This year’s primary elections showcase some of the problems with US electoral system

A political scientist reports that the 2026 primaries, spread across 21 dates from March to September, saw 13 congressional incumbents defeated, the most since the 1950s outside redistricting years, with turnout reportedly higher than in most prior cycles though final figures from the last contests in Delaware are not yet available.

Citing research from the book 'The Problem with Primary Voters,' the piece notes that primary turnout across the last three midterms averaged about 20% of the voting-age population, skewing older, wealthier, better-educated, and less racially diverse than the electorate at large, and that this skew does not improve even when turnout rises, as shown by data from Massachusetts.

The analysis also points to upset wins by Democratic Socialist candidates in New York (11% turnout) and Colorado (34% turnout) as examples of low turnout producing outsized media narratives, and proposes consolidating primary dates, potentially into a single national primary day, as a partial fix.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.