My hot take: Open primaries, contrary to the advocates of independent participation in party primaries, have not helped the Democratic Party in Southern state legislatures at all. Most of the open primary states are states which have been deep red since the 2000s. 

If anything, I’d argue that open primaries help conservative voters more than progressive voters. I wonder if open primaries accommodate voters who own their own homes more than they help those who live in rentals, which should be the opposite of the open primary’s proponents’ arguments that it accommodates more working people than do closed primaries or caucuses.

I see this while canvassing in this state. VoteBuilder is often inaccurate in pinpointing strong or likely Democrats. I’ve been kindly turned away sometimes by Trump supporters who haven’t voted Democrat since the 1970s. But not knowing who is a Democrat outside of voter rolls provided to the DPG by the SOS office is frustrating, as I’m trying not to talk to Trump voters who don’t give a shit about what I stand for anyway. 

But this is because Georgia is an open primary state with nonpartisan voter registration. In other words, an existentially-shitty state to be a Democrat, and a great state for the “nonpartisan”, “independent”, “unaffiliated” fraud who votes Republican all day, everyday.