Well, this is garbage. Democrats in Virginia's 10th Congressional District—a highly educated seat in the D.C. suburbs that swung sharply against Donald Trump last year—have been enjoying a surge in progressive energy, as at least four different serious candidates have all stepped up to challenge the incumbent GOP congresswoman, Barbara Comstock. But now Democratic leaders in the district are suggesting they might do an end-run around democracy by eliminating next year's Democratic primary and instead pick a nominee at a party convention, which means only a tiny fraction of a fraction of the electorate would get to participate.
What makes this even more distressing is that this potential move might be aimed at helping one candidate in particular, state Sen. Jennifer Wexton. Wexton came into the race highly touted and quickly locked up some major establishment endorsements, but in a major surprise, she turned in the weakest second-quarter fundraising report of all the top contenders, trailing former State Department official Alison Friedman, Army veteran Daniel Helmer, and former Veterans Administration official Lindsey Davis Stover. Wexton is the only elected official among the bunch, so she could benefit if the nomination is decided by a handful of party insiders, and tellingly, her campaign is the only one open to a convention. Her three top rivals all emphatically insist on a primary.
As well they should. A vigorous primary will engage voters and compel all the candidates to get their campaigns operating at full capacity—a crucial shakedown test. By contrast, switching to a convention would deprive voters of a chance to make their voices heard and would (quite fairly, for once) open the local Democratic Party up to charges that the process is indeed "rigged." It would also yield a nominee who's spent months talking to just a handful of convention delegates rather than to the broader electorate, which is a recipe for producing a weak candidate (just ask Kansas Republicans how they felt about Ron Estes). And since a primary would be held in June, that would give the winner plenty of time to regroup for the general election campaign against Comstock.
Party leaders are set to make a final decision in November, but there's only one choice that's right, both for Democrats and democracy: a primary.