Texas Attorney General Refuses to Defend His State’s Open Primary

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking the extraordinary step of refusing to defend the state’s election laws and the Texas secretary of state in a federal lawsuit filed by his own political party and encouraging the state SOS Jane Nelson to follow his lead.  

The lawsuit, filed last month in the U.S. District Court in Amarillo, seeks to end Texas’s long-standing combination of nonpartisan voter registration and open primaries which allows all registered voters, including independents, to participate in either party’s primary with a completely closed primary system.

As a result, the SOS has hired private counsel to defend the suit. Open Primaries and our legal partners have reached out to her, and she assures us she will be vigorously defending the suit. We’ll be staying in close touch with them as the case progresses.

Meanwhile, in a feature piece for the Austin-American Statesman, OP SVP Jeremy Gruber warns voters in the Lone Star State that adopting a New York style closed primary would be a serious mistake.  

As he cautions:

The Independent Exodus

For years, the media has characterized independent voters as “party leaners” or apathetic fence-sitters too lazy to “pick a team.” Yet every day, thousands of Americans continue to become independent voters; now the largest and fastest growing group of voters in the country. And independents are making noise, expressing their concern about being locked out of primary elections, running for office, and building new organizations and initiatives.  All of which is to say they’re getting much harder to ignore. Enter CNN. With great fanfare, they released a “new and improved” taxonomic understanding of independents this past week, which, on the surface, seems to take independent voters more seriously and breaks them down into five distinct groups.

But as Open Primaries President John Opdycke declares in a new editorial, CNN is just perpetuating old attitudes and mythologies about independent voters in new packaging.

As he concludes:

The Constitutionality of Closed Primaries Is One Big Step Closer to the Supreme Court

This week the Supreme Court denied cert in the case of Polelle v.Byrd; a case challenging Florida’s closed primary in the federal courts.  It was not an unexpected outcome. The Court only grants cert to roughly a hundred of the close to 10,000 cert petitions it receives each year and often denies cert to allow more lower courts to weigh in on an issue.

The Pollele case has broken significant new ground, including a very important win on standing, that will propel primary reform litigation to an all new level. OP SVP Jeremy Gruber, who leads our litigation team, breaks down in IVN all the ways this case represents a major step forward in the fight to win open primaries in court. As he notes:

Check out his piece here.

And if you want to hear more, join our virtual discussion at 2:30pm today where Gruber and several of the attorneys leading primary reform litigation across the country will discuss the fight for open primaries in court.

Senator Joe Manchin

Former West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin released his memoir, Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense last month, and he’s been barnstorming the country ever since to talk about the book’s key themes of the need for common sense and bipartisanship in today's highly polarized political landscape. It’s an important book and we encourage you to read it. 

In it, he describes his political stance as representing a "sensible majority" of Americans who are tired of partisan extremes and gridlock. And as the Senator sees it, a key engine for reform needs to be open primaries. Check him out on CNN’s Smerconish explaining why:

Poll Finding Florida independents and Democrats Strongly in Favor of the Democratic Party Opening its Primary is Blowing Up in the Media

As we reported last week, a new poll of Florida independents and Democrats by Florida Open Primaries in conjunction with Open Primaries and our Let Us Vote campaign has found overwhelming support in the Sunshine State for the state Democratic Party to open its primary; a move that party leaders have announced they’re contemplating. 

The poll has been grabbing headlines all week with over a half dozen outlets across the state covering it as well as national coverage on Yahoo. Check out this great piece from Mitch Perry of the Florida Phoenix. 

More and more journalists are reaching out to state Democratic Party leaders for comment, and Florida Open Primaries is organizing a statewide pressure campaign. Click here to learn more and get involved.

Kentucky Independents Reach Out

Kentucky independent leader Mark Ritter has been hitting high schools across the state to talk about closed primaries. He’s organizing a new generation of Kentucky voters-over half of whom are registering independent- on the need for reform.

Stay tuned for new developments coming out of Kentucky as Open Primaries Let Us Vote campaign takes root in the Bluegrass state.

Oklahoma Campaign Is On A Roll

Meanwhile, the Yes on 836 campaign for top two open primaries is preparing to begin gathering signatures to get on the 2026 ballot starting October 29th after the state SOS has officially assigned a start date. They only have a 90 day window to do it, but campaign leaders are unfazed:

Open Primaries has been a staunch partner of the campaign from its inception. You can support the campaign HERE and we’ll keep you updated on its progress.

Open Primaries is growing and we’re excited to announce two new staff joining our team.

Our New National Organizer:  Bree Doldron

Our New Digital Communications Director:  Jesse Shayne

Please join us in welcoming Bree and Jesse!

Have a great weekend,

The Open Primaries Team