Civic and Community Engagement Commons^™

Isn’T There A Better Way To Nominate Presidential Candidates?, Elaine Kamarck

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

This lecture examines why every four years the major political parties undertake a drawn-out, confusing series of primaries, caucuses, and conventions to determine their presidential nominees. Over the years, a number of rational and more orderly ways to select presidential nominees have been proposed but none of these ideas have been adopted. Brookings Institution scholar Elaine Kamarck, who has written extensively on the topic and served as a presidential and presidential campaign advisor, addresses these topics and more.