Resolution To Open West Virginia GOP Primary Fails

Two years ago West Virginia Republicans made a significant move: they voted to close their primary elections believing the change would benefit more right-leaning candidates. Wary of backlash and facing insufficient time to notify unaffiliated voters, party leaders delayed implementation. The change was approved but set to take effect with the 2026 primary.

This marked a sharp departure from the open primary system in place since 1986, a system widely viewed as critical to Republicans wresting legislative control from Democrats as the state shifted more conservative.

A resolution seeking to reopen the West Virginia Republican Primary was introduced this week in the party’s resolution committee but failed on a 4-3 vote, leaving limited options for any change ahead of the 2026 election.

The committee’s rejection effectively closed the most direct path to reopening the primary before the May 12, 2026, election. Party insiders have a final hail mary chance tomorrow to offer floor amendments at the full State Republican Executive Committee meeting, a process widely viewed as more difficult and uncertain.

More likely, West Virginia GOP primaries this year will remain closed to all voters outside those registered with the GOP including the state’s growing independent voter community-now over 25% of the state’s voters.

The 90-day petitioning effort to put Open Primaries backed State Question 836 (top two open primaries) on the 2026 ballot has entered its final month and hundreds of volunteers are hitting the streets joining professional gatherers to go for broke. New volunteers and funders are joining the effort EVERY DAY now- OP staff and volunteers included! 

If you want to hit the streets with us, sign up here. Live in in OK and want to sign?-Here’s a list of where we’ll be gathering signatures. Can’t sign but want to help?  Donate here.

The grit and tenacity of campaign leaders, staff and volunteers is off the charts. And the press is taking notice, with a major endorsement this week from the largest paper in the state-The Oklahoman!

The endorsement follows multiple pieces this week in support from NPR, additional pieces from the Oklahoman here, here and here, News 9, Stillwater News and others.

Strap in- it’s going to be a wild ride.

ICYMI-Independent voters in Oklahoma will be shut out of  primary elections for the 2026-2027 election cycles after the State Democratic Party failed to inform the SOS of their interest in conducting an open primary. The state Republican Party has conducted closed primaries for years. Coverage of the change has blanketed the Sooner state.

Kentucky’s Closed Primary System Is An Affront To Our Democracy

There are close to 400,000 registered independent voters across the Bluegrass state. That’s over 10% of registered voters in Kentucky (and doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands of independents who join a party against their will simply to be able to vote!)  Unaffiliated, independent and ‘other’ party voters remain the fastest growing segment of Kentucky’s electorate. 

Yet Kentucky has completely closed primaries, one of the few southern states with a closed system.  

A few months ago, Open Primaries’ Let Us Vote campaign partnered with independent activist and military veteran Mark Ritter and a group of independent Kentuckians to launch Let Us Vote Kentucky to organize independent voters from Louisville to Ashland to speak out in one voice demanding-Let Us Vote. 

This week, Mark published a call to arms in papers across the state. As Mark declares:

Let Us Vote Kentucky is working to educate the state legislature, the Republican and Democratic Parties and the public at large and supporting reform. We’ll keep you posted on their progress.

Louisiana's Closed Primaries Shifts Power To Insiders

Last year, party insiders led by Governor Landry led the repeal of the state’s nonpartisan primary for certain offices. Efforts to stop the repeal have singularly failed. But with the repeal, they were unable to exclude independents from the process after public outrage at the prospect of their exclusion.

Now as Louisiana leaders look to implement the changes ahead of the 2026 primaries, OP SVP Jeremy Gruber-in a new piece for LA State Affairs- takes a hard look at the motivations of party leadership, and the special interests that fuel them for this change. As he notes, they will now be in a stronger position to choose candidates and voters will have their choices limited and their collective power weakened. That’s by design.

Open Primaries Launches New Litigation Platform

Until this past year, the primary reform movement wasn't going to court. That’s despite the fact that litigation has been a key component of every change movement in American history.

Open Primaries set out to change that. We developed new legal analysis. We built relationships with attorneys across the country. And last month we launched a new first-of-its-kind litigation platform. Now you can find all the up to date case information on every new legal development in the primary reform space. And there have been a lot of developments! 

Recently a  group of five independent voters including CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish filed a lawsuit -supported by Open Primaries- asking a Pennsylvania court to end the commonwealth’s bar against independent voters participating in primary elections. The new petition includes first of its kind expert testimony citing Pennsylvania election data that shows how denying unaffiliated voters participation in primaries dilutes the power of their votes. 

Last year we filed voting rights litigation in Maryland and are supporting cases in states from Wyoming to Oregon. We also broke new ground in federal court, establishing the right of independent voters to challenge their exclusion from voting and getting the 11th Circuit to begin to define the legal status of independents for the very first time. Read OP SVP Jeremy Gruber’s analysis of what the case accomplished.. Our brief to the US Supreme Court laid out the fundamental questions raised by the rise of independent voters and access to primary elections that we believe American courts (and the public at large) must grapple with. Hundreds of news outlets have covered these cases in just the last few months. Check out SVP Jeremy Gruber on CNN.

That’s a LOT of progress, and y0u can now follow it all on the new Open Primaries litigation platform.

20 Million Independents are Being Locked Out of the Midterm Primaries

What's the Big Deal?

Here is what Bree Doldron, Open Primaries National Organizer has to say:

85% of US elections are decided in the primaries (that we pay for with our tax dollars),

Surprised? You’re not alone. Most Americans have no idea this is even taking place, let alone at such a huge scale.

Join Operation Independent 2026 and make the exclusion of millions of Americans from the primaries impossible to ignore. Email [email protected] and join the campaign.

Have a great weekend, 

The Open Primaries Team