One day after The Alaska Story reported that Alaska gubernatorial candidate Dave Bronson signed a document back on May 28 saying he would withdraw his candidacy if he did not win a majority of votes in the primary, Bronson has definitively stated that he’s not “backing down.”
The Alaska Story article noted that as part of the Republican Party’s pre-primary vetting process, candidates seeking support from House District 8 were asked if they would drop out of the race if they did not win the majority of votes for a Republican in the primary.
At the time, Bronson signed off on that pledge, which is what fellow GOP candidate Bernadette Wilson also vowed to do in order to avoid splitting the conservative vote in the general election this November.
However, the recent primary election resulted in Bernadette winning just 20.3% of the Republican vote and Bronson taking 15.9%. Although they were the top two GOP vote-getters, neither candidate garnered the “majority of votes” from Republicans in what was a packed field.
In fact, if both candidates agreed to follow the District 8 pledge, they would both need to drop from the race.
Given this situation, Bronson released an Aug. 26 video stating his intent to remain in the race.
“We are not backing down, we are not stepping aside, and we are not going anywhere,” he said. “We are staying in the race, and we intend to see it through.”
In an Aug. 26 email, District 8 GOP Chairman Robert Wall clarified that he does not expect Bronson to drop out of the race.
“I want to provide some clarity regarding the vetting document signed by Dave Bronson and the discussion surrounding his potential decision to remain in the race for Governor,” Wall explained. “The language in our District 8 document states that a candidate agrees to withdraw from a race where they have ‘garnered less than a majority of votes and where your continued competition with another Republican will split the vote.’ No candidate received a majority of the votes in this primary. In fact, no candidate received even a quarter of the statewide Republican vote. Under Alaska’s current top-four primary system, voters did not select a Republican nominee. Instead, the four highest vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.”
Wall noted that Alaska voters advanced two Republicans and two Democrats to the general election runoff. If one GOP candidate were to drop out, it would only result in another GOP candidate moving up into the top four, which would not reduce the number of Republican candidates in the general election.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
“There are so many candidates on the ballot that dropping out only advances another Republican candidate who had less support than Dave,” Wall observed. “As Chairman, I believe it is important to clarify our intent rather than allow one sentence from our 14-page vetting document to be interpreted without its full context. The question before Republicans now should be the same question that motivated this provision in the first place: Which candidate gives us the strongest opportunity to elect a Republican Governor in November?”
As things currently stand, the remaining gubernatorial candidates will be Bernadette and Bronson, along with Democrats Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich, who finished first and second in the overall primary vote.
The November 3 election will be conducted using the ranked-choice voting method, in which voters can rank candidates in order of preference. If a voter’s top candidate places fourth in the general, that candidate will be removed and the voter’s second-place choice will be counted in round two. This process continues until one candidate achieves a “majority” of the ranked-choice votes.
