One of Alaska’s top GOP gubernatorial candidates, Bernadette Wilson, announced that she vows to drop out of the race for governor if she does not receive the most votes among Republicans in next year’s jungle primary. She is asking for every other GOP candidate to do the same.
In a jam packed field of GOP candidates vying for the governor’s seat, Wilson has led all other Republican in the first two publicly released polls.
On Sept. 24, however, she sent a letter to the other nine GOP candidates, urging them to join her in pledging to drop out of the race if they fail to secure the top GOP spot in the 2026 primary.
The other GOP candidates include former Alaska Attorney Gen. Treg Taylor, former State Sen. Click Bishop, former Alaska Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum, current Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, current Mat-Su Borough Mayor Edna DeVries, State Medical Board member Dr. Matt Heilala, State Sen. Shelley Hughes, retired schoolteacher James Parkin, Palmer resident Bruce Walden.
So far, there is only one Democrat running, former State Sen. Tom Begich.
Thanks to ranked-choice voting, Alaska no longer has party-specific primaries. Instead, the state holds an open “jungle” primary in which every candidate – irrespective of party – is on the same ballot. Only the top four vote getters advance to the general election in the fall. To avoid a glut of GOP candidates on the final general ballot – a scenario that could dilute the conservative vote – Wilson is asking her fellow Republicans to simply drop out if they are not the number one Republican vote getter. This would effectively nullify ranked-choice voting and pit one Republican against one or more Democrats in the general election.
Here’s what Wilson wrote:
Dear Republican candidates for governor of Alaska,
First, thank you for your dedication to Alaska and your willingness to run for governor of our great state. Together, we are engaging in the arena of debate, testing and weighing the best of ideas. Together, we are bringing our forefathers vision to fruition and for that, I am thankful to each of you.
I have no doubt that our robust field of Republican candidates will produce the best nominee for our party who will win next November and keep Alaska’s highest office in Republican hands.
I’m writing today to ask you to join me in pledging to drop out of the race for Governor if you are not the top Republican voter getter in next August’s primary. With ranked choice voting, the only way we can secure a prosperous future for Alaska is by uniting behind our primary winner so that our votes are not diluted in November.
We learned this lesson firsthand in the past two cycles at the Congressional level. In 2022, Sarah Palin and Nick Begich both remained in the race after the primary and divided the Republican votes, allowing Mary Peltola to win the seat. In 2024 however, Republicans united behind Nick Begich after he received the most votes among Republican candidates in the primary, allowing him to consolidate conservative votes and win decisively in the general election. We know that ranked choice voting was devised by those who would like to defeat us and disenfranchise voters.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
As a sponsor of the current effort to repeal ranked choice voting this cycle, I am hopeful that voters will reject ranked choice voting at the ballot box next November. Until then we must not allow ranked choice voting to silence Alaska’s voices. We must unite to overcome it.
I am 100% committed to dropping out of this race if I am not the top Republican voter getter, and to fully endorsing whoever is that winner. Winning this election for the future of Alaska and conservative values is vastly more important than any of us individually, and I am asking you to join me in that pledge today.
Sincerely, Bernadette Wilson
15 Comments
Bernadette Wilson has my vote or Shelley Hughes.
Under Ranked Choice Voting there is no need to drop out to avoid what Bernadette is suggesting. Just take a minute to understand how RCV works. It’s not that hard.
You mean “multiple choice voting”…? /s
You lack basic and elementary RCV education Joanne. The Murkowski and Peltola victories are hard evidence of an RCV driven outcome, whereas, the Begich trouncing of Peltola speaks volumes for the necessity for doing precisely what Wilson is advocating. This approach supports the ideology of the conservative movement rather than personal success.
The Peltola victory was the result of backstabbing among the Republican candidates. RCV is designed to eliminate that.
And I agree that RCV will take the power away from you guys on the far right as well as those on the far left and give power to the 70-80% of those in the middle.
So, let’s keep RCV because it’s designed to eliminate backstabbing? But the Peltola victory was the result of backstabbing but RCV is designed to eliminate backstabbing but Peltola won because of Republican backstabbing but RCV is designed to eliminate such backstabbing…very curious logic!
Major Ursa, you failed to see that your candidates lost because of backstabbing, and that one of them would’ve won if they had realized how RCV works and showed just a smidgen of respect for one another. Somehow, everyone except those on the far right understand how RCV works.
So that means you’re not voting against RCV. You know you can be in last place and still win in RCV it’s all a scam. One vote in person with ID yes with ID. Yes I’m voting to get rid of this cheating system RCV
Trust that its hard for Bernadette Wilson and Shelley Hughes to understand.
To Joanne, may we suggest, not unkindly, lots of voters were duped into believing they know how RCV -should- work, but no one knows how RCV -did- work in the last election.
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Isn’t the whole premise of ranked choice voting all about forcing people to vote for candidates they don’t want, giving voters with little preference among candidates more votes than voters who prefer only one candidate, and erasing ballot chain of custody so nobody can tell what happened?
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Mix in Alaska’s remarkably corrupted voter-registration system, vote-tabulation gear operating on proprietary hardware and software into which anyone, any time, can stick thumb drives of unknown provenance, and unverifiable voter-turnout numbers reported by unelected officials with vested interests in election outcomes, how do we not have an easy recipe for epic election fraud, the results of which can be conveniently blamed on ignorant voters or low voter turnout?
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On topic, though, do you think so many other Republicans might be running for governor primarily to split the vote, keep the Wilson-Shower team from getting elected and doing a Trump-Vance thing to Alaska’s political machinery?
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Why would other Republicans do that? Might it have something to do with arrangements which led to the heart-warming spirit of legislative bipartisanship in which Democrat minorities are allowed to control Republican majorities?
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No right or wrong answer, Joanne, just interested in what you think.
Until RCV is thrown out by the courts, this is the only way to defeat it. The Dems already do this.
Our Democrat Senator Lisa Murkowski and her clan helped incorporate RCV into our election process.
put your hands together and thank do nothing dunleavy for RCV
No, thank Murkowski. She was behind it.
How do you know a Democrat is lying? Her lips are moving.
Interesting. So the actual Conservative candidate has the Heart for Alaska to pledge to drop out to ensure we do not end up with another Marxist Governor and the other candidates will not make the same promise. Then we see that some will support Shelly “The Baker” Hughes. Even after her and fellow RINO Kevin McCabe character assassination of David Eastman a true conservative. No I can not do that! No matter what they say their voting records tell the truth.