Wisconsin adopted the first relatively comprehensive statewide compulsory primary law in 1903. Within five years similar laws had been adopted in most of the plains and western states where the Progressive movement was strong, and by 1917 the direct primary had been adopted in all but a handful of states. (93).
Most of the states that were slow to adopt the primary or did not use it consistently were eastern or midwestern states with relatively high levels of two-party competition and strong party organizations, such as New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Indiana. When Connecticut adopted a limited form of the direct primary in 1955, no state remained that relied entirely on the convention system. In the last three decades a number of states have enacted laws changing the number of offices covered by the primary or the authority of party conventions to endorse candidates in the primary, but there has been no clear legislative trend toward either greater organizational control or greater popular influence in nominations. The laws of a number of states require or permit the political parties to hold conventions before the primary to endorse candidates; in some of these states no primary is held if no more than one candidate gets a significant number of votes at the convention.
General elections are the elections which decides the outcome for the candidate. In general election contests there is two-party competition for most legislative seats in most northern states, and in some years every seat will be contested. The outcome of general elections is partly dependent on national political trends. In a presidential election year the party of the winning presidential candidate usually gains state legislative seats; in the following midterm election that party usually loses seats. The larger the gain in a presidential year, the more seats may be lost in the next election.