As a physician and former state senator, I have always tried to live by one rule: Put people first and solve problems with facts, not fear.

Too often, our politics flips that script. Closed primaries and noncompetitive districts turn elections into purity tests— and the electorate suffers from the political equivalent of bad medicine.

I saw it firsthand at the Capitol. In virtually every district, the decisive election is the June primary or August runoff, decided by a small, highly partisan slice of voters — often a single-digit share of the electorate.

Rational politicians cater to that audience. Over time, what begins as a campaign tactic hardens into a governing philosophy: Entire agendas get calibrated to a fraction of voters rather than the majority. It’s not that lawmakers are in

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