The Crucial Point Missing From Primary Coverage

What equal numbers of voters say about both parties.

You wouldn’t know it from most of the political reporting, but Americans are clamoring for moderation. By huge margins, voters say the Republican Party has gone too far to the right, and Democrats have gone too far to the left.

This isn’t showing up in headlines, which are largely designed to serve as rage-bait for people with entrenched political positions. But it’s the media’s job to present the clearest picture of reality — and that’s been sorely lacking.

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On its face, this reality seems to conflict with news about primary results. Many MAGA candidates backed by Trump have won GOP races, while some progressive candidates have “notched primary victories” on the Democratic side, reports accurately point out.

But primary voters don’t represent the electorate. In recent years, only around 20% of eligible voters have participated in primaries. This year, some places with especially high-profile races managed to attract about a quarter of voters to the polls -- still a small number.

A race in Texas that dominated national headlines last week involved even fewer voters. Trump-endorsed, scandal-ridden Attorney General Ken Paxton beat incumbent Sen. John Corbyn. Turnout was huge for a primary runoff — yet still only “10% of the state’s 18.7 million voters,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

Midterm elections generally draw far more voters, with percentages in the 40s. Independents, a plurality of the electorate, show up in substantially larger numbers. (In some states, primaries are limited to voters who register for parties, effectively keeping independents out of the process.)

Appealing to voters in a general election is a whole different ballgame. Even people who are well outside of the MAGA camp often reject left-wing candidates. In analyzing the 2024 election, Blue Rose Research found that voters overall considered Vice President Kamala Harris “more ideologically extreme” than President Donald Trump.

I wanted to know how Americans feel about the parties now. From my years as a fact checker on air at CNN, I learned to look at raw data rather than rely on news articles about surveys. Those summaries are often driven by agendas and the desire for clicks from activists, missing the big picture.

Deep inside a New York Times/Siena poll, I found answers. People were asked whether each party has gone too far in its ideological direction. In both cases, 46% said yes. Only a sliver wants a party to lean even further in that direction. (The survey also found 26% of Americans identify as liberal, 37% as conservative, and one-third as moderate.)

It’s not just one poll. Last fall, Pew Research found that about 60% of Americans believed each party is too extreme in its positions.

For a powerful reminder of how important this is, look at Hungary. This year, the country ended the reign of far-right leader Victor Orban. Last time, Hungarians were given a choice between his far-right government and an avowedly liberal one; they kept Orban. This time, politicians from across the political spectrum threw their support behind a new coalition designed to appeal to most voters. The country saw a massive 79% turnout, and new Prime Minister Peter Magyar won.

Some call his government centrist; others say it’s really about pluralism, in which “multiple parties, ideologies, and beliefs coexist within a society, promoting active engagement and tolerance among diverse groups.” Either way, it worked.

None of this erases the possibility of liberal or progressive candidates winning seats in November. Given the choice between two people chosen by the party faithful, people often go with whichever candidate they dislike less. So even people concerned about Democrats being too far left might prefer them over the current GOP.

But to tackle the growing divisions in this country, we need a new political movement: a coalition built around voters’ biggest shared concerns. We know what those are. The economy is by far the biggest, with the cost of healthcare the top domestic issue, Gallup reports. The environment is a big concern as well. And more Americans worry “a great deal” about the possibility of future terrorist attacks than energy affordability, unemployment, or illegal immigration.

It may take a lot of organizing and multiple election cycles to build a new coalition. But it can happen. Groups like Third Way are trying. The effort could help galvanize voters to participate in primaries and back candidates who represent the will of more people.

Right now, the media is part of the problem. The current landscape incentivizes “the extreme and outrageous,” according to Johanna Dunaway, research director at Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship.

News giants should commit to ending that madness, building much more coverage around issues that hit home, and helping people understand which candidates offer solutions proven to work. More people may be inspired to show up at the polls, delivering a slate of candidates who can work across divisions to get things done.

Josh Levs is host of They Stand Corrected, the podcast and newsletter fact-checking the media. Find him at joshlevs.com.

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