Primary elections, the end of centrist candidates?; Hope for reversing the trend per Sun columnist Bobby Zirkin
Primary elections are the Fool’s gold of democracy: they produce undemocratic results; they attract multitudes of unqualified and often radical candidates. And they yield unrepresentative results.
Bobby Zirkin has written a compelling column to this effect in today’s Baltimore Sun.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/
[Full disclosure: Bobby Zirkin is more of a friend than an acquaintance; I hope he would agree.]
He generally writes eminently reasonable columns in The Baltimore Sun, the most reliable such writing since the excellent columnist Gregory Kane wrote for The Sun.
Zirkin’s latest column (May 29, 2026) is the closest he has come to channeling me, as I have been close to writing a strikingly similar piece for the last two weeks.
His is a composition about the problematic outcomes of primary elections, which create a smorgasbord of results-with the results more often than not being the nomination of inferior or irresponsible radical candidates.
Zirkin points out the low participation in primary elections, further invalidation primary results, with, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, about 20% of eligible voters’ voting in such elections, with profoundly low turnout numbers-including the fact that those “independent and unaffiliated” are disqualified from participation.
So, in Maryland, irresponsible polarizing candidates such as Dan Cox can win the 2022 Republican nomination for governor, lose badly, then move to Pennsylvania and move back to Maryland: no problem.
So, spoiler Cox is back, intending to win the skewed Republican vote for the nomination after losing the governor’s race in 2022 by an overwhelming percentage differential, 64.53% to 32.12%.
Is he serious? Doesn’t matter; it is quite plausible.
The most compelling argument by Zirkin is his actually mentioning some officeholders (“extremists”) including progressives and far right-wingers who are quite radical, so readers will not assume that their favorites are centrist: Zohran Mamdani, Graham Platner, Chris Van Hollen and Abdul El-Sayed on the left and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, Joe Kent and Thomas Massie on the right.
I agree with all those whom he cited and would just add the self-serving far-right gubernatorial candidate Cox (full disclosure: I am a supporter of indisputably centrist Republican Ed Hale).
Finally. let me, in my usual pessimistic voice, disagree with even the possibility of Zirkin’s hopeful conclusion: that it is “well within [the public’s] power to turn [the rejection of moderation in Maryland] around.”
That is literally true. But too few people see and/or are moved by the critical effects of primaries to be energized to vote.
Too bad: Maryland could do it. But she won’t.
Richard E. Vatz https://wp.towson.edu/vatz/ is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of political rhetoric at Towson University and author of The Only Authentic of Persuasion: the Agenda-Spin Model (Bookwrights House, 2024) and over 200 other works, essays, lectures, and op-eds. He is the benefactor of the Richard E. Vatz Best Debater Award at Towson. The Van Bokkelen Auditorium at Towson University has been named after him.