In the United States, candidates running for office are usually selected through primary
elections.
What are primary elections?
When do they occur?
Primary elections are a method used to narrow the field of candidates prior to a general
election.
Candidates will compete against members of their own political party, in the hopes of
gaining the party’s nomination.
After winning the party’s nomination in the primary election, that candidate would
then go on to face a candidate from the opposing party in the general election.
Primary elections have been used to nominate candidates since the early 1900s.
This was viewed as a more democratic method of selecting candidates than the party convention
system used throughout most of the 1800s.
Instead of a small group of party delegates selecting the party’s candidate, the voters
selected the candidate that best represented their needs and beliefs.
Throughout the 1900s, the primary elections grew to play a larger and more important role
in the nominating process.
There are two different basic types of primaries that most states engage in, a closed primary,
and an open primary.
Each type of primary has its advantages and disadvantages.
It should also be noted that the rules and regulations of each primary varies from state
to state, but most states recognize similar guidelines.
A closed primary is a primary in which a voter may only vote for candidates in the party
that he or she is registered for.
For example, a Republican voter would only be allowed to vote for Republican candidates,
and a Democrat would only be allowed to vote for Democrat candidates.
Typically, in a closed primary, voters who are not registered with one of the two major
parties will not participate in a closed primary.
The biggest advantage of a closed primary is that it helps ensure that only members
of the party are selecting the candidate for that party.
More than twenty states use some form of a closed primary.
With an open primary, voters may vote in either primary election (but not both).
For example, a Republican might choose to vote in the Democrat primary, or a Democrat
might choose to vote in the Republican primary.
This gives voters more freedom to vote for a candidate of their choosing.
However, it can cause situations where voters from the one party will purposefully vote
in the opposing party’s primary, with the intention of helping a weaker candidate win.
This will help their own candidate be more successful in the general election.
This practice has become known as raiding.
Presidential primaries occur once every four years.
The elections take place throughout the spring of the presidential election year, with the
earliest primaries starting at the beginning of February.
New Hampshire’s primary is traditionally the first, with South Carolina following shortly
after.
A number of states do not use a primary at all.
States such as Iowa, Nevada, and Minnesota (and several others) use a method known as
a caucus to determine the winning nominee from their state.
A caucus is a public meeting of party delegates, at which a nominee is selected.
There are some disadvantages to the primary system.
One disadvantage is that it causes a significant amount of political infighting.
Members of one political party are campaigning against each other for the party’s nomination.
This means they will be mudslinging
against a member of his or her own party.
These attacks could weaken an otherwise viable candidate when that candidate enters the general
election.
Primary elections are also expensive.
A candidate must raise enough money to run a campaign for the primary election.
Then, once he or she has secured the nomination from the party, that candidate must then turn
around and run a second campaign in the general election.
This process could easily be twice as expensive, since two campaigns have to be run, rather
than just one.
However, most will agree that the primary elections are a necessary step in the American
political process.
The primaries help the American voter narrow his or her choices from a host of candidates,
down to just two or three.
It also allows the most people possible to participate in deciding which candidates will
represent the two major parties in an upcoming election.