vote for a candidate such as Blase Henry and engaging with his ideas in conversation are both realistic ways to improve the political discourse and the outcomes of the political process. Blase Henry is a capable advocate for individual rights, privacy, governmental transparency, and sensible reforms to the many overreaches of today’s intellectual property system in the United States. We are proud to add him to our endorsed candidates.”

Blase Henry’s campaign website can be found at https://blasehenryforarizona.com/.

Five Total Candidates Endorsed for 2026

The endorsements of Pete Karas and Blase Henry bring the total number of candidates endorsed by the U.S. Transhumanist Party for the 2026 midterm elections to five. This is the largest number of candidates ever endorsed by the USTP for any election season.

The USTP’s current endorsed candidates are the following:

– Timothy Grady, Independent Candidate for Governor of Ohio (Endorsed September 4, 2025)
– Hunter Rand, Nonpartisan Candidate for Sparks City Council, Ward 2, Sparks, Nevada (Endorsed January 19, 2026)
– Drew Bingaman, Independent Candidate for Pennsylvania State House, 108^th District (Endorsed April 6, 2026)
– Blase Henry, Independent Candidate for the 17^th Legislative District in Arizona (Endorsed April 19, 2026)
– Pete Karas, Green Party Candidate for Secretary of State in Wisconsin (Endorsed April 20, 2026)

All five of these candidates have also been endorsed by the U.S. Pirate Party and thus are candidates endorsed by the All Hands for a Free Future political coalition. Zoltan Istvan, who was previously endorsed by the U.S. Transhumanist Party for Governor of California in September 2025, suspended his campaign on February 24, 2026.

“It is a sign of noteworthy progress that the U.S. Transhumanist Party now endorses more candidates than it has ever done at a given time,” Chairman Stolyarov observed. “While the day-to-day grind may obscure how much we have achieved over the years, the results are indeed beginning to speak for themselves. In collaboration with our partners in the U.S. Pirate Party, we are expanding the reach of our organizations and ideas, finding capable and conscientious candidates throughout the country who express a commitment to thoughtful, policy-oriented discourse and the improvement of the human condition. Moreover, even in the very process of thoroughly discussing ideas with these candidates during our Virtual Enlightenment Salons, we cultivate the very kind of policy discourse that we believe needs to permeate the U.S. political system and replace the mainstream politics of mudslinging, polarization, and character assassination. If any of these five candidates – who have each conducted themselves impeccably – can get elected, then the transhumanist vision of humanity’s future will have some strong allies in office.”