Primaries make better presidential candidates

American campaigns and voting, from primaries and general elections to the candidates, money and rules that decide them. Covers federal, state and local contests, the machinery of casting and counting ballots, and the disputes over access that follow almost every cycle.

Organizations that contest American elections and coordinate agendas, candidates, donors and governing coalitions at national, state and local level. Their formal committees hold less power than the primaries, media and money that increasingly determine who runs under a party label.