Republicans and Democrats agree: Restore presidential preference primary in Missouri in 2028

Mar. 18—Bill's progress To follow Sen. Jill Carter's bill to reinstate the presidential preference primary as it works through the Legislature, go to senate.mo.gov/senators, click on Carter's picture, then click "Sponsored Bills" on the right side of the screen and then click on SB 1120.

Missouri Republicans and Democrats have found common ground on at least one topic — they want to return to a presidential preference primary.

Some state lawmakers are working on making that happen for 2028.

The Missouri Legislature failed to renew the statewide presidential preference primary in 2022 or 2023, leaving the two major parties to find new ways to select their nominees in 2024.

Missouri Republicans held caucuses in all counties March 2, while the Democrats will vote in a primarylike election from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. In Jasper County, Democrats will vote at the Mills Anderson Justice Center on the campus of Missouri Southern State University in Joplin; in Newton County, Democrats will vote at the Newton County Courthouse in Neosho.

In the Republican caucus, participants, who were required to be registered voters in their county, gathered at one place for about two hours to choose a candidate that delegates to the congressional district and state conventions would then vote for, with Donald Trump the overwhelming winner in both counties.

Newton County and Missouri state Republican Chairman Nick Myers said he'd prefer the presidential preference primary be restored.

"In 2022, we passed a unanimous resolution at the Republican State Committee asking the General Assembly to reinstate the presidential preference primary," Myers said. "In 2023, I went and testified at the House, where they were hearing an election bill about reinstating the presidential preference primary, so I testified in favor of that for the Republican Party, and so did our vice chair. After advocating for that to be reinstated all the way through in 2023, it did get out of the House as approved, and then the Senate never voted on it."

This year, Sen. Jill Carter, R-Granby, is sponsoring a bill to bring the primary back.

"We had a hearing this past week and have been working with the clerks to change the presidential preference primary to a week earlier than previously," Carter said. "Instead of having it occur the first Tuesday after the first Monday, we stated it shall occur the first Tuesday. This small change will provide an extra one to seven days, depending on the calendar year. Without a primary, we are disenfranchising a significant percentage of the population — first responders, military, medical workers, families with small children and many other groups. With the re-implementation of the presidential preference primary, we can give all Missourians back their voice and allow them to have a say in the process."

Carter's is one of a number of bills in the House and Senate to reinstate the primary.

She said she has heard from constituents who did not like the March 2 GOP caucus. A number of those who caucused in Jasper County were critical of the time it took as well as the fact that people who couldn't attend because of work or for other reasons were not given a voice.

Southwest Missouri Democrats also favor returning to the presidential preference primary.

"We'd like to go back to what it was before when the parties had a primary," said Austin Reed, executive director of the Southwest Missouri Democrats. "You get more people involved with a primary than when you have a caucus that only involves a handful of people. Primaries in general have much higher turnout than caucuses do. Caucuses, in my opinion, restrain vote and cause less people to turn out, which is a bad thing. I am 100% in favor of primaries."

Reed said Democrats are conducting a "party-ran primary."

"It functions basically the same as a state-run primary with the exception that you don't have to be in your registered county to vote," he said. "You can vote in any county in Missouri and the software we're using allows the people working the polls to check off when someone has voted, and that shows up statewide. So it disincentivizes double voting and makes it virtually impossible."

Carter said her bill had its hearing last week, but the Senate Local Government and Elections committee did not vote on whether to pass it out to the full Senate yet.

This year, both parties are paying for the cost of their mechanism for choosing their presidential candidate. A presidential preference primary would be paid for by the state, which Carter confirmed would have cost around $8 million this year if the state had held one.