Bipartisan Bill to Open the Primaries Introduced in Maryland

Maryland’s closed primaries shut out over one million independent voters. That is 25% of all registered voters and the fastest-growing segment of the electorate.  That’s why Open Primaries launched a groundbreaking legal challenge on behalf of five independent Marylanders in collaboration with former state Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford.

Now State Delegates Lily Qi (D) and Stuart M Schmidt (R) have introduced a bipartisan bill-backed by Open Primaries- to give Maryland’s independent voters the same rights as every other Marylander. 

The bill, HB0496 would allow Maryland’s over one million independent voters the right to select a party ballot in the state primaries without having to affiliate with a party. It’s modelled after similar Open Primaries-backed bills that were successfully passed in Maine in 2022 and New Mexico just last year.

Open Primaries launched Let Us Vote Maryland to organize support for this important new legislation. If you're in Maryland or know someone who is, you can send a letter to your state representative and volunteer in any number of ways.

Polls Show Sustained Support For Open Primaries  

In 2016, AP-NORC conducted a deep-dive national poll and found the vast majority of Americans felt both political parties were out of touch with ordinary Americans.  69% of Americans, across party lines, preferred open primaries to closed primaries.  

Ten years later, Unite America-Real Clear Opinion conducted a similarly insightful deep dive survey.  They found that a whopping 87% of us are concerned about political division, 70% say Congress is not effectively addressing major problems, and 71% support requiring states to hold open primaries — including 79% of Democrats, 70% of independents, and 65% of Republicans.

Of particular interest is how, over this ten-year span, the public’s perception of why we have primaries has changed. 71% of respondents believe that the purpose of a publicly funded primary is to narrow the field, not select a party nominee.  

What does this mean and where do we go from here? OP President John Opdycke breaks it all down in his brand new Substack column!

Why Florida’s Closed Primary Is A Voting Rights Issue

Open Primaries worked for two years to support Professor Michael Polelle in his challenge to Florida’s closed primary. In Polelle v. Florida Secretary of State, an 11th Circuit decision last year, we reached two major milestones. First, we established for the first time that independent voters have standing to challenge closed primaries in court. Second, in a remarkable concurring opinion, we pushed the court, in another first, to openly discuss the growth of independent voters, debate their rights, and suggest that a new legal framework was warranted. Read more here.

Now, in a new editorial in the Orlando Sentinel, Professor Polelle breaks down the history of how closed primaries were used to shut out black voters decades ago and now used to shut out voters based on political association. As he notes:

ICYMI: Catch up on the latest coverage of all our cases across the country on our new litigation portal.

Gallup: Independent Voters Hit 45% – So Why Does the Political Establishment Keep Pretending They Don’t Matter?

As we reported last week, Gallup found that a record 45 percent of Americans consider themselves political independents. Those numbers are causing traditional pundits and media politicos a lot of agita and they’re working overtime to try and put the genie back in the bottle.

Now in a new oped out this week, OP President John Opdycke and Independent Veterans of America Founder Paul Rieckhoff join forces to break down what’s really going on. As they declare:

What’s really driving the backlash? Opdycke and Rieckhoff have an idea. Hint - when is the last time an independent candidate for president got 20% of the vote…?

OK Campaign Submits Signatures for Ballot Initiative

On Monday, activists and volunteers filed signatures with the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s office in support of State Question 836, marking a major milestone for the citizen-led campaign to bring open primary elections to the Sooner state. State Question 836 would place all candidates on a single primary ballot, with party registration listed, and allow all voters to participate. 

The filing comes in the midst of extraordinary challenges faced by the campaign. During the final days of signature gathering, severe winter weather across Oklahoma limited in-person signing opportunities, forced the cancellation of events, and made it difficult to transport completed petitions from parts of the state to Oklahoma City ahead of the deadline. The Vote Yes 836 initiative also faced establishment resistance, insincere funders, and legal challenges. Yet they persevered through all of it.

The Secretary of State’s office will now begin the signature verification process. While campaigns historically expect a portion of signatures to be disqualified for technical reasons, organizers are hopeful their signature count will be deemed valid and Oklahomans can vote on the initiative in November 2026.

Read more in Katey Fahey’s interview with Campaign Leader Margaret Kobos this week.

JUST ANNOUNCED: Our next Primary Buzz Discussion: Independents are Surging…and Independent Veterans are Spoiling for a Fight will feature two Independent veteran candidates running for US Senate: Ty Pinkins (Mississippi) & Todd Achilles (Idaho).  

Ty Pinkins is a decorated U.S. Army veteran, attorney, and community advocate running as an Independent for United States Senate in 2026 because he believes Mississippi’s working families deserve more than politics as usual.

Todd Achilles served as an Idaho State Representative and minority caucus chair. He teaches innovation, strategy, antimonopoly, and policy analysis at GSPP, and technology policy at Boise State University’s School of Public Service. Todd served in the U.S. Army as a tank commander and then spent his civilian career in the tech, media and telecom sectors, holding executive roles at T-Mobile, Hewlett-Packard, and a few start-ups. 

Open Primaries Founder and President John Opdycke will host the conversation featuring Paul Rieckhoff—America’s leading veterans advocate and Founder and former CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)—who has launched Independent Veterans of America to support Veterans who want to run for elected office as independents. 

Paul is opinionated, patriotic, fiercely independent and is both a regular on CNN and MSNBC and hosts the popular podcast Independent Americans.

While the DC ecosphere downplay the rise of independent voters across the country, a new generation of serious, viable independent candidates is working to give voice to the growing number of voters who are out of sorts with the status quo. It’s hard!  American politics is not designed for voters and candidates who don’t fit neatly into the two-party playbook. Independents get called “ spoilers” by journalists, partisans…even reformers!  

But America’s veterans still command much credibility across divides. Can independent veterans help lead the way to something new?

Join us next Tuesday February 3rd at 3:00PM ET

2026 is the year of the Independent.

Join the conversation—and be part of what comes next.

Have a great weekend, 

The Open Primaries Team