{"id":29414,"date":"2026-09-02T10:58:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?post_type=story&#038;p=29414"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:58:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:58:43","slug":"should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Should there be a national primary Election Day? Clark Professor Robert Boatright thinks so"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-only-20-of-americans-vote-in-primaries\">Only 20% of Americans vote in primaries<\/h2>\n\n\n<iframe allow=\"autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; clipboard-write\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"175\" style=\"border:0;width:100%;max-width:800px;overflow:hidden;background:transparent;\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day\/id1608025510?i=1000786574784\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"648\" height=\"972\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/The-Problem-with-Primary-Voters-book-cover.avif\" alt=\"image of &quot;The Problem with Primary Voters&quot; book cover\" class=\"wp-image-29418\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.6666731837021975;width:281px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/The-Problem-with-Primary-Voters-book-cover.avif 648w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/The-Problem-with-Primary-Voters-book-cover-200x300.avif 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Book cover of &#8220;The Problem with Primary Voters,&#8221; by Robert Boatright, Caroline Tolbert and Nathan K. Micatka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>While there are national &#8220;get out the vote&#8221; campaigns for general elections in the U.S., primary elections don&#8217;t see any of that same energy. In fact, only about 20% of the American electorate votes in primaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;From the perspective of political parties, there is a belief that competition in primaries is bad. Parties tend to want to choose their nominees without the fuss of having a primary at all, so you&#8217;ll see parties trying to clear the field before the primary happens, or parties taking other steps to try to ensure that there&#8217;s a lack of competition,&#8221; says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/departments\/political-science\/\">Political Science<\/a> Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/robert-boatright\/\">Robert Boatright<\/a>. &#8220;In a way, you can&#8217;t blame people for not voting, because they&#8217;re often not encouraged to vote at all in their primaries.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-group alignright boxout has-white-color has-blue-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-d6dd9fa46d69bf8d0a38f7cd189080dc is-content-justification-left is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-12dd3699 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-clark-votes\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/clark-votes\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/clark-votes\/\">Clark Votes<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Explore our collaborative initiative to support students in voter registration, voter education, developing a voter plan, voting, and processing decisions made impact the country and our world.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n\n\n\n<p>Primaries are the subject of Boatright&#8217;s latest book, &#8220;The Problem with Primary Voters,&#8221; co-authored with Caroline Tolbert and Nathan K. Micatka. On this episode of <strong>Challenge. Change.<\/strong>, Boatright explains primary trends and offers a case for establishing a national primary day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Challenge. Change.<\/strong>\u00a0is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4UuYAjq1d3Hq45cjwxoCNL?si=50399113fe324705\">Spotify<\/a>\u202for\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/challenge-change\/id1608025510\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile has-border-color has-blue-border-color\" style=\"border-width:6px;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--10);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--10)\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Economics_and_the_World_Economy_2025-7-1-1024x682.avif\" alt=\"professor at front of classroom lecturing to students\" class=\"wp-image-29423 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Economics_and_the_World_Economy_2025-7-1-1024x682.avif 1024w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Economics_and_the_World_Economy_2025-7-1-300x200.avif 300w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Economics_and_the_World_Economy_2025-7-1-768x512.avif 768w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Economics_and_the_World_Economy_2025-7-1-1536x1024.avif 1536w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Economics_and_the_World_Economy_2025-7-1-1200x800.avif 1200w, https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Economics_and_the_World_Economy_2025-7-1.avif 1865w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"h-more-from-challenge-change\">More from Challenge. Change.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/05\/13\/clark-alum-brings-sustainable-practices-to-beauty-and-skincare-industries\/\">Sustainable Beauty and Safe Products with Mia Davis &#8217;01, M.A. &#8217;03<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f <a href=\"http:\/\/Detention Centers, Migration, and Isolation with Professors Asha Best and Emma Shaw Crane\">Detention Centers, Migration, and Isolation with Professors Asha Best and Emma Shaw Crane<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2025\/11\/10\/rags-to-rags-the-multi-generational-shock-of-the-victorian-poor-law\/\">Do Cash Transfers Have an Intergenerational Impact? with Economics Professor Jon Denton-Schneider<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On this episode of Challenge. Change., Boatright explains primary trends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29417,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-blue)","story_headerImg":29417,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223,245],"displayed_author":[237],"featured":[494],"topic":[262,150,160,336,264,265],"class_list":["post-29414","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clark-community","category-social-sciences","displayed_author-melissa-hanson","featured-secondary","topic-clark-votes","topic-faculty","topic-faculty-research","topic-major-in-political-science","topic-political-science","topic-politics-and-government"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.1 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Should there be a national primary Election Day? Clark Professor Robert Boatright thinks so | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should there be a national primary Election Day? Clark Professor Robert Boatright thinks so\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On this episode of Challenge. Change., Boatright explains primary trends.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ClarkU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-02T14:58:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023_Rob_Boatwright_Oct-4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1771\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1181\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/02\\\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/02\\\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\\\/\",\"name\":\"Should there be a national primary Election Day? Clark Professor Robert Boatright thinks so | ClarkU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/02\\\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/02\\\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/37\\\/2023_Rob_Boatwright_Oct-4.avif\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-02T14:58:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-02T14:58:43+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/02\\\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/02\\\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/37\\\/2023_Rob_Boatwright_Oct-4.avif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/37\\\/2023_Rob_Boatwright_Oct-4.avif\",\"width\":1771,\"height\":1181,\"caption\":\"Professor Robert Boatright\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/story\\\/29414#breadcrumbs\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":0,\"name\":\"ClarkU\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"ClarkU News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/story\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":6,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/story\\\/29414\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"ClarkU News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should there be a national primary Election Day? Clark Professor Robert Boatright thinks so | ClarkU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Should there be a national primary Election Day? Clark Professor Robert Boatright thinks so","og_description":"On this episode of Challenge. Change., Boatright explains primary trends.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/","og_site_name":"ClarkU News","article_modified_time":"2026-09-02T14:58:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1771,"height":1181,"url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023_Rob_Boatwright_Oct-4.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/","url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/","name":"Should there be a national primary Election Day? Clark Professor Robert Boatright thinks so | ClarkU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023_Rob_Boatwright_Oct-4.avif","datePublished":"2026-09-02T14:58:42+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-02T14:58:43+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/should-there-be-a-national-primary-election-day-clark-professor-robert-boatright-thinks-so\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023_Rob_Boatwright_Oct-4.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023_Rob_Boatwright_Oct-4.avif","width":1771,"height":1181,"caption":"Professor Robert Boatright"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/29414#breadcrumbs","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":0,"name":"ClarkU","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"ClarkU News","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":6,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/29414"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/","name":"ClarkU News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023_Rob_Boatwright_Oct-4-1024x683.avif","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/29414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/story"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/29414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29426,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/29414\/revisions\/29426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29414"},{"taxonomy":"displayed_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/displayed_author?post=29414"},{"taxonomy":"featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured?post=29414"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=29414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}