Primary elections offer a chance for parties and voters to determine the best candidate to nominate for the presidential election. This is especially important in the current age of political polarization because it encourages voters to think critically about who would make the best leader, not whom they prefer out of two options.
The lack of an open primary likely contributed to Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in the 2024 presidential election as she wasn’t given the opportunity to separate her image from President Biden’s or disseminate detailed plans for future policy.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview with The New York Times. Pelosi echoed a common sentiment on the squandered potential of a primary: either Harris would have built a stronger democratic base, or a better candidate would have taken her place. “I think [Harris] would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened.”
After Harris’ recent defeat, countless articles have spawned critiquing her campaign strategy and claiming to know the secret behind winning a presidential election. To be clear, my objective is not to denigrate the Biden-Harris Administration or the Democratic Party, but simply to emphasize the importance of primaries in free and fair elections.
When the 2028 election season begins, America will have gone eight years without a true primary. Although some may hope for Harris to run again without the threat of other nominees, open primaries could reinvigorate young voters and restore the two-party system. Representation and choice are essential in democracy, and presidential primaries are a fantastic way to uphold those values despite the self-selecting nature of political candidacy. In the next election cycle, I hope to cast my first ballot as a part of an open primary.
