Republicans in Congress Who Voted Against Re-Opening the Government Were Disproportionately from Open Primary States

On October 16, both houses of Congress voted on HB 2775, the bill to re-open the federal government. Republicans who voted on the bill include 231 in the U.S. House and 45 in the U.S. Senate, totaling 276 Republican votes on the bill.

Among those 276 Republicans who voted on the bill, 135 were from states with open Republican primaries, 39 from states with semi-closed Republican primaries, 24 from states with a top-two primary, and 78 from states with closed Republican primaries. “Semi-closed” means that independents were permitted to vote in any party’s primary, although sometimes they had to join that party at the primary polling place immediately prior to voting.

Among the open primary states, 43 Republicans voted in favor of HR 2775, which was only 31.9% of all Republicans from those states who voted on the bill.

Among the semi-closed primary states, 23 Republicans voted “yes”, which was 59.0% of all Republicans from those states who voted on the bill.

Among the top-two primary states, 13 Republicans voted “yes”, which was 54.2% of all Republicans from those states who voted on the bill.

Finally, among the closed primary states, 35 Republicans voted “yes”, which was 44.9% of all Republicans from those states who voted on the bill.

States with open Republican primaries are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. States with semi-closed Republican primaries are Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. States with top-two primaries are California, Louisiana, and Washington. States with closed Republican primaries are Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. The states not named have no Republicans in Congress: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont.


Comments

Republicans in Congress Who Voted Against Re-Opening the Government Were Disproportionately from Open Primary States — No Comments

  1. A YES vote on the bill was to bankrupt the USA even worse — via more deficits added on to the national debt.

    Obviously THE economic crash of ALL time is coming – sooner rather than later.

    The LOOTERS are getting a higher and higher percentage of the GDP to consume — via the Tax slaves and moron lenders.

    P.R. and nonpartisan App.V — or tyranny — take your pick.

  2. Great information. Unfortunately, this does not provide a completely accurate count. California Republicans, for instance, were likely first elected under the closed-primary system before Prop 14. Their incumbency advantage, redistricting, etc. likely makes the current primary system moot.

    It will be much more accurate if you count the system under which these members first became incumbents. That may be too much work for now, but it’s a good idea for any other journalists or academics out there.

  3. California only has three Republican US House members in their first term. Doug LaMalfa voted against the bill; Paul Cook and David Valadao voted for it.

  4. Thanks! I’m not intimately familiar with other recent changes beyond California, Idaho, and Washington, but I don’t think that it will change your numbers much.

    It would be interesting to see how these numbers have changed across similarly contentious battles over the past several Congresses. You could track the votes of members under changing primary systems, and mark any changes. It would likely be a small sample size given how many Republicans are coming out of California and Washington, but still good. Redistricting could also cause some problems, but can be controlled.

    Keep up the great work.

  5. A lot of those open primary states are Southern states that are more red and thus more likely to present a primary challenger. Correlation doesn’t always mean causation. It could be more of a Southern tradition of not wanting to tie people to parties very tightly. A former Virginia delegate I know tells me VA almost took party labels off the ballot entirely in the 70’s.

  6. I don’t argue that open primaries cause any particular type of behavior on the part of elected officials. I maintain the type of primary system has no effect on the behavior of politicians. Proponents of one type of primary system versus another primary system lose track of the fact that motivated voters will vote in the dominant party’s primary no matter what the system is. If it is a closed primary system, the motivated primary voter will join the dominant party so as to vote in its primary.

    And as to people who think that a top-two primary will change the behavior of elected officials if we just allow enough time, please study Louisiana, which has had a top-two primary for state and local office continuously starting in 1975. Isn’t 38 years long enough for a test?

  7. Ohhhh okay Richard. I thought your point was to advocate for closed primaries, now I see you’re just advocating against top two. Right with you there. Agree with what you say about voter behavior in each primary too. Personally I like traditional (not top-two) open primaries, but anything is better than top two.

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