Not just who, but how: Further probing the connection between primary election dissatisfaction and general election voting behavior

How does divided primary support impact parties and their candidates come the general election? Existing works fail to offer a clear consensus, with some finding evidence of “sour grapes” and defection and others finding that voters ultimately come home to their party. We offer a more recent examination of how support for a losing primary candidate is related to general election voting behavior. In addition, we also hypothesize that dissatisfaction with aspects of how nominating contests are conducted will be related to greater probabilities of defection or abstention. Using original data from the 2020 Cooperative Election Study (CES), we find only mixed evidence that dissatisfaction with Joe Biden lead to a greater probability of defecting to Donald Trump in the 2020 general election. More consistently, we find that dissatisfaction with the process that led to Biden's nomination – especially dislike of the roles of Iowa and New Hampshire -- is associated with defection. These findings suggest that parties should think about both the people running and process by which they are nominated if hoping to maximize general election support among their members.