2024 Presidential Selection HQ

Party-Run Primary

In 2022, Republican Governor Mike Parson signed HB 1878, which eliminated Missouri’s state-run presidential preference primary election and designated a party-run system for choosing presidential nominees, among other attacks on our Democratic elections processes. The Missouri Democratic Party opposed this change, and none of the Democrats serving in the Missouri State House or Senate at the time voted for this bill. Nearly every Republican member supported the measure. 

This attack on voter participation by Missouri Republicans is nearly an exact copy of the playbook being used by Republicans across the country in their bid to take more and more power from voters and hand it to power-hungry politicians. Any roadblock put in place to make voting harder is not healthy for our Democracy and is another hallmark of this fanatical Missouri Republican Party that only seeks to strip freedoms and rights away from Missouri voters. 

Missouri Democrats sought to design a process that would encourage as much voter participation as possible by offering both mail-in and in-person voting options to Democratic presidential primary voters. MDP will continue to advocate for policies that expand access to voting and fight against these attacks on our Democratic process.