What We Do
OUR MISSION is to defeat MAGA ideology at the ballot box, by supporting non-MAGA Republicans in red states. Restoring rationality in the Republican party is the best hope for a functioning American democracy.
America has a two-party system. It is only when both parties debate and govern in good faith, in accordance with the Constitution, that democracy can function. Since we’ve been lacking this good-faith governance recently, democracy at the Federal level has essentially ground to a halt. If non-MAGA Republicans can gain control of their party, America can again get to work solving the nation’s problems.
“If more voters saw that primary party-switching could work in their interest…the result in the aggregate would be to help restore a more centrist leadership in Washington, and perhaps even make government functional again.”
— “When Your Vote Doesn’t Matter, Try Switching Ballots”, by Jonathan Robinson and Sean Trende, The Atlantic, May 2022.
Why We Need Primary RINO
MAGA extremism is killing America, fueled by red-state primaries.
MAGA was invented by Trump, for Trump. MAGA’s goal is autocratic rule, and MAGA’s method is obstruction and chaos--it allows MAGA to say that autocrats are needed to restore order.
Just two out of many examples of this obstruction are the annual MAGA efforts to shut down the government rather than pass a federal budget, and Trump’s canceling the immigration plan he previously supported, so that, in his words, the continued border chaos would help him get elected.
This obstructionism existed before Trump, and it will survive him as a tool for right wing autocracy unless it is defeated at the ballot box. However, primaries in deep-red states have ensured that extremist MAGA candidates will always win a few dozen congressional seats, which form Trump’s congressional base. Until now.
Democrats in deep-red states can stop MAGA in the primaries.
To effectively suppress MAGA, Democrats need to vote in red-state Republican primaries, selecting moderate Republican candidates, and holding them accountable. This practice is known as crossover voting. Replacing MAGA congress people with moderates will allow reasonable negotiations in congress, and government will start working again.
Is crossover voting an underhanded or anti-democratic trick, creating more chaos than it solves?
No! Primaries were created to allow voters a say in nominating candidates. But they are badly structured, so that they favor extreme candidates (because only the most dedicated partisans bother to vote in primaries). Crossover voting ensures that more constituents get a say in who is nominated in one-party states, where the nominee will certainly be elected. Crossover voting is real democracy at work: voters electing their representatives.
Will there ever be another way to do this, better than crossover voting? We hope that in the future, states will choose to hold a “top-5 vote-getter” primary that includes all parties. Then the general election will include 5 candidates, not just one from the dominant party. If this is ever adopted in the future, it will ensure all voters get a say in electing their representatives. Until then, Primary RINO will fight for crossover voting, as a counter to the extremism of primaries in one-party states.
Join us, to get Democrats voting in Republican primaries!