Most political operatives tend to be obsessed over general elections. They’re the events that receive wall-to-wall media coverage from the corporate press and animate millions of voters nationwide.
However, are these kinds of elections all that?
Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie doesn’t think so.
In a tweet he posted on May 23, 2022, Massie observed “In general elections you vote for a party. In primary elections you vote for a person.”
This is an important trend for liberty conservatives to pick up on. Primary elections are a way to put hot-button issues at the center of public policy discussions in certain districts and statewide races. Many grassroots activists took advantage of primaries during the Tea Party era to take out lousy incumbents. The most notable example being David Brat defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor back in 2014.
Primaries present genuine opportunities for disaffected conservatives to flex their muscles and take out bad incumbents, or at the very least make them sweat.
Massie is correct in showing the benefits of primaries, which should be taken seriously by any individual or organization that desires making substantial changes in DC politics.
If people want to avoid the predictable scenario of having to vote for a “lesser of two evils” candidate in the general election, they must fully take advantage of primaries and make things right there.
