California’s primary system lets smart politicians kill off the competition by funding their own weakest opponents.
March 24, 2026
Original Paper
The Top-Two Primary in California: Outcomes, Distortions & the Case for Top-Five Ranked Choice
SSRN · 6353218
The Takeaway
Designed to empower moderates, the system is being gamed by candidates who run ads to 'boost' the least electable member of the opposing party. This ensures they face a non-viable opponent in the general election, stripping the high-turnout November electorate of any real choice between competing ideologies.
From the abstract
California's top-two primary is billed as an open election where the two leading vote-getters advance to a high-turnout November general election. In practice, it's the opposite: a low-turnout general election in June, followed by a higher-turnout runoff in November. The low-turnout primary most often determines who will win. <div> <br> </div> <div> After twelve years of elections under this system, candidates have learned to game it. The most common technique: Democrats boost a Republican oppon