Iowa Pride, Independent Voices: How Katie Roth Is Building Momentum for Open Primaries

Kevin Singer

Communications Director

February 13, 2026

In Iowa, politics has never been something that only happens on TV.

For years, Iowa’s role as the first state to hold presidential caucuses meant candidates didn’t just fly in for a rally and disappear. They showed up in small towns. They took questions in coffee shops. They spoke in VFW halls. And regular Iowans could meet them face-to-face.

A friend of Katie Roth’s once put it this way: “You are so lucky. You can go to a VFW hall and hear a future president speak.”

That civic pride still runs deep. But Roth believes Iowa’s primary elections have a problem that doesn’t match the state’s identity: hundreds of thousands of Iowans are effectively sidelined from the elections that matter most.

Roth is the president of All Votes Count Iowa, a nonprofit organization advocating for open primaries that would allow all Iowans to vote without being required to register with a party. Her mission is straightforward: if taxpayers fund primary elections, every eligible voter should be able to participate.

“Voting is about having a voice,” Roth says. “And I don’t think you should have to change your party registration in order to have that voice.”

A growing group shut out of the elections that matter most

All Votes Count Iowa’s work centers on one striking reality: over 700,000 independent Iowan voters, about 32 percent of the electorate, face obstacles that Democrats and Republicans do not when voting in primaries. Independents are also the fastest-growing political group in the country, and many voters say being forced to change party registration conflicts with their political identity.

In Iowa, independent voters can technically participate in primaries, but only by temporarily changing their registration. Major-party voters never have to take that step. Roth argues that even if the process is “easy,” it is still a barrier, and one that sends the wrong message.

“As an independent, why should I have to misrepresent how I truly feel by having to actually declare a party when I should just be able to get a ballot?” she asks.

And because primaries often determine the ultimate winner in safe or noncompetitive districts, those extra hoops matter more than many voters realize.

“When you look at primary races,” Roth says, “most of the decisions are being made in the primary.”

From business owner to reformer

Roth did not begin her career in politics. She is a retired staffing and human resources professional who spent much of her life building businesses, solving problems, and connecting people with opportunities. She and her husband owned multiple companies, and after he passed, she opened her own staffing firm.

Now she is applying that same practical mindset to a different kind of challenge, one she believes affects the future of Iowa.

“At this point in my life, I want to do something where I can leave the world a better place,” she says.

The more Roth and her fellow organizers looked at Iowa’s primary rules, the more the issue felt less like a niche technicality and more like a fundamental question of representation.

Independent voters make up about a third of Iowa’s electorate. Yet they are treated differently in the very elections where so many outcomes are decided.

Roth believes the system discourages coalition-building and rewards political incentives that push candidates away from everyday voters.

Roth describes a dynamic that many Americans recognize instantly: the fear elected officials have of being punished for working across the aisle.

“Sometimes what happens is when a candidate has been elected and starts to move toward the middle, the party doesn’t like what they’re doing,” she says. “They tap them on the shoulder and say, ‘If you don’t get back here, we’re going to run somebody against you in the primary, and you’re going to lose.’”

Then she adds a line that gets to the heart of the incentive problem.

“For a lot of those people, it’s the best job they’ve ever had, and they don’t want to lose it.”

The real resistance

When Roth explains that independent voters can’t vote in primaries unless they register with a party, most people’s response is simple: Why?

“Most people we talk to are like, ‘Oh, wow. Why should independents have to do that?’”

But the strongest resistance, Roth says, tends to come from those most invested in controlling party outcomes, especially the most ideologically committed factions within each party.

And she is blunt about a truth election reformers run into everywhere.

“Whoever’s in power is not really for this,” she says.

Roth says the pushback is rarely about whether the policy is understandable. It is about incentives.

Limiting who can vote can make it easier to control who wins. If independent voters could participate freely, candidates would need to speak to a broader slice of the electorate. They would need to persuade more people, build wider coalitions, and campaign beyond the loudest corners of the base.

And that is exactly the point.

She has also heard candid explanations for why some lawmakers resist open primaries.

Roth recalls speaking with a reform leader in New Mexico, where it took a decade to change the law so that independents can vote. When she asked why some lawmakers opposed open primaries, he told her about a conversation with a legislator.

“I don’t want that,” the legislator said. “If I have to appeal to independents in the primary, I’ll have to talk to more people and spend more money.”

Roth laughs at the memory, but the point sticks. In a healthy democracy, being forced to talk to more people should be a feature, not a bug.

A vision for Iowa politics that rewards common sense

For Roth, the goal is not to weaken political parties or erase ideological differences. It is to create a healthier system, one where leaders are rewarded for listening, collaborating, and governing.

“I think what it will look like is that we will get people elected who will be much more willing to work together for consensus,” she says. “Rather than always trying to make sure it’s just my way or the highway.”

She points to issues that have fueled division in Iowa, including abortion, school choice, carbon pipelines, and property taxes. The details vary, but the pattern is the same. When politics becomes purely tribal, communities lose the ability to solve problems.

Roth believes opening primaries can help shift Iowa back toward a political culture that reflects what she sees as the state’s real character: independent-minded, practical, and rooted in community.

“Iowans have always been independent,” she says. “They’re common sense people.”

‍The work ahead

All Votes Count Iowa is still a young organization, and Roth is candid about what it takes to change election rules and public habits.

The work is partly policy, but it is also education. Many voters do not fully understand how primaries work, why they matter, or why independents face different rules.

“I was talking to somebody the other day, a bright, intelligent woman who runs a successful business,” Roth recalls. “And she said, ‘Yeah, I just really kind of don’t understand the whole primary thing.’”

So the organization is focused on building awareness, building networks, and helping independent voters understand the stakes.

They are also watching closely for proposals that would make participation harder, such as legislation that would require independents to change their registration weeks or even months before primary day.

Roth knows Iowa’s primary system will not change just because the argument is logical.

Roth’s daughter, who works in government relations, keeps a poster on her wall with what Roth calls the “rules of politics.” One line stands out.

“Rule number 38 is: nothing happens in politics unless it’s pushed.”

That is why All Votes Count Iowa is organizing, building relationships, and encouraging voters to speak up.

“They will listen to their constituents,” Roth says. “If they hear from 10, 15, 20 people, then they start to get a sense of what’s going on in their district.”