Season 17 · Episode 196

Primary Elections for All: John Opdycke

May 19, 202239m 39s

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Show Notes

Thursday, May 19th, 2022

John Opdycke is the President of Open Primaries, an organization building a coalition of diverse Americans to enact open primaries in all 50 states. We discuss why it is time to shake up the closed-party primary system.

In an open primary, all voters get to vote on the same ballot and all candidates get to run on the same ballot. The number one growing demographic among voters is independents, and yet, they're often shut out. Primaries are publicly funded, so every voter no matter their political party affiliation or even without party affiliation–in line with the fundamental core of democracy–should have their vote included. Moreover, in an open system, room is created for new, emerging coalitions and conversations to take place.