Monday, May 18, 2026

The close of the 2026 legislative session kills the latest attempt to restore Missouri's presidential primary

The 2026 session of the Missouri General Assembly adjourned on Friday, May 15. One bill that died in the process was HB 2387/2480, a measure that would have reestablished a state-funded presidential primary in the Show-Me state for the first time since the 2020 cycle.

The legislation passed the state House with broad bipartisan support and made it through the committee stage on the Senate side. However, in the waning days of the session in Jefferson City, the bill was never brought up on the floor of the upper chamber.  

And thus ended another chapter in the ongoing effort to restore the presidential primary election in Missouri.

--
Noteworthy: Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. And since the Missouri presidential primary is neither of those, this bill getting further into the legislative process than any of the other measures attempting to restore the primary since the election was eliminated by an act of the General Assembly in 2022, it does not count for much. But the incremental progress across the 2023, 2024, 2025 and now 2026 sessions suggests that 1) there will be another push in 2027 and 2) there is just one more hurdle -- Senate passage -- left to clear in the legislature. 

But the Missouri Senate has proven to be particularly cumbersome obstacle over the last four sessions. That there is just one roadblock left to clear, then, does not speak to the level of resistance among majority Republicans in the upper chamber. And none of this, of course, says anything about how receptive the governor would be to the idea. Both, however, remain a story for 2027. 

[It is unlikely that there is enough urgency to bring the presidential primary up in any special session that may be convened in the interregnum before the 2027 session gavels in in Jefferson City.]  




--
This action has been added to the annotated 2028 presidential primary calendar over at our sister site, FHQ Plus.


--


Posted by Josh Putnam at 12:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
Share |

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Super Tuesday presidential primary bill clears committee hurdle in Missouri Senate

The reinstatement of Missouri's presidential primary inched one step closer to reality on Wednesday morning, May 6, 2026. The state Senate Fiscal Oversight Committee convened to consider HB 2387/2480 among other bills and unanimously voted (8-0) in favor of the measure with a "do pass" instruction for action on the Senate floor. 


--
Noteworthy: This should be the last step at the committee stage on the Senate side, clearing the legislation for consideration by the full Missouri State Senate. It also marks the furthest a presidential primary restoration bill has advanced in the legislative process in Jefferson City since the preference election was eliminated as part of an omnibus elections bill during the 2022 session of the General Assembly.

Despite the $9 million price tag on the resumption of the presidential primary, the bill saw little resistance among the membership of Fiscal Oversight. There was no debate, just the regular parliamentary procedures to raise a bill and then pass it within the hearing. That was it.

The Missouri legislature is due to adjourn next week. 




--
This action has been added to the annotated 2028 presidential primary calendar over at our sister site, FHQ Plus.


--


Posted by Josh Putnam at 10:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
Share |

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Missouri Senate committee gives Super Tuesday presidential primary bill the thumbs up

The Missouri Senate Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee convened on Monday, May 4, 2026 and entered executive session to take up and consider a number of bills, including HB 2387/2480. The measure in its amended form would reestablish a state-funded and -run presidential primary election in the Show-Me state, schedule the election for Super Tuesday and legally bind the delegates to the national convention based on the results of the preference vote. 

By a 5-1 vote, the legislation was then passed by the committee with a "do pass" recommendation. Three Republicans were joined by the panel's two Democrats in moving the bill along.


--
Noteworthy: The bill will not move directly to the floor for consideration by the full Senate. Instead, it will first divert through the Senate Fiscal Oversight Committee. This may or may not be a formality, but the price tag associated with funding a newly reinstituted election -- estimated at $9 million -- has created snags with similar legislation that has worked its way through the General Assembly in recent sessions and it stands out as perhaps the biggest remaining hurdle for this session's version. 

The largest looming issue remaining is that time on the 2026 session is dwindling. The General Assembly is statutorily required to adjourn by May 15. A year ago, the 2025 session gaveled out with a House-passed elections bill (with presidential primary provision) similarly sitting in the queue in committee on the Senate side. 

Does HB 2387/2480 get bottled up in Fiscal Oversight? The handful of remaining legislative days will determine that. Importantly, four of the yes votes from the Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee also sit on the nine member Fiscal Oversight Committee.




--
This action has been added to the annotated 2028 presidential primary calendar over at our sister site, FHQ Plus.


--


Posted by Josh Putnam at 5:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
Share |

Thursday, April 30, 2026

Rhode Island House passes Super Tuesday presidential primary bill

Without any debate, the Rhode Island House took up and unanimously passed H 7090 on Thursday, April 30. The 62-0 vote by the members of the lower chamber would shift the presidential primary in the Ocean state from the fourth Tuesday in April to the first Tuesday in March, Super Tuesday. 

The measure now advances to the state Senate where identical legislation has also been introduced and considered in committee.

--
Noteworthy: A few things on this potential change in Rhode Island:
  1. As the committee chair who introduced the H 7090 on the floor noted before passage, a Super Tuesday primary would align Rhode Island with most of its New England area neighbors on the primary calendar. Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont are all already positioned on Super Tuesday. New Hampshire will continue to be an exception with an earlier primary and Connecticut has yet to make any move to join the others in March for 2028.
  2. Rhode Island has not been a part of Super Tuesday since 2004. The state was one of the rare few who did not move into February to join the Super Tuesday logjam in 2008 and then moved back into April alongside a number of neighbors for 2012. It has remained on the back half of the primary calendar ever since. [One could argue that Rhode Island was not on Super Tuesday in 2004. It was a cycle in which Democrats allowed February contests and while some states took advantage of the rule change, the biggest shift to the earlier point did not occur until 2008. The effect in 2004 was to make the early March Super Tuesday a bit less crowded -- a bit less super -- and the overall calendar less frontloaded than was the case in 2000. Still, the most delegates of the 2004 cycle were at stake on the first Tuesday in March.]
  3. Other chambers have passed presidential primary legislation across the country during this 2026 legislative session, but most have died along the way. Rhode Island actually shows some signs of momentum on this front. The list of legislative backers in both chambers in Providence means H 7090 will likely face a favorable audience in the upper chamber. And the unanimous vote in the House likely will not hamper that progress. 

--
Related:


This action will be added to the annotated 2028 presidential primary calendar over at our sister site, FHQ Plus.

--
Posted by Josh Putnam at 4:30 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Share |

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

"Missouri Senate committee debates plan to reinstate presidential primary for 2028"


"Missouri would join at least 14 other states with a 'Super Tuesday' presidential primary in 2028 under a bill that would also bind the state’s delegate on the first ballot at national political conventions.

"During testimony Monday to the state Senate Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee, leaders of the state’s two largest political parties agreed that restoring the primary would increase participation and elevate the state’s national political profile.

“'In 2024 we received just a ton of complaints from probably every legislative district in the state because we only got about 23,000 people participating' in the caucuses that replaced the primary, said Miles Ross, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party.

"The Democratic Party held a private primary in 2024 with voting confined to a Saturday morning. Holding a state-run primary on the first day the two major parties will recognize as valid would attract candidates and money to the state, said Russ Carnahan, chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party.

“'We’d like Missouri to be relevant again,' Carnahan said.

"The committee did not vote on the bill. State Sen. Mike Henderson, a Republican from Desloge and chairman of the committee, said after the meeting that he was uncertain when, or if, he would bring the bill up for a vote."


--
Noteworthy: Look, FHQ listened to this hearing live. To call it a debate is misleading. To call it a debate among the members of the committee is just plain wrong. In fact, the only commentary from the members of the Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee other the instructions from the chair was from a Republican senator asking a follow up of Miles Ross, the state GOP executive director. And that certainly did not spur a lively back and forth.

To the extent there was a "debate," it was among the folks testifying for and against the measure to restore the state-run presidential primary in the Show-Me state. And that functioned more as a Cliff's Notes version of the discussions on the House side in committee. Monday's hearing was as close to a non-event as it could get. 

But there are a few things to take from this latest hearing for HB 2387/2480:
  1. The Senate finally acted on the bill, more than two weeks after the House passed it.
  2. Importantly, the chair of the committee was noncommittal about ever bringing up the legislation for a vote (to clear it for consideration on the floor). 
  3. There is little more than two weeks left in the 2026 session of the Missouri General Assembly. The last day is slated for May 15. 
Relatedly, this is not the only presidential primary bill to make its way out of the House only to be stymied in the state Senate. A provision to restore the primary was part of a mini-bus elections bill in 2025 that was in the queue in committee on the Senate side on the final day of the session, but was not acted upon.

This latest version, which addresses many of the problems that have derailed past efforts (binding of delegates, etc.), may meet the same fate in Jefferson City. 




--
This action has been added to the annotated 2028 presidential primary calendar over at our sister site, FHQ Plus.


--


Posted by Josh Putnam at 9:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
Share |

Thursday, April 9, 2026

Missouri House passes Super Tuesday presidential primary bill

During the morning session of Thursday, April 9, the Missouri House took up for a third reading and passed HB 2387/2480 by a vote of 116-23.1 The measure would reestablish a state-run presidential primary in the Show-Me state, schedule the election for the first Tuesday in March (Super Tuesday) and proportionally bind the delegates from the state to the national convention based on the results of the preference vote. 

The legislation now moves on to the state Senate where the upper chamber will have a little more than a month to consider it before the General Assembly adjourns on May 15.


--
Noteworthy: In some ways this is déjà vu all over again in Jefferson City. The House passed legislation to restore the presidential primary in 2025 only to see the bill die in committee on the Senate side at adjournment. 

The 2026 version may yet meet the same fate. But 2026 is different for a couple reasons. First, the legislation from previous sessions in 2023, 2024 and 2025 offered different paths to resolution and/or were part of broader elections bills encompassing factors outside of the presidential primary as well. If that combination did not slow things down in the House first, it weighed heavily on the Senate's consideration, typically late into the session.

Second, while the progress on HB 2387/2480 was perhaps slow through committee process, reinstituting the presidential primary was not controversial on the floor during either the amendment phase or later upon passage. That maybe has something to do with the newly added language binding the delegates, a sticking point in consideration of past iterations of this legislation. But the measure being focused on the presidential primary and the presidential primary alone may also have contributed to the general lack of controversy. 

Together, that may or may not pay dividends as the bill shifts over to the Senate. But the path has been different this time in the House, it also has buy in from both state parties and the binding language checks out with the national parties. It is likely the best bet to restore the primary in Missouri since omnibus elections legislation eliminated the election in 2022. 

--
1Of the votes in opposition, 22 of the 23 were Republicans, roughly a fifth of the current Republican majority in the lower chamber. 



--
This action has been added to the annotated 2028 presidential primary calendar over at our sister site, FHQ Plus.


--


Posted by Josh Putnam at 3:30 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
Share |

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Idaho's 2026 legislative session draws to a close, killing bids to restore presidential primary

Last week, after missing the target date for adjournment at the end of March and running into overtime, the Idaho legislature gaveled out its 2026 session. Among the bills left in committee in those final days were the three measures that sought to restore the state-funded presidential primary election to the Gem state. 

Two of the three -- H 638 and S 1398 -- not only made it out of committee but passed their respective chambers. There was interest in reestablishing the presidential primary, but there was no urgency this far out to bring that to fruition. Nor was there an ability -- again, this far out -- to resolve the impasse between the two chambers' versions of the legislation, the same impasse the derailed the efforts to restore the presidential primary accidentally eliminated in 2023. 

Now that both versions are dead again in 2026, it is not bills that one should focus on should a similar push be mounted in 2027, but on this impasse itself. If Idaho is to have a presidential primary again, a decision will have to be made as to whether it will exist as a standalone election earlier in the presidential primary calendar -- Super Tuesday has been targeted -- or as a preference election consolidated with the primaries for other offices sometime in May. 


--
Noteworthy: The Idaho Republican Party and the state House seem to prefer the Super Tuesday option while the Senate has seemingly prioritized the cost savings associated with a consolidated primary. Neither side prefers the much lower turnout in alternative caucuses. That is the primary reason the secretary of state has supported the reinstitution of the state-run primary. To this point, however, Secretary McGrane has not supported one version of presidential primary legislation over the other. Whether McGrane comes off the fence in 2027 to support one version may or may not play some role in breaking the stalemate. 


--
See also:


--
This action has been added to the annotated 2028 presidential primary calendar over at our sister site, FHQ Plus.


--
Posted by Josh Putnam at 3:30 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Share |

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Missouri House clears Super Tuesday presidential primary bill for final passage

The Missouri House on Tuesday, April 7, 2026 took up HB 2387/2480 for perfection (amendment) and after amending the title passed the measure on a voice vote, clearing it for a final vote by the body. 

The legislation would not only restore the presidential primary eliminated in 2022, but schedule the state-funded election to take place on Super Tuesday -- the first Tuesday in March -- and bind the delegates to the national convention based on the results. The latter has been a sticking point for detractors during consideration of similar legislation stretching back to 2023.

--
Noteworthy: While some initial Republican opponents on the Election Committee spoke in favor of the legislation on the House floor, that may or may not carry weight with the remainder of the chamber on the future vote on passage. These presidential primary bills have passed the Missouri House in the past only to be stymied once they got to the state Senate. The battle, then, may be less intra-chamber than inter-chamber as the 2026 session in Jefferson City draws to a close. 




--


Posted by Josh Putnam at 6:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,
Share |

"Rhode Island primary election day could change in 2026 and 2028. Here's why."


"Should Rhode Island move the date of its presidential primary again?

"Given how many people at the State House are lining up behind this latest effort to make Lil' Rhody more relevant in the presidential sweepstakes, it's a good bet Rhode Island will join the states that vote on 'Super Tuesday' in 2028.

"Who is supporting the move? The House speaker, the past and present state Democratic Party chairs and, in a rare display of agreement on a matter of Rhode Island politics, the chairman of the state Republican Party.

"There are a few naysayers. But the bill, H7090, came flying out of the House Committee on State Government & Elections on a 12-to-0 vote on March 31 and is headed for a full House debate and vote as soon as this week."


--
Noteworthy: A few things here:
  1. In a year when most presidential primary bills -- the ones to changes the dates of the contests anyway -- are withering on the vine, there does actually seem to be some momentum behind the push in Providence. As noted above, the House version has a number of notable folks in and out of the lower chamber lined up behind it. But that is also true of the identical companion bill in the state Senate. Leadership there is also in favor of the primary date change.
  2. Gregg's article goes on to discuss arguments for and against moving the Rhode Island primary. Proponents of the move to an earlier position point to the oft-raised notion of increased attention -- candidate visits to the state! -- and turnout that a later primary just did not deliver. Alternatively, as Providence College political scientist Adam Myers suggested: "If anything, we might become even more overshadowed [on Super Tuesday] in the process than we have been in recent cycles." True!
  3. Rhode Island is damed if they do, damned if they don't. The state is simply too small -- not delegate-rich enough -- to stand much chance of garnering any direct attention no matter where the primary is scheduled. The one thing that a move to Super Tuesday would ensure for 2028 is that voters in the Ocean state would be able to weigh in on who the nominees are before the races are likely settled.
  4. Gregg also notes that turnout was just 5 percent in the April 2024 presidential primary when Rhode Island followed contests in 26 other states. The point of comparison? 2008, when there was record turnout in the early March primary. ...you know, when the Rhode Island primary came after primaries and caucuses in 40 other states. Of course the timing of a primary matters. But competition can matter more to turnout. A move to Super Tuesday for 2028 makes it more likely that there is some remaining [viable] competition for one or both nomination races. 

--
Related:


This legislation will be added to the annotated 2028 presidential primary calendar over at our sister site, FHQ Plus.

--
Posted by Josh Putnam at 3:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Share |

Monday, April 6, 2026

"New Hampshire Democrats prepare to make case for first-in-the-nation primary status"


"The New Hampshire primary is facing a critical test in the weeks ahead as state Democrats prepare to make their case to the Democratic National Committee to restore the Granite State's first-in-the-nation status on their presidential nominating calendar."

...

"In an interview for 'CloseUp,' New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley said he's feeling positive about the DNC process so far.

"'Obviously, there was a thumb that was put on the process last time. We thought we were in good position,' Buckley said. 'This time, there's no thumb on what the final decisions are going to be. We have made an effort. We're meeting with them individually.'

"Buckley said he expects a final vote on the DNC primary calendar sometime toward the end of the summer."


--
Noteworthy: In an additional video post, Sexton revealed that the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee (DNCRBC) next will meet this week and will hear pitches from the 12 states being considered for early window spots in May. A May 2026 DNCRBC meeting for 2028 early state pitches would be about a month earlier than a similar meeting during the 2024 cycle. 

Chair Buckley, also a DNCRBC member, forecasting a finalizing of the 2028 early calendar by late summer would seemingly suggest either little shake up to the early calendar lineup from 2024 for 2028 or that any change is likely to be driven largely by the blue state parties that applied for early calendar status. Purple and red states will likely face uncertainty over their ability to move into position until the midterms provide further clarity. 


--


Posted by Josh Putnam at 4:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Share |
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)