{"id":2671880,"date":"2026-09-28T12:19:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignmassachusetts-proposal-axing-party-primaries-could-block-out-conservatives-from-general-elections\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T12:21:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:21:05","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignmassachusetts-proposal-axing-party-primaries-could-block-out-conservatives-from-general-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignmassachusetts-proposal-axing-party-primaries-could-block-out-conservatives-from-general-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"MA Ballot Question Could &#8216;Block Out Principled Conservatives&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignmassachusetts-proposal-axing-party-primaries-could-block-out-conservatives-from-general-elections%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2671880&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In Massachusetts, voters will face nine ballot questions this November, notably including a proposal that could replace conventional party primaries with a single, top-two primary system where all candidates compete on the same ballot. Critics argue this change may hinder &#8220;principled conservatives&#8221; from advancing to the general election, as it could allow self-reliant and non-party voters to disproportionately influence the nomination process. This concern echoes issues seen in other states, such as Alaska, where ranked-choice voting was implemented to bypass party primaries, resulting in increased influence of outsider voters and potentially favoring candidates who appeal to a broader, more moderate electorate. Similar debates are underway in North Carolina and through proposals like the &#8220;final five&#8221; voting system,which aim to create open,nonpartisan primaries but may unintentionally dilute conservative influence. Critics,including political analysts and election integrity advocates,contend that these reforms ofen benefit establishment and liberal interests at the expense of principled conservative candidates and real party voter control.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>With the focus on races in states like Texas, Michigan, Maine, and Alaska, it\u2019s easy to overlook consequential ballot measures this upcoming election. But in Massachusetts, voters will face one proposal that could, according to a conservative election-law scholar, block \u201cprincipled conservatives\u201d from even making it to the general election. <\/p>\n<p>Massachusetts voters will be asked to vote on nine ballot questions this November, including questions on marijuana, firearms regulations, and housing development issues. But perhaps the most important ballot question is the third initiative which, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlstrategies.com\/insights-center\/viewpoints\/2026-09-22-massachusetts-2026-ballot-questions-what-clients-need-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according <\/a>to ML Strategies, \u201cwould eliminate separate party primaries for state elections and replace them with a single primary in which candidates from all parties appear on the same ballot. The top two finishers would advance to the general election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But should the ballot initiative pass, it could hurt \u201cprincipled conservatives\u201d from having a say, senior fellow at The Claremont Institute Dr. John Eastman told The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese measures are often designed to block out principled conservatives from getting nominated, with independent voters (in semi-open primary states like Colorado) and both independents and Democrats (in full open-primary states) often affecting the outcome,\u201d Eastman said. <\/p>\n<p><strong>[READNEXT:[READNEXT:<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/08\/24\/the-senate-race-in-alaska-is-what-a-rigged-election-looks-like\/\">The Senate Race In Alaska Is What A Rigged Election Looks Like<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cRINO Republicans as well as Democrats support them. Then, come general elections in November, the uniparty prevails no matter what,\u201d Eastman explained. \u201cWe actually funded a survey and expert testimony to show that independent voters have different views than Republican primary voters. And several candidates subsequently submitted sworn affidavits that they moderate their messages when appealing to independent voters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As of August, 13 states have <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/15\/activists-try-and-fail-to-nuke-88-year-old-pa-election-law-by-claiming-its-an-emergency\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">closed primaries<\/a>, in which voters must be registered with a political party in order to vote in that party\u2019s primary, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Primary_election_types_by_state\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ballotpedia<\/a>. There are 10 states with semi-closed primaries, 5 with top-two style primaries, and 11 with party discretion on who gets to run in their primaries, according to Ballotpedia. <\/p>\n<p>Alaska is a good example of what could happen when a state scraps party primaries and replaces it with an open-primary system. In 2022 in Alaska, operatives of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, desperate to save her seat while also remaining RINO,  \u201cdevised a plan to avoid a primary\u201d by pushing ranked-choice voting, Tristan Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/09\/alaskas-ranked-choice-voting-scheme-was-a-plot-to-save-murkowski-but-it-also-doomed-palin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> in these pages. The party primaries were replaced by an open-party primary where the top four candidates advance to the general. Voters then \u201crank\u201d their preferred choices and votes are continually tabulated until one candidate hits the 50 percent threshold. <\/p>\n<p>Murkowksi was facing a challenge from the more conservative Republican Kelly Tshibaka. Notably, Alaska is a state President Donald Trump has won by double digits. Ultimately Murkowski won the race, but as Justice reported, only because of help from voters who would not have otherwise chosen her in a Republican primary. As Justice reported, operatives for Murkowksi \u201ctheorized\u201d that \u201cDemocrats \u2026 would rank Murkowksi as their number two preference, giving the incumbent senator the upper hand when the Democrat candidate is eliminated as the lowest vote-getting in a three-way race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Massachusetts\u2019 ballot question would work differently in that it would only advance two candidates and not used rank choice voting, it does raise the same issue of whether Republican voters would get to choose their party\u2019s nominees alone. <\/p>\n<p>Other states have found themselves at the center of similar fights over how much influence voters outside a party should have over the party\u2019s nominees, such as North Carolina, where Republicans attempted to allow unaffiliated voters the right to vote in their party primary. While the proposal wouldn\u2019t have created a top-two system like Massachusetts\u2019 ballot initiative would, the attempt still could have had the similar impact that chills true conservative out of the party. <\/p>\n<p>Jim Womack, president of the North Carolina Election Integrity Team, explained to The Federalist\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/08\/23\/north-carolina-republicans-hijack-their-own-election-integrity-bill-to-eliminate-closed-primaries\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Shawn Fleetwood<\/a> how \u2014 as described by Fleetwood \u2014 \u201cthe large number of unaffiliated voters in the state could derail more conservative candidates in Republican primaries to the benefit of establishment Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In another instance, the Institute for Political Innovation promoted a \u201cfinal five voting\u201d system that would replace partisan party primaries with a single election for any candidate to run in regardless of party affiliation. Final five voting would then lead to a ranked-choice general election, while the Massachusetts ballot initiative would send two top candidates to the general election. Still, both the \u201cfinal five voting\u201d system and Massachusetts\u2019 initiative would effectively allow an open primary where outside voters could influence which Republicans make it to the general election (if at all). <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/07\/31\/inside-the-pr-operation-to-peddle-ranked-choice-voting-methods-to-conservatives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jason Snead<\/a>, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, similarly told The Federalist that that move would hurt conservatives. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeep-pocketed liberal donors are going to great lengths to recruit conservative and Republican spokespeople for their ideas,\u201d Snead said. \u201cThe effort is very clearly designed to create a perception that ranked-choice voting is bipartisan, when in fact, it is an idea that is intended to push politics to the left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The broader RCV method, Snead added, is \u201cdesigned to give those very liberal mega-donors even more sway over American politics than they have right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Massachusetts ballot measure may block principled conservatives&#8217; path<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2671881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Two_people_standing_in_a_voting_booth-e1790608512837.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[7386,4539,5610,5894,4351],"class_list":["post-2671880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-ballot","tag-conservatives","tag-massachusetts","tag-politics","tag-voting"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Two_people_standing_in_a_voting_booth-e1790608512837.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2671880"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2671888,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671880\/revisions\/2671888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2671881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2671880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2671880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2671880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}