Q&A of the Day – Political Party Endorsements & Primary Elections
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station’s page in the iHeart app.
Today’s Entry: 2 Questions: I live in district 23 and received my ballot info a few days ago. I think it shows 5 Republicans vs 1 Democrat for house seat. I reached out to Kevin Neal and asked him who Trump and or the Republican Party supports. Not one. Talk about disenfranchising voters. That's coming from the chairman of the Republican Party. Does the party just abandon and ignore districts that are too risky and they are likely to lose? Boca is rich in Jewish culture and at this time it would seem prudent to go after the Jewish vote. It definitely seems wise to support one candidate so conservatives and Republicans can unite and possibly win. Right?
Bottom Line: There are a few important points to unpack here – including the local political state of play in Florida’s 23rd District entering this November’s elections. But there’s one overarching point that’s especially important in the context of this conversation. The purpose of modern primary elections. The purpose of partisan primary elections is for voters, as opposed to the political party’s established leadership, to decide whom the candidates for various political offices should be.
While the current two-party system has effectively been in place since 1860, once the Republican Party was established under Abraham Lincoln, there was an evolution of the party nominating process and processes that played out for the next 110 years. What I’m getting ready to share is a bit of an oversimplification of how the partisan nomination processes worked but will quickly tie together the key points as to why elections are held as they are today and the role that the political parties play in those processes.
- Through 1914 political parties selected their own candidates to run in general elections.
- Starting in 1916 political parties selected their own candidates to run in general elections with limited voter input (voters could vote but their votes didn’t determine the candidates – party leadership still decided)
- Starting in 1976 the political parties turned the nominating processes over to voters through primary elections (while still retaining some “super delegate” influence over presidential election primaries specifically)
Thus, the point of primary elections over the past 48 years has been democratize the primary process by letting the voters tell the political parties who they believe the candidates should be as opposed to the parties either telling voters who the respective candidates are going to be, or in the case of what’s being questioned in today’s note, who the political parties feel the candidates should be. That’s why the political parties don’t endorse in primary elections. The Republican Party will endorse and support the Republican primary winner in Florida’s 23rd District against the incumbent Democrat Jared Moskowitz in November’s general election.
As for Donald Trump specifically, he does often endorse in party primary races, though he historically hasn’t endorsed candidates in a majority of House races and as of now that hasn’t changed. There can be multiple reasons for that being the case and they’re personal to him. Having been on hand with Donald Trump during a vetting process for endorsements previously, I’ve observed that he has to be personally very comfortable with a candidate before endorsing that candidate. That can mean a race lacking an endorsed Trump candidate is the result of a lack of direct interaction with the former president which is common.
As for the local political scene in Boca Raton and beyond in Florida’s 23rd District (which extends from southern Palm Beach County into Broward County) there most certainly isn’t a defeatist attitude in conservative circles. There’s engagement and enthusiasm. I don’t speak for the Republican Party locally or beyond but a couple of important points that aren’t lost on anyone. Donald Trump beat Joe Biden in Boca Raton in 2020. Florida’s Republicans won all statewide races in the 2022 midterms in Boca as well. Given recent voter trends which have been extremely favorable to Republicans in Florida’s 23rd District narrowing the voter registration deficit from what had been a wide double-digit lead for Democrats down to a single-digit advantage heading into this year’s election season, there’s plenty of belief that a win is not only possible in Boca, which is now effectively a red city, but within the Congressional district as well.
Hopefully this is helpful. Take next Tuesday’s primary election process for what it’s meant to be. An opportunity for you to decide who you’d prefer to have as your candidate(s) of choice to win with in November’s election(s).