I’ve written more than one column for the Trinitonian over the years dealing with primary elections, and it never gets any better. Once again, Tuesday, March 3, is primary day in Texas. On that day, Texas Democrats and Republicans vote to choose their candidates for the general election this November.
That’s EIGHT MONTHS from now. Do we really need eight months of general election campaigning to decide this? In a rational world we wouldn’t even start this process until the summer. The only people paying attention right now are the hardcore political junkies. That leads to a low-turnout contest in which the true believers — the most ideologically driven — will make the decision.
We know from voter behavior research that most of us are partisans of some stripe. You may not want to admit it, but odds are that you ACT like a partisan even if you claim to be an independent. That makes voting in November fairly easy. You stick with your team and vote for your party’s candidate. In the primary, however, everyone you can vote for is from the same party, and the partisan cue disappears.
That means RESEARCH. You have to explore all the policy positions of all the candidates from all the races. There are eight candidates running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat from Texas. I see 11 candidates for governor, four for lieutenant governor and four for attorney general. In the Democratic Party, there are three candidates running for Senate, nine for governor, three for lieutenant governor and three for attorney general.
Of course, not all of these people are serious candidates. Some of them are running vanity campaigns just to say they had their names on the ballot. But in a really competitive race — and we have competitive races for the U.S. Senate seat in both parties this cycle — it doesn’t take a lot to trigger a run-off. In Texas you have to win a majority of the vote to get the nomination, and close races with multiple candidates make it difficult for the winner to crack the 50% level. That means a May run-off — and almost three more months of incessant advertising, mailers and texts.
If you’re a Republican in Texas, the marquee race is the Senate seat. Incumbent and Trinity graduate John Cornyn, class of ‘73, is facing the fight of his political career against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Congressman Wesley Hunt. All three candidates are polling double digits, which means most likely the top two finishers will go to a run-off. All three are bear-hugging Donald Trump, claiming to be more Trumpian than the others, and hurling mutual allegations of being a “RINO” (Republican in Name Only). One of the candidates for attorney general is promising to de-naturalize the top Democrat in the Texas House. Apparently defeating our political opponents is no longer enough — now we want to un-citizen them and eject them from the country.
If you’re a Democrat, you’re facing the sad fact that the party has not won a statewide race in over a quarter century. Every two years we see stories about Texas turning purple, only to see those hopes fade into partisan mist. The day will certainly come — nothing stays static in politics. But will it be this year? Here the marquee race is between Jasmine Crockett (no relation!) and James Talarico. The principal difference between these two candidates is that Talarico made a big splash by having his interview with Stephen Colbert blocked. You know you’re at a disadvantage when your main focus is on who the OTHER party nominates. If Cornyn wins the inevitable run-off, he’s the favorite to win the general election. But if Paxton wins, Democrats hope his character issues will open the door to a new era.
If you detect a note of weariness in my tone, you perceive correctly. In our polarized age, primaries are increasingly nationalized, driven by who loves or loathes the sitting president more. Candidates are driven to odd levels of boastfulness and silly levels of character assassination. The process puts a premium on demagoguery.
My recommendation: ditch the entire system and go back to the old-fashioned party conventions. There’s nothing undemocratic about allowing parties to select their own candidates and present them to the public. Unfortunately, no one alive today knows how that system worked.
Option 2: shorten the entire season. Delaware doesn’t hold its primary until mid-September. Wouldn’t it be nice to shift the silly season back six months and then have just six weeks of general election campaigning? Sign me up.
