The primary election study 2024 dataset on U.S. Senate primary elections

This article describes the Primary Election Study (PES), a survey dataset designed to facilitate the study of voter behavior, attitudes, and decision-making in U.S. primary elections. The PES was fielded during the 2024 U.S. Senate primary elections in California, Michigan, and Nevada and includes both representative samples of the adult population and large oversamples of likely primary voters. The study collected data from 8124 respondents through a pre-election survey administered in the weeks leading up to each state's primary contest. The dataset contains detailed measures of candidate evaluations, issue priorities, partisan attitudes, political engagement, and validated turnout, allowing researchers to distinguish between reported voting intentions and verified participation. Survey weights are provided to support analyses of statewide populations, likely primary electorates, and combined samples. The PES addresses limitations of existing election surveys by capturing voter preferences contemporaneously with primary elections and by ensuring adequate statistical power for analyses of primary electorates. These data are suitable for research on electoral behavior, political polarization, representation, and democratic accountability, as well as for teaching and methodological replication.