The Best of Tennessee Announces Successful Primary Turnout Effort
NASHVILLE, TN (December 16, 2024)
A nonpartisan initiative aiming to lower the temperature of Tennessee politics significantly boosted primary voting in pilot counties this year.
The group’s announcement comes on the heels of another Vanderbilt Poll, showing
continued misalignment between public opinion and policy outcomes in the state.
In its first campaign to increase primary election participation, The Best of Tennessee, Inc., turned out targeted voters in six counties at a rate 3 percentage points higher than voters in similar counties.
The group was most successful in mobilizing medium and low-propensity primary
voters, with their 6-week campaign turning out these groups at a rate 13 and 6 points higher, respectively.
Leaders of The Best of Tennessee believe they can help halt “an accelerating cycle of extremism” by mobilizing what they call “middle majority” voters, who normally vote in general elections but skip primaries.
Their idea is shared by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Political Reform, which concluded over a decade ago that primary elections are “corroding our political system in an era of high polarization,” because low voter turnout in these contests results in “elections that are controlled by small key groups — party insiders, strongly ideological groups, or single-issue blocs — rather than encouraging candidates to seek broad support.”
The Commission’s recommended response was simple: “States and political parties should strive to dramatically increase the number of voters who cast ballots in political primaries.”
According to Best of Tennessee founder Chloe Akers, broadening the base of primary voters in our state will “shift the incentives of lawmakers towards practical priorities that are best for Tennessee as a whole, instead of all-or-nothing grandstanding to satisfy a small slice of their own sides.”
The group narrowly tailored its $115,000 digital campaign, aiming for repetition rather than reach. They targeted 138,701 voters across 6 counties, the group says, ultimately generating over 1.2 million digital impressions at a cost of just under $1.00 per voter.
Primary election participation is key since Tennessee’s general elections have become less competitive in recent years, with this year’s general election confirming this trend.
Even though a record-breaking 3.08 million Tennesseans cast a ballot in this year’s general elections, representing an estimated 63% of registered voters, only five districts were decided by less than 10%. In the end, neither party flipped a seat.
As Akers puts it, “When only a fraction of the population participates in the portion of the electoral process intended to nominate candidates but which, for all practical purposes, elects them, that small group of voters takes control of the political agenda because they set the incentives for lawmakers. This results in disproportionate outcomes where the wishes of the majority are drowned out by the demands of a small minority on either side.”
“Until we correct the misperception that the stakes of primary elections are low and convince more people to participate in them, Tennesseans will continue to see the misalignment illustrated in the Vanderbilt Poll.” Akers concluded.