Earlier this month, three states announced they would cancel their presidential primaries and caucus. The Republican parties in South Carolina, Nevada and Kansas canceled their nominating races and committed their delegates to President Trump.

Without a single citizen casting a vote.

Individual states canceling their primaries is not without precedent. For example, the GOP in South Carolina canceled theirs in 2004 when President George W. Bush ran completely unopposed. That, however, is not the case today.

While their campaigns may not have picked up much steam yet, President Trump is facing three primary opponents, including two former Republican governors. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Bill Weld of Massachusetts, both considered fiscal conservatives, have spent time in the Granite State wooing voters.

The Republican National Committee argues �everyone� in the party supports the president and as such, primaries are not necessary. Not only is this factually incorrect (we have yet to see a poll giving the president 100% support) it is also entirely beside the point.

Primaries have not always existed in our political system. In fact, there was a time in our country�s history when our presidential candidates were literally chosen in smoky backrooms by a handful of party leaders. In 1920, New Hampshire was the first state to hold a presidential primary and they have since become a critical step in the presidential nominating process, giving a voice to the American people.

Our democratic Republic is built upon the idea that �We The People� choose our own leaders. Primaries were created specifically to shift power away from political party leaders and place it more firmly in the hands of the people, a message that appears to be lost on today�s GOP leaders.

We were happy to hear New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Steve Stepanek remains committed to New Hampshire�s �First in the Nation primary.� We would feel even better if he would openly embrace the democratic process of primaries and welcome Weld and Sanford to all of the NHGOP events, as all primary candidates have been in the past.

It seems clear that the only purpose behind canceling these primaries is to protect a weak president with an adolescent sensitivity to being challenged in any way. It also sets a dangerous precedent of allowing party leaders to once again decide in backrooms who gets to run for office and who does not. Perhaps RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel should look around the world at countries that allow their leaders to cancel elections to protect themselves.

The assumption that party support for President Trump will remain high in coming months is also a risky premise upon which to make such decisions.

As we have seen this week, with deeply troubling revelations about Trump trying to strong-arm a foreign leader into helping him dig up dirt on his political opponents, this president has a tendency toward authoritarian tactics that is grossly un-American. It is a much more likely scenario that support for this president, even within his own party will wane as we get closer to the primary elections.

Which is, we suspect, what is really behind the effort by the Republican Party to shut down primary elections to begin with. They know full well their candidate is weak in some key primary states. Canceling primary contests protects him from confronting those weaknesses early in the process, which would, in turn, weaken him going into the general election.

Canceling primaries is wrong. It is an affront to our American democracy and an assault on the people themselves. Primary elections give a voice to the people and they protect the American ideal that anyone can become president someday. We wish that today�s Republican Party leadership embraced these foundational American ideals as passionately as we do.