REPORT: Democrats Eye Main Adjustments To 2028 Major Course of
A growing party of Democratic Party leaders and activists are lobbying to make drastic changes to the state’s presidential primary process in 2028 by introducing ranked choice voting, according to a new report
Ranked choice voting, also known as instant-runoff voting, is a system that allows voters to rank up to three, sometimes four candidate preferences on their ballots. If no candidate secures a majority in the initial count, election officials eliminate the lowest-performing candidates one by one.
This system is used in various U.S. jurisdictions for local, state, and some congressional elections, and it has been piloted in presidential primaries, including Democratic Party elections in Alaska and Hawaii in 2020.
According to a report from Axios, there is a renewed push to enshrine ranked choice voting in Democratic Party presidential primary contests for 2028 after the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City. Mamdani managed to emerge victorious over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after allying with a number of candidates with lower polling numbers, supporters of whom ranked Mamdani highly over Cuomo.
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin and other top party officials have met privately with advocates who are pushing for the voting method to be expanded for the 2028 presidential primaries, three sources familiar with the matter told Axios.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Joe Biden pollster, Celinda Lake, the nonprofit FairVote Action and a number of additional Democrats pitched the idea during a late October meeting, the sources said.
Current DNC Chair Ken Martin speaks with reporters at the Democratic National Convention
Supporters of the change said during a recent DNC breakfast gathering in the nation’s capital that it would provide opportunities to unite the party and strengthen coalitions. They said it would prevent people’s votes from being “wasted” after presidential candidates drop out and avoid repeats of divisive primary cycles in 2016 and 2020, Axios reported.
I’m totally open to ranked-choice voting,” one committee member told the outlet, though the proposal has received a “mixed” response from the DNC overall. “We should follow the lead of the states. They know better,” a second committee member said.
Critics argue that ranked choice voting would increase wait times at polls and present several logistical challenges.
In order to enact a ranked choice system for 2028, the change would require support of the powerful rules and bylaws committee and a majority of the 450-member DNC body. State parties would also need to vote on the change, while a number of states would need to amend their election laws.
“It favors positive politics rather than negative politics, and that’s a great thing for the Democratic Party primaries,” Raskin told Axios. “Oftentimes there’s a sense of acrimony and bitterness that can last decades. Think about the race between Hillary and Bernie Sanders.”
The DNC has already made a number of key changes to its primary process in recent years, most notably through its primary calendar. Presidential primaries now begin with South Carolina as opposed to Iowa in order to reflect the party’s “racial diversity,” a move that could have massive impacts on the 2028 nominating process by giving candidates like former Vice President Kamala Harris a good start.