The topic of this episode is, “What is the primary problem?”

Every two years, we have congressional elections, which feature both primary elections and general elections. For nearly everyone who listens to this podcast, this seems like an eternal feature of governance system: primary elections are used to winnow the candidate field, and then general elections give voters the choice between two or maybe three finalists.

But in truth, congressional primaries are a more recent development in our political history. They became the norm only about five or six decades ago.

And like any other system of rules—be it the laws restricting investments or the rules of baseball—primaries are imperfect and susceptible to gaming by the players. Worse, according to some critics, primaries are fueling toxic partisanship within Congress and curbing its capacity to serve the public.

Is there a primary problem? And what is this problem? To help us think through this subject I have with me Nick Troiano. He is the author of The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes (Simon & Schuster, 2024). Nick is the executive director of Unite America, an organization that advocates for nonpartisan election reform and alternatives to partisan primary elections.

Click here to read a full transcript of the episode.