Primary Lessons

Primaries shape our politics more profoundly than we often notice.

If you have been paying any attention whatsoever to this year’s primary contests, you have probably noticed some of the drama. In the Texas GOP runoff for the US Senate, for example, the MAGA-coded and ethically-challenged candidate, Ken Paxton, defeated the more standard-issue Republican, John Cornyn, who was first elected to the seat in 2002. Or, perhaps you have noticed that Graham Platner, the winner of the Democratic primary for the US Senate in Maine, was revealed to have exchanged a number of sexually charged texts with women who were not his wife.

In terms of political consequences, both examples illustrate that the power to nominate candidates in the United States does not belong to the institutional party organizations, but to the primary voters in each state—which is a smaller subset of the general election voters in a given state, which is, in turn, a smaller subset of eligible voters in a state.

It is worth noting that this system has produced, in Texas, the candidate who is more vulnerable in the general election, and, in Maine, a candidate who was clearly not adequately vetted before he knocked out his competition.

To paraphrase an old saying, the proof of the nomination is in the winning (or losing), so the exact wisdom of these nominations will be judged in November. Still, they underscore the lack of thoughtful control of who a given party’s standard-bearer is. Indeed, should either candidate win, they will do more to help shape their respective parties than the established parties will shape them. …

Continue reading this article by Steven L. Taylor, “Primary Lessons,” here: https://www.liberalcurrents.com/primary-lessons/