Open Primaries founder John Opdycke joins Chad Peace and Cara McCormick for a wide-ranging, no-bs conversation on where the reform movement actually stands, starting with Pennsylvania's open primary fight and then asking the question: are presidential primaries even elections in the first place?
John Opdycke breaks down why 48% of Americans now identify as independent and still have no real seat at the table, then walks through Pennsylvania's Senate Bill 400 (stuck in committee despite Governor Josh Shapiro's endorsement and a bipartisan House vote). Cara and John trade war stories from Maine and Oregon, including the 2014 top-two measure that got "wiped out" 65-35 and the hard lessons that shaped Maine's later ranked choice voting win, while Chad connects it back to California's Prop 14 and the simple turnout trick that got it passed.
This episode is sponsored by the Independent Voter Project and produced by Olas Media. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
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Episode Highlights
On this episode of the Independent Voter Podcast, hosts Chad Peace and Cara McCormick welcome John Opdycke, founder of Open Primaries, who lays out his organization's mission since 2009: mobilizing the 48% of Americans who identify as independent and pushing back on Democratic and Republican control over primary elections.
The conversation turns to Pennsylvania's Senate Bill 400, an open primaries measure that passed the state Assembly with bipartisan support and earned Governor Josh Shapiro's endorsement, but remains stuck in the state Senate. John and Chad frame the fight as a voting rights issue, arguing taxpaying, military-serving independents are being denied a basic right to vote in taxpayer-funded elections.
Cara and John trade origin stories from the reform trenches, recalling Oregon's 2014 top-two ballot measure that got crushed 65-35 and how watching that defeat shaped her strategy for Maine's 2016 ranked choice voting campaign, including the importance of securing establishment "tables" and donors early.
Chad connects the thread to California's Proposition 14, explaining how a quiet, low-turnout strategy, simply informing independent voters the measure existed without a traditional campaign, drove a surge in independent turnout that caught party consultants off guard and helped the measure pass.
The group digs into Maine's current semi-open primary system and why John sees it as unfinished business compared to the fully open model he's chasing in Pennsylvania and other states, while also noting how mixing multiple reforms into one ballot measure (as in Alaska and Massachusetts) can create vulnerabilities when factions within the reform movement disagree.
Chad and John debate whether big outside money in politics actually works, with Chad arguing that poorly targeted, consultant-driven spending often underperforms because it ignores independent voters entirely, a dynamic he says explains why so many expensive campaigns against reform measures fail.
Looking ahead to 2028, John pitches the idea of an all-independent presidential primary that polls independents on every candidate across parties, while Chad argues presidential primaries function less like elections and more like unofficial polls controlled entirely by party conventions, raising the question of what role the state should actually play.
Cara closes by pointing to the bitter Maine Senate race between Troy Jackson and Susan Collins as a real-time example of the two-party system deepening division, even as John insists the independent movement is gaining momentum through grassroots organizing and growing voter engagement nationwide.
