In today’s deeply divided Congress, the balance of power is razor-thin. Just a few votes can swing major legislation — from tax policy to impeachment proceedings. That gives tremendous leverage not only to individual representatives, but also to small, organized factions like the rightwing House Freedom Caucus and the leftwing Squad, whose members regularly dominate headlines and internal party dynamics.
Just this week, the Freedom Caucus delayed the passage of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — a sweeping package combining border security, spending cuts, and conservative policy priorities — by demanding stricter immigration provisions and deeper budget reductions, underscoring their outsized influence on the Republican agenda.
But here's the catch: These factions might be loud — but they’re even less representative of American voters than Congress as a whole.
According to our latest research, just 14% of eligible voters cast a meaningful vote (i.e. a vote that mattered in determining the outcome of an election) to elect the entire U.S. House in 2024. Even fewer voters had a say in electing members of these high-profile groups:
Unfortunately, this is the norm, not the exception, of America’s primary elections. In most congressional districts, the only election that matters is the primary because one party almost always wins the general election — and voter turnout in primaries is often very low. That’s how we end up with a Congress where the most extreme voices hold the most sway, despite being accountable to the fewest voters.
If we want a government that reflects the will of the people, we have to fix how we elect it. In the simplest terms, that means making more general elections matter — where most of us vote. The most realistic solution is to abolish party primaries and replace them with an open, all-candidate primary. All-candidate primaries, where every voter can choose from all the candidates regardless of party, make more general elections competitive. As elections become more competitive, our votes become more meaningful.
When more states adopt all-candidate primaries, maybe — just maybe — we won’t find ourselves in situations where the most unrepresentative members of Congress dictate the terms of legislation that affect the rest of us.
Read more about the Primary Problem and meaningful votes.
