Every day adds evidence of need for electoral reform

The book launched last week is even more relevant today.

The recording of the event hosted by AEI to launch the book Electoral Reform in the United States: Proposals to Combat Polarization and Extremism is now available.

Each day since the event confirms the pressing need for the kind of reform discussed in the book and at the event, especially changing from the current practice of partisan primaries to the kind of “all candidates” (regardless of party) primaries held in California, Alaska, and elsewhere.

First, there’s Senator Joni Ernst’s backpedaling on Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Defense Secretary. As detailed in an episode of the Daily podcast, initially Ernst signaled her discomfort with Hegseth. Ernst, a combat veteran and sexual assault victim was unhappy with Hegseth’s opposition to women serving in combat and concerned about the allegations of sexual assault made against Hegseth.

But Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, is up for reelection in 2026. After she gave an interview on Fox News indicating that she might vote against Hegseth’s confirmation, she draw the wrath of MAGA loyalists who immediately threatened her with a primary challenge. Iowa’s attorney general, who would be a credible primary challenger, wrote an op-ed warning against rejecting Trump’s Cabinet picks, and a local talk show host indicated he might primary her with Trump’s blessing.

While Ernst hasn’t said that she’d support Hegseth for sure, these threats caused her to change her tune significantly. Now she says: “As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.” Supporting the nominee through the process is not a sign of opposition.

There is little doubt that the threat of being primaried has had its effect on Ernst. As the veteran political analyst Charlie Cook put it recently, “You sit down with Republican senators and one thing that comes through—they are absolutely terrified of a primary challenge.”

Now there’s the new threat to House members of being primaried over the bipartisan budget deal that Trump decided to tank after Elon Musk expressed opposition to it. That threat immediately killed the deal, sending the legislative process into chaos given the deadline to avoid a government shutdown before midnight Saturday.

If one didn’t previously recognize the necessity of electoral reform in order to liberate legislators from this kind of hyper-partisan pressure, which prevents them from governing effectively in the public interest, one cannot deny this necessity now.