The Primary Solution

Hello, I hope that your week is going great.  If you have friends in Michigan tell them to vote for Dean Phillips in the Democratic Primary tomorrow! 

This week on the podcast I interview Nick Troiano, the Executive Director of Unite America and author of the brand new book, “The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes.” 

At this point most Americans are probably frustrated with the choices the party primary system is delivering us at the presidential level – less than one percent of Americans have voted, and yet they tell us it's already over.  While that’s an extreme example, the same thing applies to Congressional races around the country. 

“Only 8% of Americans effectively select 83% of our members of Congress and that influences everything in our politics and policies,” Nick writes.  “Abolishing partisan primaries is the single most important thing we can do to improve representation in our government and hold it accountable for better results.” 

This isn’t widely known.  “If you ask voters, most – 72% - say that the problem is our politicians.  We have the wrong, corrupt people in charge.  Only 2% of Americans think that the primaries are the problem.  That’s why I wrote this book, because the primaries are the core mechanism that distorts our politics and makes it so that solving problems is punished, not rewarded.”  Nick’s book details the history of primaries, which originated 100 years ago in their current form and have been changed several times, but have now become immensely unrepresentative. 

Nick learned this the hard way by running for Congress in Pennsylvania as an Independent. “More extreme and ideological voters tend to show up, and candidates respond to them.  It changes everything.”  That was ten years ago, and it's only gotten worse. 

Nick went on to run Unite America, an organization meant to remedy the incentives in the system.  Unite America was one of the key drivers behind Alaska getting rid of its party primaries in 2020, a change that immediately improved governance and representation in the state 2 years later.  Getting rid of the primaries led Sarah Palin to lose her Congressional race and Lisa Murkowski to win her Senate race despite voting to impeach Donald Trump.  Now, there is pressure within Alaska to reverse these changes by those who are displeased with these results. 

“We have to keep moving forward, and that involves defending progress in some places while breaking new ground.  There’s more energy in this movement than I’ve ever seen,” Nick says.  As many as 7 states – Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, Montana, Idaho and South Dakota – may consider changing their primary process in 2024 to weaken the dominance of the fringes.  Imagine another 6, 8 or 10 Senators and even more members of Congress who could do the right thing without fear of getting primaried and punished?  “The path is opening up.  The main question is whether we get there too late.” 

To get a copy of Nick’s book click here.  For my interview of him click here.  To check out Forward to help make these ballot initiatives successful around the country click here.  We have some big opportunities in ’24!