How do primary elections function in a democracy?

Primary elections are like a team tryout where people choose who will be their team captain for a big game.

In a democracy, before a big election happens, like when you pick a class president, the candidates (the people trying to be picked) have to go through a smaller contest first. This is called a primary election.

Imagine your school has two teams: Team Blue and Team Red. Each team wants someone new as their captain, so they hold tryouts. The students in each team vote for the person they think will be the best leader. That’s like how primary elections work: people in a party (like Team Blue or Team Red) pick one of their own to be the candidate in the big election.

After the primary election, the winner becomes the main candidate for that party. Then, everyone in the school, not just Team Blue or Team Red, gets to vote for who they think will be the best class president. That’s the big general election!