Winning open primaries isn’t about policy. It’s about enfranchising voters who are shut out and building trust that changing the rules creates positive possibility and opportunity. If voters are not inspired, don’t trust campaign leadership, and don’t see a relationship between open voting and improving their lives – who cares what the policy is.

In 2024, 73% of D.C. voters approved Initiative 83, voting to open the city’s taxpayer-funded primary elections and deploy ranked choice voting in the general election. But after the measure passed, ranked choice voting was implemented and open primaries was shelved by the city council – leaving nearly 100,000 independent voters shut out.

For nearly two years, the will of the voters was blocked. But Lisa Rice, founder of Grow Democracy DC, and her team don’t know how to take no for an answer – thank god!

Please join us for a discussion about how the DC team went to the mattresses and forced the city council to implement open primaries in the nation’s capitol. Open Primaries President John Opdycke will sit down with Lisa to explore what the D.C. campaign can teach reformers across the country: How do you make structural reform personal? How do you build a coalition that lasts beyond Election Day? And how can campaigns connect with and inspire voters in ways that move political leaders to act?