Karl Stomberg on a popular social media site said:
In 2018, there were three competitive statewide primaries, and that led to the biggest midterm primary turnout in Delaware history, which was followed by the biggest midterm general turnout in history. When people vote in primaries, they vote in the general, and competitive elections get new people to vote in primaries. What better way to get young people involved in the process than to give them an actual choice on something that matters? People should definitely still be helping out people without primaries (everyone should be knocking for Stephanie Barry for example), but a little competition never hurt our democracy.
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I can assure you it’s more than a theory. On Laura’s campaign, we had several people who had gotten involved with someone like Kerri or Chris Johnson that probably wouldn’t have gotten involved otherwise. And the primary numbers I believe speak for themselves. In 2014, there was only one serious statewide primary, and Democratic turnout was only 7%. In the general, we ended up losing the treasurer’s seat because of lackluster Democratic engagement.
In 2018, we had historically high turnout in the primaries: 25% for Democrats. And the blue wave that followed flipped a state senate seat, a few state house seats, and turned the treasurer’s seat blue again despite all odds. I think it’s important that we have great groups like DWFI that can stay out of primaries and help Democrats flip seats, but I don’t think we should be trying to push back the energy that new candidates bring to the floor.