ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by presenting a simple question: Did the introduction of direct primary elections coincide with a decline in partisan voting in general elections? Such a relationship would suggest that candidate-centered politics became an increasing part of U. S. elections almost a half-century prior to the sixth party system in the 1960s. The chapter presents questions regarding the connection between voting behavior in the primary and general election. More specifically it presents: Do the candidate attributes that appeal to primary voters also affect general election voting behavior? Does this relationship exist even in the early decades of the twentieth century? The chapter explores the link between the electoral appeal of candidates in the primary and the support nominees receive in the general election. One indicator of candidate-centered voting is the degree to which the electorate engages in "split ticket" voting.
