Primaries

Primaries are intra-party competitions: you beat other members of your own party for the nomination slot. Down-ballot primaries are decided by real primary ballots, accumulated over the closing stretch of the primary and split each turn by your primary score standing; presidential primaries hand out pledged delegates. They close at the primary deadline. Miss the window, wait a full cycle.

This page covers declaration mechanics, scoring, NPP dynamics, and tactics. For the overall election structure see Election Mechanics.

Declaration window#

• The primary phase opens when a new election cycle spawns.
• The window closes at the primary deadline. For a US House race that's 48 hours after spawn; for a Senate race it's 240 hours. General elections last 48 turns for both chambers.
• You can only declare during this window. After the primary deadline passes, the primary resolves and no new candidacies are accepted.
• Party membership is required at the moment of declaration. Joining a party between spawn and the primary window closing is fine.
• One race at a time. Active candidacy blocks a new declaration. Withdraw first, then re-enter.

If you're switching parties, a prior candidacy in a different party is auto-withdrawn when you declare under the new party, so no manual cleanup is needed.

How a down-ballot primary is counted#

Standings are scored every turn of the primary, but ballots only start counting over its closing stretch, a window as long as the race's own general window (so a Senate seat that sits in its primary for five years does not start casting ballots five years out, and a late entrant faces a fair field). Each turn of that window, each party's registered voters release a slice of ballots, paced by the same closing-surge curve the general uses, and the slice is split between that party's candidates in proportion to their primary-score standing. Independents and the unregistered cast no primary ballot. When the deadline passes, the cumulative count decides: the party's top vote-getter advances. A sustained lead therefore beats a last-turn surge, exactly as accumulating ballots should. The race page and region Elections tab show these cumulative shares as the primary standings.

The standard primary score (state races)#

The score is your standing within the party, and it sets your share of each turn's ballots. Scores go 0 to 100. Four components, with an infamy penalty applied at the end:

The raw score is then reduced by an infamy penalty: at most a 5% cut, scaling linearly up to that cap as infamy rises from 0 to 100.

Reading the formula#

• Alignment splits state vs. party. Of the 40 alignment points, 25 measure how close you are to the state's cached economic and social lean, and 15 measure closeness to your party platform. State match is the bigger factor: a candidate who fits the state's politics gets a real edge over a perfect partisan match who's out of step with the state. If a state has no cached lean, scoring falls back to a single 40-point party alignment.
• Favorability. Linear. 50 Favorability is worth 17.5 pts; 80 Favorability is worth 28 pts.
• Influence. A square-root curve, capped once PI reaches 100. PI of 100 scores 25; PI of 85 scores about 23; PI of 50 scores about 17.7; PI of 20 scores about 11.2.
• Infamy. A clean candidate (infamy 0) keeps their full score. A maxed-out infamous candidate (infamy 100) loses 5% of their score.

Highest cumulative ballot count per party advances to the general. Other candidates in that party's primary are marked withdrawn. Where a party has no registered voters on file at all, the highest score advances instead.

The presidential primary score#

Presidential primaries reward national reach and party infrastructure more than state-level campaigning:

The raw score gets the same infamy penalty as the state-level formula. Presidential primaries are national, so there's no state-position alignment component: only the party platform applies.

Presidential contenders live or die on national reach, party influence, and favorability. A candidate with low national reach but high state PI can win state races but loses presidential primaries.

NPP primary candidates#

NPPs (Non-Player Politicians) autonomously enter primaries. Entry is deterministic, not random:

• 50% primary-score penalty when a player is in the same party's primary. A raw 60-point NPP effectively scores 30 against you.
• Entry is deterministic, not probabilistic. NPPs follow a strict priority order:
  1. Incumbent defense. If the sitting officeholder is an NPP and their party has no player candidate, the incumbent NPP always enters to defend the seat.
  2. Slate fill. Each party aims to field at least one NPP candidate in every open race. NPPs are assigned to empty primaries first.
  3. One generic NPP per party. After slate fill, at most one additional generic NPP may enter any party's primary if no player is present. This prevents races from becoming overcrowded with autonomous candidates.
• NPPs do not drop out based on appeal. Once entered, they remain until primary resolution or manual withdrawal.

How NPPs shape your primary#

• NPPs are beaten by alignment and favorability. The 50% penalty means a player sitting at alignment 35 + favorability 25 + influence 15 (= 75) beats a raw-80 NPP scoring an effective 40.

Tactics during primary#

1. Run a Quick Poll before declaring. 2 actions + ₳25k. Shows your topline appeal and the 5 best/worst groups. Use it to decide whether this is your race.
2. Alignment first. If your policy positions are more than about 6 points away from your party's official position, reconsider. Check the party page: the official positions are visible there.
3. Don't attack fellow party members. If someone else wins the primary, you want them at full strength going into the general.
4. Pump Political Influence early. Campaign 6-10 actions/day in-state. PI compounds over the primary window because decay is much slower than Campaign's +1% per action, and because ballots accumulate, a lead you hold through the closing window is worth more than one you grab on the last turn.
5. Don't sleep on Favorability. 35 points of the score live here. Going into primary with Favorability 80 is worth 28 pts vs. 17 at Favorability 50, an 11-point swing.

Withdrawal during primary#

Allowed but typically a mistake:

• Withdrawal marks your candidacy withdrawn, and you cannot re-enter.
• The only legitimate reason to withdraw mid-primary is pivoting to a different office you prefer, before that election's primary window closes.
• If you're losing the primary but want to keep your option open, don't withdraw, just lose. Your PI, Favorability, and donor base persist for the next cycle.

After primary resolution#

When the primary deadline passes:

1. The turn processor resolves all primaries that have closed.
2. Each party's cumulative ballots are read; the top vote-getter advances (highest score where no ballots were cast).
3. Losers receive a notification and are marked withdrawn.
4. The winner's candidacy moves into the general election phase.
5. A general-phase vote tally is initialized for the election.

Common primary mistakes#

• Declaring without a poll. You walk in blind. Always commission a Quick Poll first.
• Entering a crowded primary where you're 4th in alignment. You'll lose; save your actions for a next-cycle race where you're first or second.
• Attacking primary rivals. Favorability drain. Net negative.
• Skipping Party Influence investment pre-primary. The party bonus actions you miss out on could have funded another 2-3 Campaign actions per day.
• Underestimating NPP density in unsexy races. State Senate primaries in rural states can have 5+ NPPs all scoring 50. A halfway-competent player wins, but you need the 50% penalty working, so don't be surprised if a player-less seat gets fully NPP'd.

Related#

• Election Mechanics: Full election structure.
• Presidential Nominating Convention: How pledged delegates settle the presidential nomination.
• General Elections: What happens after you win the primary.
• Primary vs General Tactics: Pivoting once the general starts.
• NPP Elections: Strategies for competing against autonomous candidates.
• Political Parties: Party platform positions, how to see them.
• Polling: Quick and Full poll details.