ABSTRACT
Scholars of congressional elections typically focus most of their attention on the general election that occurs in November (see, e.g., Jacobson and Carson 2016). Nevertheless, congressional candidates that choose to run for elective office in the modern era have to get past two distinct hurdles – the primary and general election. Although primaries are the first stage in the winnowing process for candidates, they have only been around for about 100 years, depending on the state. Prior to the adoption of direct primaries in the early twentieth century, local and state parties were largely responsible for deciding which candidates would appear on the ballot in U.S. House races. This method of candidate selection eventually fell out of favor during the Progressive Era as a result of high levels of corruption and declining levels of electoral competition. In conjunction with a variety of electoral reforms such as the Australian ballot and voter registration that took place in the late nineteenth century, the implementation of direct primaries gave voters greater input in which candidates would run in the general election.
