Article shared by Cathy L. Stewart on November 14, 2024 at 11:00 AM

A note from Cathy Stewart:

I wanted to share an email update from John Opdycke of Open Primaries that was sent on Wednesday, November 6th, 2024

Though the open primaries movement came up short last night, we won big in our nation's capital. Congratulations to Lisa Rice and her brilliant team on a job well done!  Lisa outworked the (mostly Democratic Party) opposition and made the campaign personal:

“I’m an independent and I can’t vote. That’s wrong and it’s not just me - there are tens of thousands of us in D.C.  We need to let all voters vote.” 

Well done team DC!  

All the votes have yet to be counted in Alaska, and we’re still hoping that the campaign perseveres, but we came up short in Montana, South Dakota, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado.

People support our core values of fairness and a level playing field. This year, we couldn’t convert public support into policy change on a wide scale. We’ve yet to build deep trust with average voters - there is still lots of education needed to build understanding of why open primaries are relevant. We’ve underestimated the partisan special interests that want to maintain the status quo. 

Post Election Thought Number One: Thank you. We came up short. But thousands of you gathered signatures, wrote checks, knocked on doors, made phone calls and talked with friends and family. It was inspirational. The open primaries community grew and showed up - BIG TIME.  

Post Election Thought Number Two: There are no shortcuts when it comes to making this happen. We’ve got to build a movement, support local leaders, and inspire tens of millions of our fellow Americans. We need to get better at listening and building trust. Voters need to believe reform is not a trojan horse.  We think we have all the answers. But we don’t. We have ideas and vision and we need to bring that to the people and listen to what they say in response.  

Post Election Thought Number Three: Open Primaries is all about full voting rights for independents. We need to build an army of millions of independents to shout that to the rafters. Just like Lisa did in DC, we have to make this personal all across the country.  

Yesterday was tough. But the number of independents continues to soar. Neither party has the vision or the trust of the American people to remake our democracy. We have our work cut out for us, but we have a lot to work with. Our plan is to analyze honestly, create conversation and learning, and get busy organizing.  

Thank you for all of your hard work and support this year. Onward!

John Opdycke, President

Open Primaries