GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis on television screens at a Washington, D.C. bar during the first 2024 Republican presidential primary debate on Aug. 23, 2023.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
In a general election, most people will vote for their party’s candidate. But in a primary, voters rely on media coverage to help them choose among candidates. And that gives the media influence.
GOP primary voters in 2022 often chose the Trumpiest candidate, even if they had substantial electoral vulnerabilities, as does Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters, shown here with Donald Trump.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Voters trust their gut when they decide who an electable candidate is or isn’t. That may be a bad idea.
Nine of the 48 candidates for Alaska’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives participate in a debate on May 12, 2022, at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage.
Loren Holmes / ADN
The number of candidates running in party primaries has ballooned since 2010. That may result in extreme, inexperienced or controversial nominees who do not represent a majority of voters.
The doctor is in … with Trump, at least.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puska
The three leading candidates in the GOP Senate primary race in Pennsylvania all hitched their wagons to Trump. But will that make it harder for the Republican winner to win the center come the fall?
A delegate gets accredited during the last All Progressives Congress presidential primary.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
Nigeria’s legislators have no constitutional right to force political parties to adopt direct primaries.
A poll worker places vote-by-mail ballots into a ballot box set up at the Miami-Dade Election Department headquarters on Oct. 14, 2020 in Doral, Fla.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images News via Getty
Lawsuits are being argued in courthouses across the country over the conduct of the election. That could lead to the public losing confidence in the election’s legitimacy.
In Massachusetts, you usually wait your turn. But Joe Kennedy III decided to jump the queue.
Boston Globe via Getty Images
There aren’t any clear ideological differences between the two, and Senate incumbents who aren’t embroiled in scandal rarely, if ever, lose. So what’s Kennedy’s calculation?
An Ohio election official on the night of the primary vote rescheduled from March 17 to April 28.
AP/Gene J. Puskar
To many, the idea that states might cancel or postpone their primary elections as a response to the COVID-19 epidemic sounds undemocratic. What’s the political effect of these postponements?
Joe and Jill Biden address the press the evening of the Idaho, Missouri, Michigan, Washington, Mississippi and North Dakota primaries.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
When candidates beat pollsters’ expectations, that can mean more positive media coverage.
Like the other Democratic candidates for president, Elizabeth Warren has spent months canvassing Iowa to meet voters while spending little time in other states.
CJ Gunther/EPA
Americans didn’t always have primaries and caucuses to choose presidential candidates. The system was meant to be more democratic, but it places too much attention on largely white, small states.
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders shake hands before the debate on Jan. 14.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
At the Jan. 14 debate, held at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, six candidates clashed on jobs, Iran and more.
Ten presidential candidates debate on July 30. Marianne Williamson, Tim Ryan, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O'Rourke, John Hickenlooper, John Delaney, Steve Bullock.
Mark Peterson/Redux for CNN
The number of candidates in presidential primaries has skyrocketed since the 2016 election. Divisions inside political parties and easy ways for candidates to raise money are among the reasons why.
Donald Trump on the campaign trail. His rise may have less real meaning than many analysts suggest.
Reuters/Mike Segar
There has been much analysis on the rise of Donald Trump as the result of widespread social and economic unrest, but a look at the primaries shows it to be more of a quirk of the system.
It’s common for presidential candidates to announce their campaigns 18 months or more in advance of election day.
Reuters/Carlos Barria
Global audiences have heard of US election terms like the primaries, the conventions and the Electoral College. But the history and exact meaning of these terms remains a mystery to many.
Should down-ballot Republicans love this face?
REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
This primary cycle, few incumbents in the House and Senate are fighting off extremist challengers. Is that because the top of the ticket is taking up all the air?
But did you vote for the candidate that best matches your beliefs?
jamelah e.
Even with free, private ballots, a quarter of us still end up voting for the ‘wrong’ presidential candidate. Here’s how to make sure you vote for the one who best matches your beliefs and hopes.