2025 has been the biggest year yet for Open Primaries and the primary reform movement. Last week, we celebrated our big win passing legislation to open the primaries in New Mexico, the launch of the Let Us Vote campaign championing independents and all its accomplishments (including a big foot forward in NYC), and all the critical leaders-from Senator Joe Manchin to Maryland Delegate Lily Qi -who stood up and championed reform.

The hardest part of developing part two of our special highlights series has been deciding what not to include. This week’s highlights focus on innovation and leadership, as Open Primaries broke new ground across multiple fronts.

Until this year, the political reform movement wasn't going to court. That’s despite the fact that litigation has been a key component of every change movement in American history. 

Open Primaries set out to change that, because that’s what we do. When no one thought you could pass primary reform through a state legislature, we passed open primaries in Maine with zero national partners.

So we spent years developing new legal analysis-read our groundbreaking law review here. We built relationships with attorneys across the country. We initiated early stage legal challenges. And this year, we launched a new first-of-its-kind litigation platform. Now you can find all the background and up to date case information on every new legal development in the primary reform space. And there have been a lot of developments.

Last month, a group of five independent voters including CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish filed a lawsuit-backed by Open Primaries- asking a Pennsylvania court to end the Commonwealth’s bar against independent voters participating in primary elections. The new petition includes first of its kind expert testimony citing Pennsylvania election data that shows how denying unaffiliated voters participation in primaries dilutes the power of their votes.

In early 2025 we partnered with Davis, Agnor, Rapaport & Skalny, one of Maryland’s leading law firms, and former Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford to file a lawsuit in Maryland on behalf of five plaintiffs across the state against the State Board of Elections, challenging closed primary elections as unconstitutional.  

We are also supporting cases in Wyoming and Oregon and working to launch new state level challenges in 2026.

We broke new ground in federal court as well, establishing the right of independent voters to challenge their exclusion from voting and getting the 11th Circuit to begin to define the legal status of independents for the very first time. Read OP SVP Jeremy Gruber’s analysis of what the case accomplished.  Our brief to the US Supreme Court laid out the fundamental questions raised by the rise of independent voters and access to primary elections that we believe American courts (and the public at large) must grapple with. 

And in case you missed it, check out OP SVP Jeremy Gruber’s full CNN prime time debate on independents, closed primaries and the future of voting rights in America.

Open Primaries accelerated a serious media conversation on primary reform in 2025. Our staff and spokespeople were directly involved in over 300 separate media pieces. We led the reform space in media coverage across all categories, from TV and print, to radio and podcasts. Our appearances were local, national, small market and big market. We reached millions of Americans across a broad range of activities. Highlights include:

Coverage of our litigation in dozens of outlets from the Washington Post to the Philly Daily, and from the AP to CNN.

OP President John Opdycke became a regular on podcasts, from The xxxxxx to Independent Americans. Read his landmark piece in The Hill on the power of independent voters.

OP SVP Jeremy Gruber on News 12 talking about New York’s open primaries’ debate:

And his op-eds on the rights of independents in papers across the country from the Daily News to the Austin-American Statesman.

Not to mention coverage of all our campaigns-from the NY Times examination of our work with the NYC Charter Revision Commission to the Orlando Sentinel’s coverage of our campaign in Florida, from the Latino News Network taking a look at our legislative win in New Mexico, to the Oklahoman’s coverage of our campaign in the Sooner state. 

We’re hitting the media even bigger and better in the ramp up to the 2026 midterms-stay tuned!

Several new campaigns launched this year, from Nevada where a Governor’s veto of open primaries legislation has led to a new ballot campaign, to the launch of a new effort to advance open primaries in Florida. Yet nowhere has the momentum for change been stronger than in Oklahoma where a ten-year-long effort to build a foundation for change in the Sooner state has led to the Vote Yes on SQ 886 campaign for top two open primaries.

As campaign leaders currently gather signatures to get on the ballot, check out OKC Mayor David Holt, the head of the US Conference of Mayors and longtime friend of Open Primaries, on MSNBC where he talks about how open primaries will improve the lives of everyday Americans. 

Read his special letter to Open Primaries supporters on why our work matters.

Then check out campaign leader Pat McFerron’s groundbreaking op-ed in The Oklahoman on why conservatives in Oklahoma should embrace reforming the primaries and letting all voters vote. Then watch him debate the issue:

All this is happening because everyday Oklahomans-Republicans, Democrats and independents alike- are demanding change. We had the honor of participating in the Oklahoma Academy’s statewide Town Hall this year where we debated with hundreds of citizens from across the state on how to improve the state’s future-their top policy recommendation? Open Primaries.

Don’t believe it? Watch what happens when you get a bunch of Sooners together at the Tulsa State Fair:

This is the moment we’ve been building for, because that’s who we are-builders. But sometimes in order to build big you have to look inward first. So this year we set out to expand Open Primaries and we doubled our staff! Earlier this year, we introduced each new staff member individually. Now as we head into 2026, we present a new team.

Next year’s midterm primaries will be the biggest stage yet to build on. And it’s an all hands on deck moment for our new team and the whole movement. We’re preparing to launch aggressive organizing and education efforts with dozens of partners from coast to coast to show every American what the fight for voting rights looks like. 

For 15 years, Open Primaries has worked to make one idea mainstream: every voter should be able to vote in every election.

That idea was once dismissed — now it’s everywhere!

Happy New Year! 

The Open Primaries Team