Who Really Elects Congress?

America’s broken primary system hands power to the few

The infamous William “Boss” Tweed, a corrupt party boss in 19th century New York, once quipped “I don't care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating.”

Fast forward to 2024, and America’s two major political parties have effectively become Boss Tweed. More than 80 percent of U.S. congressional districts lean so heavily Democratic or Republican that the general election doesn’t even matter. Whoever the dominant party nominates in their primary goes on to win every time.

According to the Cook Political Report, fewer than 70 House races were competitive in the 2024 general election.

This is concerning. Most members of Congress do not need to serve or represent most people in their district to stay in office. They just need to appease the small minority who vote in their primaries, and they will get sent back to Washington election after election.

No Labels has been banging this drum for a long time. But we recently partnered with

Sam Wang

, a professor at Princeton University, to dig deeper into the issue, and the situation is even more dire than we thought.

Of those registered to vote, just one out of five Americans vote in Congressional primaries.

This select group is not exactly representative of America, either. Professor Wang and his team used extensive survey data to profile exactly who these primary voters are. They are much more liberal or conservative than the average American.

In this graph from Professor Wang, the colored blobs show where most Americans fall on the ideological spectrum. Many are somewhat liberal or conservative, but there is also a sizable group in the middle. The red and blue lines, however, show the people who vote in primaries — they are mostly piled up on the far left or far right, with almost no one in the middle.

It’s not all bad news. The researchers then built a model with this data and ran thousands of simulations to see what would happen if more people voted in primaries. They found that it makes a difference. When turnout increases, more moderate candidates win primary elections.

In this graph, the grey blob is who currently wins primaries. The purple blob shows who would win if primary turnout was 10 points higher – you can see this blob is closer to the middle of Americans. With such slim margins in Congress, even a handful of moderates can affect the balance of power in Washington.

Imagine if Congress was interested in solving problems instead of grandstanding or mudslinging. Sam Wang’s research proves this is possible, but only if more people show up for primaries.

To achieve that, one idea in particular deserves more attention: America should have one National Primary Day for all U.S. House and Senate elections.

Currently, each state picks their own random day between March and September to hold congressional primaries – sometimes intentionally scheduled when voters are on vacation or are not paying attention. It is hard for voters to keep track of so many dates, which could explain why turnout rates are so low.

So let’s fix that with just one simple date for everyone to remember; one date for all the national outlets to publicize. There’s already higher turnout when neighboring states hold primaries on the same day; imagine the effect if it happened nationwide?

Professor Wang presented these findings at the recent No Labels National Conference. In case you missed it, you can watch his speech here: