For a few days now, an agile and readable essay which explains very well the primary mechanism to elect the delegates who will choose the Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate who, in presidential elections of the United States of America next November, they will compete for the highest office of the most powerful state in the world.
The book, published by goWare, The race for the White House 2024. The election of the president of the United States from the primaries to beyond the vote on November 5, is the latest effort by Professor Stefano Luconi, professor of History and Institutions of the Americas at the University of Padua. Luconi, again with goWare, has published an easy-to-read text, which could act as a compendium to this one, on the complex institutional system of the United States, US institutions from the drafting of the Constitution to Biden, 1787-2022. Also available in all online and city bookstores.
From January to August
The first round of primary elections e huddle it begins on January 15th with the huddle republican and the first part of the democratic one in Iowa (the results of the latter will only be available on March 5) which will be followed by the Republican and Democratic primaries in the State of New Hampshire on January 23 and then take place in all the states and culminate on July 15 in the Republican Party National Convention and, on August 19, in Democratic Party National Convention.
Like all the media, they do not fail to remind us on a daily basis that the 2024 elections are considered among the most important elections not only in the history of the United States but also for the possible international consequences of their outcome.
The stakes
Europeans will certainly remember the failure of the United States, which had played a decisive part in the Allied war effort, to ratify the Peace of Versailles of 1919 after their President Woodrow Wilson had openly worked to convince reluctant Europeans to introduce institutions of international arbitration, such as the League of Nations. The United States ended up not joining it, returning to isolationism and effectively condemning these institutions to irrelevance in the international controversies that were the harbinger of a new world war.
Coming to today, there is widespread awareness that one will be played in the November elections decisive match on the directions of foreign policy and the international role of the United States. A match whose outcome will greatly influence the ongoing crises and the new structures of the international chessboard which are in a phase of very strong fluidity.
We asked Professor Luconi a series of questions about the main events that will lead to the inauguration of the new president: the primaries, the party conventions, the financing of the candidates, the November elections for the President and Congress, the transfer of power and the inauguration of the new president.
Today we publish the first interview, the one on the primaries.
Enjoy the reading!
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Q: What are primaries for?
R: Primaries are elections in which the parties, through popular suffrage, designate candidates for public offices, including the presidency. In the latter case, voters are asked to choose their states' delegates to a national convention that assigns the nomination for the White House. Aspiring delegates present themselves on opposing lists linked to possible candidates.
Q: How are these delegates elected?
R: The Democratic Party assigns delegates with proportional representation and a 15% threshold. The Republican one uses the majority, but only for the consultations that will be held after March 12th. The primaries will take place on different dates between January and June, depending on the states, with the majority concentrated on March 5, "Super Tuesday".
Q: Why were primaries introduced?
R: Primaries were introduced at the beginning of the twentieth century to remove the nomination of candidates from party leaders and make it more democratic, entrusting it to the decisions of voters. These consultations have different types because the eligibility criteria to vote vary from state to state. It should be noted that, to vote, you must register on the voter lists, declaring yourself a member of a party or independent.
Q: There are different types of primaries, right?
R: Yes. There are "closed" primaries which allow you to vote only in the elections of the party you are affiliated with, excluding independents. In "semi-closed" or "semi-open" primaries, voters belonging to a party participate exclusively in the consultations of their own political party, but those registered as independent can vote in the primaries of a party of their choice. Finally, "open" primaries allow voters to decide which primaries to participate in regardless of their registration.
Q: Do the primaries have an institutional, public nature?
R: Yes. The primaries were initially considered an internal matter within the parties which, as associations of private citizens, defined the procedures at their sole discretion. In 1944, however, the federal Supreme Court recognized the public nature of the parties for their legislative and government function, legitimizing the regulation of primaries by the authorities.
Q: Should the ruling of the Colorado Supreme Court regarding Trump's ineligibility for election in the state primaries be seen in this sense?
R: Exactly. For this reason, albeit with sentences subject to appeals to the federal Supreme Court, in recent weeks the Supreme Court of Colorado and the Secretary of State of Maine were able to exclude Trump from the primaries of their respective states for his involvement in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Q: There are also so-called Caucuses to choose delegates. What are they?
A: Not all states use primaries to directly elect delegates to national conventions. A small minority, which includes Iowa, where the vote is on January 15, make use of the huddle. These are assemblies of party members where, after a debate, the participants nominate the delegates for the county conventions (administrative divisions similar to the Italian provinces) who, in turn, elect those for the national convention. In Iowa, the Republicans will complete this procedure on January 15, while the Democrats will limit themselves to choosing only the delegates for the county conventions, who on March 5, will designate those for the national convention.
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Next week we will hear from Professor Stefano Luconi on the issue of the summer conventions for choosing the candidates of the two parties for the Presidency and Vice Presidency.
