“My goal in this book isn't just to diagnose the problem,” explains Nick Troiano, Executive Director of Unite America. “But to give people a solution that is viable and can happen right there in their own states.”

That book is “The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes,” published this week by Simon & Schuster in time for another polarizing primary season. Yet Nick notes in the book, as in our interview, that a record number of 2024 state level efforts to reform primary elections may soon shift the US Congress from gridlock to governance. 

“This will be the most robust year for election reform that we've seen in the modern era,” says Troiano who ran for Congress a decade ago in his mid twenties as an independent in Pennsylvania. “The people do agree that every voter should have the right to vote for any candidate in every election, and that elected officials have to win a majority of votes to get elected.”

Troiano also details the importance of Alaska’s Final Four electoral reforms, passed in 2020 and utilized in the 2022 election, as proof of concept for other state and city efforts. 

“At the end of the day, we all have one vote,” says Troiano. “There's nothing so wrong with the state of our democracy that we can't fix with the tools that our democracy gives us to do so.” 

Tune in to learn how as few as 6 state level initiatives could motivate Congress to tackle such long standing chronic issues as the fiscal deficit, gun violence and immigration reform. 

The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.

SHOW NOTES

Our Guest

Nick Troiano: Bio, X (Twitter)

Executive Director, Unite America

Additional Resources

Nicks Book Information

Primary Elections 

Alaska Case Study by Unite America 

Problem Solving Caucus 

Nevada and Open Primaries 

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