Well-organized extremist factions exploit low primary turnout to unseat even ideologically aligned incumbents

Evidence

Because of low voter turnout in primaries, a well-organized faction with an extremist agenda can defeat established incumbents. The NRA unseats even progun incumbents in primary contests, if these lawmakers do not fully hew to the NRA line. Debra Maggart, the leader of the Republican lawmakers in the Tennessee statehouse, was a staunch supporter of gun rights, including the right to carry guns in bars (Confessore, Cooper, & Luo, 2012). Then she balked on a bill, euphemistically called the … “Safe Commute Act,” that would allow people to have guns in their cars in parking lots. The NRA collaborated in a harsh campaign to defeat her, using mass media ads, billboards, and mailings. She described the multipronged assault that ran her out of office: “They said I was shredding the Constitution, I was putting your family in danger, I was for gun control, I like Barack Obama” (Confessore et al., 2012). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1228

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault’s authoritarianism and social-conservatism claims (Cooper) about how minority factions exercise outsized policy influence through low-participation institutional channels. — connects to: New Right strategists openly sought lower voter turnout to increase their leverage — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 238; Armed challengers strike at elections where state capacity is weak — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 381
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1228