Multiple contextual filters using or statements
In case anyone wants to know, I was able to accomplish this with some views hooks and will share my solution.

First you need to register view api information

/**
 * Implements hook_views_api().
 */
function mymodule_views_api() {
  return array(
    'api' =&gt; 3, 
  );
}


Then you need to alter the view at pre build to include the "Global" term. I am using entity query to determine if there is any content with the Global term. If so I am adding that term as an argument.

/**
 * Implements hook_views_pre_build().
 */
function mymodule_views_pre_build(&amp;$view) {
  // we were getting no results if the tid of the Global term was not 1
  // in some build instances it is not so we need to ensure that the default
  // value being passed is the actual tid of the Global term.
  if (($view-&gt;name == 'badge' || $view-&gt;name == 'promo_box' || $view-&gt;name == 'article'|| $view-&gt;name == 'tips') &amp;&amp; $view-&gt;current_display == 'block') {
    $vocabulary = taxonomy_vocabulary_machine_name_load('site_section');

    $entityQuery = new EntityFieldQuery;
    $entityQuery-&gt;entityCondition('entity_type', 'taxonomy_term')
      -&gt;propertyCondition('name', 'Global')
      -&gt;propertyCondition('vid', $vocabulary-&gt;vid)
      -&gt;range(0 ,1);

    $result = $entityQuery-&gt;execute();

    if ($result) {
      $term = array_slice($result['taxonomy_term'], 0);   
      $view-&gt;argument['tid_1']-&gt;options['default_argument_options']['argument'] = $term[0]-&gt;tid;
    }
  }
}


And finally you need to switch the where statement to and or

/**
 * Implements hook_views_query_alter().
 */
function mymodule_views_query_alter(&amp;$view, &amp;$query) {
  //  Let's find out if we are attempting to load either the badge or promo box
  //  view. If so we need to alter the where clause to include an or statement
  //  in the conditional filter to also look for the global term in the site secttion
  //  taxonomy. I was not able to find a way to create an OR condition filter via a 
  //  module so for now this is the best to do it.
  if (($view-&gt;name == 'badge' || $view-&gt;name == 'promo_box' || $view-&gt;name == 'article'|| $view-&gt;name == 'tips') &amp;&amp; $view-&gt;current_display == 'block') {
    if (isset($query-&gt;where[0]) &amp;&amp; isset($query-&gt;where[1])) {
      $query-&gt;where[0]['type'] = 'OR';  
    }
  }
}