Open Primaries Would Keep Government Open

This article was originally published on Real Clear Politics.

The root cause of the nation’s longest government shutdown – and the next one, and the one after that – isn’t ideological extremism or hyper-partisanship on their own. It’s the incentives created by the outsized influence of party primary elections.

The good news is that there is an easy and effective solution to America’s primary problem: open, all-candidate primaries.

Shutdowns are no longer rare or risky. Both dominant parties take the U.S. government hostage on an increasingly regular basis because lawmakers fear losing a low-turnout primary more than they fear harming millions of Americans.

The Cook Political Report projects that next year, 92% of House races and 83% of Senate races are safe for Democrats or Republicans and will be effectively decided in party primaries. For lawmakers holding those seats, losing the general election is nearly impossible. Their political futures will be decided in primary elections, a toxic dynamic that forces Democrats to appeal to stridently liberal voters and drives Republican candidates to the far-right MAGA margins.

In non-competitive seats, the elections will be decided by less than 10% of eligible voters – those voting in party primaries. Making matters worse, 16.6 million registered independent voters in 16 states are not allowed to vote in party primaries for Congress, which denies them access to the only elections that count. This injustice is magnified by the fact that party primaries are funded by taxpayers, millions of whom can’t vote in them.

Therefore, during this shutdown, the political calculus was simple for most Democrats: Closing the government aligned with their reelection strategies. Compromise would risk inviting a challenger from their own party. That’s why they held the line for more than 40 days, and why Republicans showed no willingness to negotiate over Obamacare subsidies. Both sides responded predictably to the same structural incentives.

It made little difference that most Americans opposed the shutdown or preferred a bipartisan compromise on healthcare. In our system as it exists today, the opinions of most Americans don’t matter.

Similar to the 2013 shutdown led by Sen. Ted Cruz, the Democrats’ strategy to achieve a policy goal was doomed. But it was “worth it” electorally to inflict weeks of pain on the country, and in particular, government workers and SNAP recipients.

Primaries – or the absence of primary pressure – also explain the group of eight Democratic senators who joined Republicans to finally reopen the government. What united them was not ideology or temperament, but insulation from immediate electoral threat. Several are retiring; others are not up for reelection until 2028 or 2030. None faces the wrath of primary voters next year.

This dynamic is neither new nor unique to this moment. It is the latest example of what my organization, Unite America, calls the “Primary Problem”: the distortion created when a tiny, unrepresentative slice of voters effectively chooses most of America’s elected officials. In 2024, the Unite America Institute found that 87% of House members were effectively elected in primaries by just 7% of voters. Once the few competitive general elections are accounted for, only 15% of Americans cast a meaningful vote for the entire House.

When 7%-15% of voters hold the real power, polarization becomes a rational strategy. Shutdowns are not anomalies; they are the foreseeable outcome of a political system in which electoral incentives reward intransigence.

If we want fewer shutdowns, we must fix the incentives that fuel them. The most direct way to do that is to give more Americans a meaningful say in the elections that actually determine outcomes. That means making general elections matter again.

Fortunately, a proven solution already exists. Five states – and most major U.S. cities – use open, all-candidate primaries. Instead of separate party primaries, every candidate appears on a single primary ballot, and every voter can participate. The top finishers advance to November, where they must win a majority to serve. This simple change forces candidates to appeal to a broader electorate and encourages elected officials to govern from consensus rather than from the fringes.

This system has produced real results. In Alaska, bipartisan coalitions have repeatedly formed in the legislature, unlocking historic investments in education and energy. Louisiana expanded Medicaid and passed major charter school reforms. All-candidate primaries encouraged these policy achievements by empowering broad coalitions and sidelining narrow partisan interests.

When politicians are accountable to all voters, not just the most ideological ones, they behave differently. They legislate. They compromise. They govern in the interests of the majority. But until more states enact open, all-candidate primaries and make that a reality, it’ll be hard to expect Congress to address America’s most pressing issues – let alone keep the lights on.

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