KY political parties have the power to open primaries | Opinion
Opening primaries to independents increases voter participation and upholds the Constitution. The door isn’t locked, it’s just closed.
Chris Gorman Opinion contributor
Kentucky’s political parties have the constitutional authority to allow independent voters in their primaries without legislative action. The number of independent voters in Kentucky is growing rapidly, now making up more than one in ten voters.Opening primaries has been shown to increase overall voter participation in both primary and general elections.
There’s a fresh debate happening in Kentucky about whether our state’s growing population of independent voters should be able to participate in primary elections. It’s an important debate. But it’s a debate being framed as a matter of state law — as if only the legislature can decide who gets to participate. That framing is not just misleading; it’s wrong. Political parties themselves already have the constitutional authority to open their primaries to independent voters whenever they choose. They don’t need to wait for Frankfort to act.
The legal foundation for this is clear and long established. In Tashjian v. Republican Party of Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a political party’s First Amendment right to freedom of association allows it to determine who participates in its primaries — even when state law says otherwise. Connecticut had a statute limiting primary voting to registered party members. The Republican Party wanted to allow independents to vote. The Court sided with the party, making clear that state power over elections does not extend to overriding a party’s associational rights without a compelling reason.
That precedent didn’t just sit on the shelf — it has been tested and reaffirmed. In New York, when the Independence Party opened its primaries to independent voters, the state initially refused to comply. A federal court struck down the restriction as unconstitutional. In Alaska, the state supreme court reached a similar conclusion. In each case, the pattern was the same: the party changed its rules, election officials resisted, and the courts ultimately enforced the party’s right to include independent voters.
A growing number of independents
The lesson is straightforward. If Kentucky’s Republican or Democratic Party adopted rules tomorrow allowing independents to vote in their primaries and pushed the issue, the law is on their side.
So the real question isn’t whether Kentucky can have open primaries. It’s whether its political parties are willing to act.
That question matters more than ever because Kentucky’s electorate is changing rapidly. Today, there are roughly 376,000 independent voters in the state — more than one in ten voters. They are also the fastest-growing group by far. Nearly two-thirds of new registrants in the past year have chosen not to affiliate with a party.
Yet these voters are shut out of primary elections that are publicly funded, publicly administered and often decisive. Primaries in Kentucky are not private club meetings. They are held in public buildings, run by government employees and paid for by taxpayers. Millions of dollars go into administering elections that a significant — and growing — share of those same taxpayers cannot participate in.
That’s hard to justify in any democracy. It starts to look a lot like a modern form of taxation without representation.
Who are these excluded voters? They are not a fringe group. They are a broad cross-section of Kentuckians, with some especially notable concentrations. More than half of millennial and Gen Z voters — the largest generational bloc in the electorate — identify as independent. Nearly half of post-9/11 veterans do as well. These are citizens deeply invested in their communities and their country, yet sidelined in the very elections that often determine who will govern.
And in Kentucky, primaries matter. As general elections become less competitive, the primary is increasingly where real decisions are made. Closing that process off means closing off meaningful participation.
Expanding participation
There’s also a practical consequence: lower engagement. Research consistently shows that opening primaries increases voter participation — not just in primaries, but in general elections as well. When people are invited into the process early, they are more likely to stay engaged. States that have opened their systems have seen measurable gains in turnout and registration.
Kentucky, by contrast, is increasingly an outlier. Around 32 states now allow some form of open primary participation. That includes states across the political spectrum — deep red, deep blue and everything in between. In recent years alone, multiple states have moved to include independent voters, recognizing both the democratic and practical benefits of doing so.
Opponents often argue that independents should simply register with a party if they want to participate. But that argument misses the point. For many voters, independence is not apathy — it’s a deliberate choice. Imagine the outcry if the state of Kentucky forced Republicans to register as Democrats or vice versa to vote!
Asking them to join a party they don’t align with just to cast a ballot is not inclusion; it’s coercion. And it’s unnecessary. The Constitution already gives parties the flexibility to welcome these voters without compromising their identity. Opening primaries does not eliminate party control — it simply expands participation in a process that is already public in every meaningful way.
Kentucky’s path forward does not have to begin with legislative gridlock. It can begin with party leadership recognizing both their legal authority and their civic responsibility.
The door isn’t locked. It’s just closed — and the parties themselves are holding the handle.
‘Chris Gorman served as Jefferson County commissioner and Kentucky attorney general. He is currently a member of the law firm of Conliffe, Sandman and Sullivan and city attorney of Prospect, Kentucky. He has been an advocate for the Open Primaries organization for several years.