In May, the New Mexico Legislature passed a bill to give independent voters the right to vote in some primary elections. The Nevada Legislature did the same last month, although the governor vetoed the bill.
Lawmakers in Pennsylvania (where primary reform bills have already passed the Senate and Assembly but in different years) are debating the issue as well, as are the Florida Democratic Party and the New York City Charter Revision Commission.
Former President Clinton is talking about open primaries on “The View.” Elon Musk is posting about a new political party, and former President Biden’s press secretary has left the Democratic Party and is publishing a book called “Independent.”
Independents are having a moment. And powerful people are listening and responding.
Every day, thousands of Americans become independent voters. And independents are making noise, expressing their concern about being locked out of primary elections, building new organizations and initiatives such as the Forward Party, Independent Veterans of America, Veterans for All Voters and Let Us Vote and creating new research centers such as the Independent Institute and the Arizona State University Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy.
Independents are running for office, staging protests to draw attention to their exclusion from voting in primaries and speaking out at the local, state and national level about the need to evolve beyond red-versus-blue dogma.
Independents are speaking, acting and creating, not under the banner of a single organization, but as a growing decentralized movement demanding real change to how we do politics.
For years, the media lampooned independent voters as “party leaners” or apathetic fence-sitters too lazy to “pick a team.” Those days are gone. Independents want to clean up the mess. We are driving a new conversation and politicians are beginning to listen.
So where do we go from here? It’s helpful to look backward before we look forward.
In 2024, reform activists put measures on the ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and South Dakota to abolish partisan primaries altogether and replace them with a single ballot nonpartisan primary. In addition, there was a measure on the ballot in Washington D.C., to allow independents to vote in partisan primaries.
The D.C. measure passed with more than 70 percent of the vote. The other measures failed. What was fully revealed in 2024 was that there are no quick fixes or shortcuts.
We have to build trust, and to craft diverse and authentic coalitions of Democrats, Republicans and independents. We have to educate voters about problems with closed primaries and the importance of voting in primaries, which is my organization’s goal. We have to craft campaigns and initiatives that are people-powered, organic, and connected, not imposed from above.
Polls show that less than 20 percent of Americans like the current, partisan-controlled closed primary system. But it is on us to create campaigns, initiatives and activities that earn people’s trust. If we don’t, our opponents will eat our lunch.
Hence, the embrace of open primaries by legislators who opposed us just six months ago.
Steve Yeager, the Democratic Assembly Speaker in Nevada (where independents now are the largest bloc of registered voters) and author of the open primaries bill just vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), had actively opposed Ballot Measure 3 in 2024.
After the measure was defeated 53 percent to 47 percent, Yeager stated publicly that he wasn’t opposed to open primaries, just the specific form being advanced in the ballot measure. Local activists Sondra Cosgrove and Doug Goodman took the opportunity to pressure Yeager to do something if that was in fact his position, and to his credit, he did.
The result was A.B. 597, which would allow independents to vote in partisan primaries, although it continues to deny them access to the presidential primary and continues to assert overall party control of the process.
It was not a perfect bill, and ultimately it was vetoed by the governor. But it’s a reflection of independents’ growing strength.
The legislative progress in New Mexico and Nevada are examples of independents asserting our political power and doing so as a movement, not as a party. (Independents don’t particularly like political parties).
But we need to convey to voters and lawmakers alike that we are just getting started and we won’t rest until all Americans can vote in every taxpayer-funded election for whomever they want.
Independent voters are speaking up, and the parties are responding. They recognize that our numbers are surging, we decide elections and they need to give us something. But they also want to hold on to their privilege.
The challenge and opportunity for the independent voter-open primaries movement is to celebrate these gains without losing sight of how much more work needs to be done.
The American people are pretty clear. They want a political culture that is participatory, innovative, responsive to ordinary people and effective at making our lives better. Independents are an engine for that kind of change. Let’s lean into that.
Opdycke is the founder and president of Open Primaries, a national advocacy organization working to enact and protect open and nonpartisan primaries in all 50 states.
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