The majority vote rule and runoff primaries in the United States

Runoff Voters Will Do the Darndest Things: An Analysis of the 2008 Georgia Democratic Senate Runoff

“…Black and Black posit that strong frontrunners usually win their runoffs, while weak frontrunners are in more jeopardy. Engstrom and Engstrom (2008) find support for this thesis in runoffs between 1980 and 2002, with strong frontrunners winning 84 percent of runoffs during this period. Weak frontrunners won their runoffs in only 37 percent of the runoffs from this period.…”

“…As Republicans become a more viable alternative to the Democrats in the 1970s and 1980s, the stronger a Republican candidate in the general election, the more precipitous the decline in runoff turnout (Wright 1989). Engstrom and Engstrom (2008) find that turnout decreased in all but seven gubernatorial and U.S. Senate runoffs between 1980 and 2002, which accounted for 13.5 percent of all runoffs during this period. Runoffs turnout is highest in gubernatorial runoffs.…”

“…Republican weak frontrunners had little chance in statewide runoffs, winning no gubernatorial primary runoffs and only 33 percent of U.S. Senate runoffs. Democratic weak frontrunners fared slightly better winning 37.5 percent of gubernatorial runoffs and 50 percent of U.S. Senate runoffs (Engstrom and Engstrom 2008).…”

“…Engstrom and Engstrom (2008) find between 1980-2002 that runoffs were necessary to decide nearly 27 percent of all gubernatorial contests and 19 percent of all U.S. Senate contests in states requiring a majority vote. This is congruous with studies that found similar results in earlier time periods (Bullock and Johnson 1992).…”

“…This had the effect of making the Democratic Party "less white" and resulting in the nomination of more black candidates, especially in statewide contests. Both of these phenomena have led to the runoff's continued use and the loss of any racial stigma surrounding the runoff (Engstrom and Engstrom 2008).…”