The Turnout Trap: How Low-Participation Primaries Are Pulling American Politics to the Extremes
Primary elections, designed to give voters a direct hand in selecting party nominees, have instead become a mechanism for elevating ideologically outlying candidates who bear little resemblance to the broader electorate. A combination of chronically low turnout, safe district geography, and motivated-minority dynamics has produced a nomination system that rewards ideological purity over governing capacity. The structural forces at work are well understood; the political will to address them rema
