Beginning today, Feb. 1, with the Iowa caucuses, voting to select the next Republican presidential nominee will finally be underway. The horserace that is primary season will reach Virginia, along with several other states, on March 1, also known as Super Tuesday. Ordinarily, the Virginia primary would not be in the news this early in the year, as campaigns are primarily focused on Iowa and New Hampshire. But it made headlines when the state GOP announced its plan to require all primary voters to declare loyalty to the Republican Party. For some, this might seem ridiculous, conjuring up mental images of peasant voters forced to swear fealty to the dreaded Republican establishment. Or it may seem redundant, as one could reasonably expect that GOP primary voters are already Republicans who will assuredly vote for the eventual nominee. But the problem with the pledge is not that it is unnecessary; rather, the pledge does not go far enough.
In order to be eligible to vote in a Republican primary, you ought to be a registered Republican. This is called a closed primary, and the Republican National Committee, or RNC, should implement one in each state. It may be too late in this election cycle to overcome the logistical challenges such a proposal presents, but Donald Trump’s campaign is illustrative of why the RNC would be wise to adopt closed primaries in the future. While closed primaries cannot bind you to your party’s candidate in the general election, they do help ensure that a party’s eventual nominee is at least selected by members of that party. Virginia, in spite of the state GOP’s toothless loyalty oath, is an open primary, meaning voters do not need to be registered with any party in order to cast a vote. Indeed, even with the addition of this pledge, there is nothing stopping a Democrat from attending the primary, swearing loyalty to the GOP, voting for a candidate and then supporting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) in the general election anyway. Essentially, the Virginia GOP devised a fake solution to a very real problem: Democrats and other individuals seeking to elect Clinton or Sanders in November might observe Trump’s astronomically high unfavorable numbers with the general electorate and deduce that helping him win the Republican nomination in the primary would ensure a Democratic president wins the general.
Avoiding this possible sabotage is just one reason parties would be wise to adopt closed primaries. Perhaps even more worrying than Hillary-backing Democrats crossing party lines to choose their general election opponent is Democrats crossing party lines because they actually support Donald Trump. On the surface, this may not seem like an issue; candidates of all stripes often speak of expanding the electorate and widening the base. But many Trump supporters are noticeably different. A recent study found that Trump’s support stems primarily from registered Democrats — who have become disillusioned with their party — followed closely by unregistered voters, then independents and then registered Republicans. While winning over converts from the opposing party may prove beneficial in a general election, it is worrying for the Republican Party if large swathes of these voters turn out in the primary.
The reason is simple. A party, like a religion, should be defined by its traditional members. It should not allow recent converts or those too lazy even to register to vote to dictate the course of the party to the party’s longtime devotees. In this election especially the stakes are high: The GOP is the pro-life party. Donald Trump has called himself “very pro-choice” most of his life and has continued touting his pro-choice sister as his first Supreme Court nominee even after his supposed pro-life conversion. The GOP is the party of limited government. Trump embraces a reckless concept of eminent domain completely at odds with any respect for individual property rights. The GOP claims to be the party of the Constitution. Trump shows little regard for the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The GOP supports free trade, low taxes and policies geared toward economic growth. Trump’s call for protectionist tariffs as high as 45 percent would manifest as one of the highest tax hikes on Americans in modern times.
These issues have come to define the modern GOP brand and what it means to be a conservative, and a Trump-led Republican ticket would signify the end of these principles. A closed primary allows a party to remain true to itself. Permitting disaffected Democrats (in this instance, poorer, blue-collar whites who maintain their big-government tendencies but express disdain for both parties’ perceived pro-immigration policies) to define today’s Republican Party may have short-term advantages for Trump-supporting Republicans, but also allows voters who have never considered themselves Republican to completely redefine the party’s core beliefs.
Opponents of closed primaries express justifiable concern. Closed primaries prevent independents from having any say over the eventual nominees. Closed primaries also may force each party’s candidates to cater toward the base, possibly leading the parties to nominate more extreme candidates and leaving the independent centrists with no palatable option to vote for in the general election. But closed primaries do not prevent independents from having their say in general or primary elections. For the general election, anyone is free to vote for whomever he pleases regardless of party affiliation; for primaries, current independents would merely have to register with the party with which they more closely align — and yes, even independents align with a party. Moreover, as we are seeing this year with the continuing dominance of Donald Trump, it appears an open primary can nominate just as extreme of a candidate as closed one. It is thus clear that whatever the downsides closed primaries present, allowing any individual regardless of party affiliation or ideology to vote in a party’s primary presents substantially more risk than preventing non-members from participating.
Matt Winesett is a Senior Associate Editor for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at m.winesett@cavalierdaily.com.
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