Category Archives: political parties

“Trump Could Clinch the Nomination Before the G.O.P. Knows if He’s a Felon”

August 31, 2023, 7:06 amelection subversion risk, political partiesRick Hasen

NYT: By the time Donald J. Trump is sitting at his federal trial on charges of criminally conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, he may have already secured enough delegates to effectively clinch the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination. The… Continue reading

“The False Promise of Party-Centric Reform”

August 30, 2023, 6:49 amalternative voting systems, political partiesRick Hasen

Seamus Allen: But what change to pursue? For the vast majority of the public, the end goal is clear: we want a democracy that provides representation for all. To accomplish that, the US needs to adopt some form of proportional… Continue reading

“How Trump’s Election Lies Left the Michigan G.O.P. Broken and Battered”

August 29, 2023, 6:59 amfraudulent fraud squad, political partiesRick Hasen

NYT: The Michigan Republican Party is starving for cash. A group of prominent activists — including a former statewide candidate — was hit this month with felony charges connected to a bizarre plot to hijack election machines. And in the… Continue reading

“How Trump is rewriting the GOP’s rules to win in 2024”

August 4, 2023, 8:06 ampolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

Politico: “Trump’s team has worked behind the scenes to ensure delegate selection rules play to their favor — or, in their rivals’ telling, to ‘rig’ the system.”

APSA and Protect Democracy Report on Political Parties

July 12, 2023, 3:55 ampolitical partiesDan Tokaji

APSA and Protect Democracy have issued a new report entitled “More than Red and Blue: Political Parties and American Democracy.” From the press release: A new report released today by the American Political Science Association (APSA) and Protect Democracy… Continue reading

“Iowa GOP sets Jan. 15 for first-in-the-nation caucus, starting 2024 race”

July 9, 2023, 8:25 pmpolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

WaPo: Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses will be held on Jan. 15, state Republicans voted on Saturday, kicking off the 2024 presidential nomination process. The vote by the Iowa Republican Party’s state central committee, which scheduled the contest on the Martin… Continue reading

“The Associational Rights of Political Parties”

July 7, 2023, 7:35 amcumulative voting, political parties, primaries, third partiesNew ScholarshipTabatha Abu El-Haj

Sharing a chapter I have written for The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law (Eugene Mazo, ed.) (2023, forthcoming). The chapter, among other things, stresses the ways that the U.S. Supreme Court’s current approach to the associational freedom of political… Continue reading

“Our two-party political system isn’t working. The fix? More parties.”

July 5, 2023, 7:31 ampolitical partiesRick Hasen

Lee Drutman WaPo oped (adapted from his new report, “More Parties, Better Parties: The Case for Pro-Parties Democracy Reform.”) It’s presidential campaign season, so pick your panic: The No Labels organization threatens to run a centrist such as… Continue reading

“The Democratic Party promised to overhaul its primaries. Doing that has been anything but simple”

July 3, 2023, 7:36 ampolitical parties, primariesRick Hasen

AP: New Hampshire is in open rebellion. Georgia is all but out. South Carolina and Nevada are on board but face stiff Republican pushback. Michigan’s compliance may mean having to cut the state legislative session short, despite Democrats controlling both… Continue reading

Nevada Republican Party sues to stop from being forced to use a presidential primary instead of a caucus

May 31, 2023, 10:25 ampolitical parties, primariesDerek Muller

A Nevada news outlet has the details here, and the news release from the Nevada Republican Party is here. It took me a while to find the complaint, which was filed in state court last week in a… Continue reading

“Cambodia Disqualifies Main Opposition Party Ahead of Election”

May 18, 2023, 4:17 amcomparative election law, legislation and legislatures, political partiesDerek Muller

New York Times: For the second consecutive parliamentary election, Cambodia has disqualified the country’s main opposition party, eliminating the only credible challenge to the ruling party of Prime Minister Hun Sen. The country’s National Election Commission on Monday refused… Continue reading

Emerging Fight Over Party Control of Nominees

May 9, 2023, 5:05 ampolitical parties, political polarization, primariesnomination procedures, party rulesTabatha Abu El-Haj

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein reports this morning on efforts by the Georgia Republican Assembly, a conservative faction within the state GOP, to change the party’s rules to permit the state party to block candidates from qualifying to run as… Continue reading

The Republican Party’s Invisible Primary

May 9, 2023, 4:46 ampolitical parties, political polarization, primaries2024 Primary Election Cycle, invisible primaryTabatha Abu El-Haj

Seth Masket, writing at Politico, shares results of his survey of GOP county chairs about their current leanings in the 2024 presidential primary. “Overall, this survey suggests a group of party insiders that hasn’t made up its mind, but… Continue reading

Party v. Public Opinion: The Remnants of a Politics Past

May 8, 2023, 3:35 pmpolitical partiespolarization, responsivenessTabatha Abu El-Haj

These days when a partisan official chooses to break with the party to represent the interests of his constituents it really is news. Last week, Merv Riepe, a Republican State Senator in Nebraska cast the vote that blocked the passage… Continue reading