Hi Friend,

We finally have a House of Representatives! As in … there’s a speaker. House members have been sworn in and now can do their jobs, which had been impairing the government’s national security function.

The process it took to get there was nothing short of absolute chaos, and we’re not talking about the normal gridlock we have grown accustomed to seeing in Congress — we’re talking about dysfunction that hasn’t been seen since before the Civil War!  

Our nation watched the House of Representatives fail to elect a speaker not once, not twice, but 14 times over a three-day period, with a majority attained on the 15th ballot. As we witnessed this play out, Mark Cuban, among others, offered an observation and suggestion to the Speaker dilemma, which we fully support. Cuban tweeted: 

We couldn’t agree more. The Primary Problem was on full display in the House last week; however, solutions such as nonpartisan primaries, ranked choice voting, and those two reforms in combination (such as in Alaska) would lessen the chaos and increase the chances of the government getting work done for the American people.

On that note, here are three things to think about this week:

The “Never Kevins” exemplified the Primary Problem

As the chaotic bid for the speakership played out last week, all eyes were on 20 Republican representatives who adamantly opposed Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s candidacy — a group now popularly known as the “Never Kevins.” As we mentioned last week, the failure to secure a speaker on the first ballot boils down to The Primary Problem, and in this case, it appeared on a microscale in the House chamber in what we’ve coined as McCarthy’s Primary Problem.

Breaking it down: The 20 “Never Kevin” Republicans were elected mainly in solidly red districts by primary voters who made up just fractions of their districts’ electorates. Due in-part to extreme partisan gerrymandering, more and more congressional seats have become “safe” over the years for both major parties, which has resulted in the potential size of the majority decreasing steadily over time. And this trend has outsized effects: the smaller the majority, the greater the influence that just a few members can have on governing — including, in McCarthy’s case, determining the speakership — which is exactly what we saw play out. 

Check out our Tweet thread to learn more. 

What the opposite of McCarthy's Primary Problem looks like

Contrast McCarthy's plight to what a solution to the Primary Problem looks like in action. Rep. Mary Peltola, a moderate Democrat and both the first Alaska Native to represent Alaska in Congress and the first House member elected under the state's new top-four voting model, started filling out her office staff with personnel from her predecessor's office — her Republican predecessor. The Christian Science Monitor writes:

When Democrat Mary Sattler Peltola went looking to hire a chief of staff, she chose someone with hands-on experience and a deep knowledge of her home state, Alaska. He was also a Republican. Alex Ortiz’s last job was serving in the same role for her predecessor, Don Young, a giant in the state who died in 2022 after setting a record for longest-serving Republican congressman in United States history.

And he wasn’t the only Republican who Representative Peltola put on her payroll after winning a special election in August to replace Mr. Young. The congresswoman’s scheduler, another Young veteran, and communications director also came with experience working in the conservative trenches.

This is all but unheard of in the Capitol, where party loyalty can trump the most impeccable résumé. Indeed, colleagues in Washington asked Ms. Peltola if she were going to make her staff change their party affiliations.

Read more here for her answer — and what it says about the effort to put “country above party.”

Thank you for taking our end-of-year survey!

Our end-of-year survey has concluded, and we sincerely thank you for providing feedback! The responses we received are hugely helpful to our team, and we will continue assessing your written responses to determine how we can best cater to future content. In the meantime, here are two top-line responses from the survey and resources that cater to your requests: 

1. Readers noted that they’d like to receive more original research and content from Unite America, and we’re pleased to announce we have a lot on the docket this year! One such piece includes our latest blog covering the final passage of the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA). 
2. Close to 70 percent of respondents are interested in hearing more about ranked choice voting and nonpartisan primaries. We’re glad to hear it, especially about the latter reform, since it hasn’t been as widely adopted but takes the Primary Problem head on — and is being shown to have done so effectively. We’ll have more research to share about it this year.

Regards, 

Alana
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Alana Persson
Unite America

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