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The case for open primaries · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the takeout. Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: is urging his state to keep its open primary system.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Some Republicans there want to close that primary, and that's
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: a move that's going on in other jurisdictions as well.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: What that does is it means independence cannot participate. Earlier
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: this week, I spoke with John Opdyke, who was the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: head of a group called Open Primaries, about why he's
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in favor of a more inclusive political system. Here's some
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: of our conversation. Political journalism super excited about the upcoming midterms,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: but there's a dirty little secret. Ninety percent of them
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  Speaker 1: are over right, Yeah, tell me why.
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  Speaker 2: Well, right now, most congressional districts have been jerry mandered
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: out of competitive existence. I mean, you know, we've seen
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  Speaker 2: this from Texas to Califul, all over the country.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: So the problems you were jerry manner, that all right,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: but this just added.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: It, just it just in some way cemented it completely.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: So now you have a situation and it's ninety to
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: ninety three percent of members of Congress have one real
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: election and that's their primary, and unfortunately the rules of
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  Speaker 2: primaries are a they shut out independent voters in roughly,
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  Speaker 2: they're part of the primaries by definition, not all of them, California,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: not all of them.
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  Speaker 1: The ones that are closed are.
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  Speaker 2: Right exactly by definition. It has to be partisan to
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  Speaker 2: be closed. Other states that are open. The public hasn't
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: yet caught up with the fact that these primaries are
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  Speaker 2: where all the decisions are made. So look, all of
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: us have been educated, and the real election is in November. Right,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: that's almost like as American as apple pie. And yet
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: those November elections are an afterthought. Most members of Congress
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: are on a beach in the Dominican Republic.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Either literally or figured it.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Literally or figuratively because they're so uncompetitive. So there's a
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: real movement and it's this is a huge to do.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: What two things? Change the rules. Let every American vote
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: in every election period. The primary is government funded, government administered.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Everybody should be able to vote in it. If the
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: parties want to have private caucuses, conventions, primary.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Someone they want to do that person they're putting.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Up is do it on your own dime and your
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  Speaker 2: own time. These are public elections. These primaries still let
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: the public participate. Everybody should be able to vote. But
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: that's only step one. We have to change the culture.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: We have to educate and convince Americans that voting in
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  Speaker 2: primaries is not just something for the superpartisan, for the hyper.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Because the culture right now is wait till November, right,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: wait till November.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: But the decisions have all been made in November, most
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: of them. Yeah, I mean there's yes, there's probably thirty
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: congressional districts that will be in play. And obviously presidential
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: elections and Senate races statewide are still in play. The
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: level of competition hasn't gone to zero.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: But and John, I've heard you give lots of interviews,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and I want you to help my audience with this
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  Speaker 1: because they're going to hear you and say, oh wow, Well,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: if John got his way, then everything would change instantly.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And what you have said on previous interviews is no,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: it would not change instantly. Don't think this is right
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: going to unlock whatever your frustrations are with contemporary American politics.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, why, Well, first of all, there's a myth about
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: independent voters. People think they're moderates, people think they're in
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: the middle, people think they're kind of this. They're not.
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  Speaker 2: They're as idiologically diverse as the country they're libertarian, socialist, moderate, liberal, conservative,
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  Speaker 2: and everything in between. What they are is people saying
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: there has to be a better way than this scorched
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: earth demonize your opponent.
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  Speaker 1: The other myth is that there are sort of a
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: gelatinous blob of indifference.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, that they're fence sitters, they don't care, no independence.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: There's research coming out of Arizona State University. Independents actually
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: have much different social media networks than Democrats and Republicans.
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  Speaker 2: They want Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives, socialists and libertarians
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  Speaker 2: in their orbit. They want They want to keep an
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: open mind about things, and.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: They live in a marketplace of ideas.
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  Speaker 2: Right independents are much whereas partisans typically right now siloed
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  Speaker 2: as they are exactly exactly.
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  Speaker 1: So that's why the parties don't want them.
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  Speaker 2: Right, they're hard to campaign to. You can't just say
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Trump is bad and get their vote, or Democrats are
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  Speaker 2: socialist communists and get their vote. You actually have to educate, engage, listen,
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  Speaker 2: and the candidates and the parties don't really want to
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  Speaker 2: do that. They much rather have a easy way to
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: stoke fear in order to win the other thing. So
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: when you open the primaries and you let independence in.
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  Speaker 2: People sometimes say, oh great, now all these moderates will
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  Speaker 2: get elected now maybe, but also here's what we found
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: is that there have been a number of states that
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: have opened their primaries and no one told independence, so
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: turnout didn't go up. No one informed them government or
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  Speaker 2: private So now what's happening. We just passed open primaries
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: in New Mexico and we were part of a campaign
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  Speaker 2: to organize independent voters to record PSAs public services. Yeah
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  Speaker 2: saying hey, we did it. It took us ten years.
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  Speaker 2: We had to fight tooth and nail. We went to court,
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  Speaker 2: we went to the legislature. We finally won the right
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  Speaker 2: to vote.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: You can listen to more of my conversation with John
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Updig on your favorite podcast platform.