Maxwell School alumnus and Assistant Teaching Professor Richard Barton ’15 M.A. (PSc) has co-edited a book that examines how primary elections have changed over the past decade and why they often yield extreme or unpopular candidates.

Reforming Primary Elections: Voters, Campaigns, and the Future of Congressional Politics (De Gruyter, 2025) provides detailed studies of how representative primary voters are of the population and how primary candidates plan their campaigns. It shares how reforms such as nonpartisan primaries might affect primary electorates, candidates and legislators.

In its 16 chapters, the book seeks to reveal that the reform of primary election laws could improve the quality of American elections, although there is no consensus about which reforms would be best or what the effects of existing reform proposals has been.

Contributing authors include Barton, co-editor Robert G. Boatright, professor of political science at Clark University, and several other election scholars. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Trent Lott wrote the book’s preface.

Barton is an assistant teaching professor of public administration and international affairs and policy studies, and by courtesy appointment in the Political Science Department. He is a senior research fellow at Unite America.