It’s time to open Maryland’s primaries

| GUEST COMMENTARY

By TERRY LIERMAN

PUBLISHED: February 10, 2026 at 2:28 PM EST

Over the last 15 years, the Democratic and Republican parties’ voter registration numbers in Maryland have not grown. Meanwhile, the number of independent voters in our state has nearly doubled. As independents become the state’s fastest-growing bloc, both major parties are struggling to remain relevant to voters. It’s long past time for them to meet the voters where they are. Open primaries are a first step.

Maryland is by no means the exception. America’s political parties are hemorrhaging voters from coast to coast. A Gallup survey released recently found that independent voter identification is at an all-time high of 45%, while Democratic and Republican affiliation has stalled or declined — each at just 27%. The shift is most pronounced among younger Americans: 54% of Millennials and 56% of Gen Z identify as independent. That increasingly includes voters of color: 52% of Latinos, 41% of Asian-Americans and 20% of Black voters now describe themselves as independent.

These numbers are not abstract. Research from the Open Primaries Education Fund shows independent voters now outnumber party voters in 10 states and are the second-largest group in most others. In Maryland alone, nearly a million voters are registered as independents.

Thirty-six states have opened their primaries to independent voters. These are red, blue and purple states. Yet Maryland remains one of only 14 states with taxpayer-funded and government-administered primary elections that are closed to independents. That exclusion has real consequences.

That’s because Maryland’s general elections have become largely uncompetitive: In the 2024 U.S. House elections, Democrats won seven of the state’s eight seats and drew about 64 % of the total vote to Republicans’ roughly 35%. Democrats also hold supermajorities in the General Assembly, with 34 out of 47 seats in the Senate and 102 out of 141 seats in the House of Delegates.

Maryland’s most important elections are the primaries, yet too many voters are shut out. That means that the most important decisions are being left to a declining, more partisan slice of the electorate. These are the voters who reward purity over pragmatism. The results are often candidates chosen for posturing, not governing. Even our most promising elected leaders are left tethered to their bases and unable to govern inclusively if they want to continue to get reelected.

Competition is critical in business and sports, but essential in politics. When competition disappears, a monopoly forms and innovation grinds to a halt. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle that benefits party activists-and exacerbates partisan rancor — at the expense of the rest of us.

And that is why this is not just a procedural reform. It is the voting-rights issue of our time. If democracy is defined by the right of citizens to participate in the decisions that shape their lives, then a system that excludes millions of voters from the most consequential part of the election is falling woefully short.

That’s why I’m encouraged by the direction that Maryland is moving. Legislation introduced by Del. Lily Qi, a Democrat, and Del. Stuart Schmidt Jr., a Republican, would open our primaries to independent voters. The bipartisan sponsorship itself is a welcome rarity in today’s politics and in the spirit of change we must embrace. Litigation brought by five Maryland independents is also challenging the constitutionality of a primary system that shuts out the very voters who fund it.

It’s long past time for political parties to change with the times — if they want to remain relevant. Our closed primary system is failing. It deepens division, excludes a million voters and pushes both parties further away from the American public. Legislation is the artful game of compromise. Compromise is the essence of democracy. We need an election system that enhances effective governance — not gridlock. It’s time to open the primaries and let all voters vote.

Terry Lierman served as staff director of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, chief of staff to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and chair of the Maryland Democratic Party.