If you want to know what they get, you have to open the email
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Hi Friend,

 

This week, the New York Times
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profiled one of Representative Carolyn Maloney’s (D, NY-14) progressive
primary challengers.CNN
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, meanwhile, looked at different primary challenge, also from the far left,
facing Representative Jim Cooper (D, TN-5).

 

At the same time, Republican representatives Adam Kinzinger
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(IL-15) andLiz Cheney
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(WY) both earned headlines for their first quarter fundraising numbers; they
each raised over a million dollars, as they prepare their war chests to defend
their seats in hotly contested primaries from Trump-backed challengers. 

 

All of these representatives serve safe districts — where whoever wins the
primary is essentially guaranteed to win the general election. Partisan
primaries have an outsized influence in our political system. Who wins and
loses these elections ends up impacting all of us — whether or not you live in
the district. 

 

Here are three things to think about this week.

We can solve our election dysfunction.
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In case you don’t regularly read our Three Things emails (you should!) allow
us to introduce you to the Primary Problem: the dynamic created by partisan
primaries which allow a small percentage of voters to have an outsized
influence on our political system.


For The Hill
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, political strategist Jared Alper breaks down the Primary Problem, as well as
what can be done to solve it. He writes: “Breaking the doom-loop of
polarization between the campaign trail and Congress is possible only by
accepting that the root cause of dysfunction in our democratic republic is not
whom we send to Washington but how we elect them to serve us in government. And
there is a solution: embracingnonpartisan primary elections.”



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Nick talks to the callers.
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Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano was up bright and early Saturday
morning, talking to CSPAN’s Washington Journal about his piece published in the
Atlantic earlier this month,Party Primaries Must Go
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. 

 

If you’re wondering “why nonpartisan primaries?” “what will happen to the
parties?” or “what does a voters first election system look like?” Nick answers
all of these questions and more during his 45 minute sit-down (whew!).

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New Mexico understands the Primary Problem.
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Yes, we’re going full Primary Problem-themed in this week’s Three Things,
because yes, we do think it’s that important. You know who else thinks it’s
important? The good people of New Mexico. This week, opinion pieces in both the
Albuquerque Journal
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andSanta Fe New Mexican
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write about what the Primary Problem looks like for New Mexicans. 

 

In the New Mexican
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, author and independent voter Jarratt Applewhite testifies to the
disenfranchising nature of closed primaries for independent voters. “Like me,”
Applewhite writes, “over 300,000 New Mexico voters choose not to affiliate with
a major party even though doing so denies us access to the primary ballot...Our
taxes pay for these private elections just like those of party members. Most
people recognize that this is inherently unfair, and many also realize it is
not right to ask us to associate with a major party just to have the right to
vote.”

 

In the Journal
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, former New Mexico State Representative Bob Perls makes an appeal for New
Mexico voters to join the fight for open primaries in the state. He argues, “
Political parties should be players in the political marketplace, not the rule
setters, and creating nonpartisan primaries puts the voters in charge, not the
parties. The parties can and do still endorse their candidates, but they don’t
control who can vote in a public election as they do today in New Mexico.”

 

We are excited to see more people around the nation calling for opening
primaries and other policies that put voters first. Check out both the articles!



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Brett
__
Brett Maney
Senior Communications Manager
Unite America
SUPPORT OUR WORK ON PRIMARIES <[link removed]>


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