{"id":342858,"date":"2025-12-14T00:24:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/unified-primaries-and-making-congress-more-functional-former-senators-flake-and-manchin\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T00:24:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:24:51","slug":"unified-primaries-and-making-congress-more-functional-former-senators-flake-and-manchin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=342858","title":{"rendered":"Unified Primaries and Making Congress More Functional: Former Senators Flake and Manchin"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In my 2024 Dunwody Lecture, Combating Extremism,<\/a> <\/em>I said that among political reforms that are plausibly realistic in the short term, the one that, in my view, would make the most practical difference would be the shift to the unified primary \u2014 such as the structure currently used in Alaska. In the recent NYT\u2019s interview <\/a>of Senator Smith and former Senators Manchin and Flake, Senators Flake and Manchin, who obviously have much more immediate experience with the election process, expressed similar views. See this comment from former Senator Flake:<\/p>\n

Flake: <\/strong>If you had five or six states with open-primary laws like Alaska has, that would create a whole different power structure in the Senate.<\/p>\n

That follows this comment from former Senator Manchin:<\/p>\n

Manchin:<\/strong> I\u2019ve come to the conclusion there\u2019s two things that would change politics in America: [congressional] term limits and open primaries. Our friend Lisa Murkowski would not get elected through the primary process in Alaska if it wasn\u2019t for the open primary. When you can control the primary, that\u2019s what gives President Trump, or gives a Democrat president, the power in a real blue state or a red state, knowing that they have that power to name who they want or primary you. An open primary \u2014 boom. The best will succeed, and he can\u2019t target you.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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