This year’s gubernatorial election is a perfect storm that could elect Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins as the state’s first Democratic governor in over a quarter century. Despite Alaska being a red state with a large conservative majority, the Democratic Party is trying to use the confusing Ranked Choice voting system to sneak Kreiss-Tomkins into office. They might get away with it if conservatives do not vote strategically and rank every Republican in this race. Conservatives need to take a fresh look at the three viable candidates and rank all three on their ballots to avoid a liberal victory.

Dave Bronson, Anchorage’s former mayor, is the only candidate in the race with executive experience. As mayor, he was known for boldly confronting the liberal Anchorage Assembly when he attempted to implement conservative policies. His supporters know that Bronson has self-confidence and would not be afraid to challenge the Democrat-led caucuses in the Legislature. For voters looking for a bold leader, Bronson is your man.

As former Attorney General, Treg Taylor has experience working inside the executive branch of government in Juneau. Taylor has been controversial, but he has one great thing going for him: his choice as running mate.

He picked Candi English, the owner of a large oilfield services company specializing in working on the North Slope. I worked with Candi and her husband Stan for over 30 years. Candi is a superb executive and would do a fantastic job as the Lt. Governor, especially with the responsibility of supervising the Division of Elections. If there were ever a chance to address the election integrity questions in our state, it would happen if Candi English were in charge. She is reason enough to include Treg Taylor when you rank your ballots.

Bernadette Wilson is running as an outsider candidate aligned with President Trump and his MAGA philosophy. This message has evidently resonated with voters, as Wilson received the most Republican votes in the fragmented primary election. Wilson has significant experience in the political periphery. She was an advisor to Nick Begich’s congressional campaign. She led a couple of conservative nonprofits and is a co-sponsor of the ballot measure to repeal ranked-choice voting. Wilson has been described as a Trump-aligned Republican, which should be enough for voters to include her name when they rank their ballots.

Failure to rank every Republican on your ballot means a Democrat will win.

All three of these candidates are superior to the Democrat, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. It doesn’t matter in which order they are ranked on your ballot, but conservatives must include all three of them in some order. If not, thanks to RCV, this year’s governor’s race will turn out like Mary Peltola’s victory in the 2022 congressional election.

The reason is that in an RCV election with multiple candidates, if no one receives 50% of the vote in the first round, in the next round the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, along with all the ballots that selected them as their only choice. This is called exhausting a ballot.

These so-called exhausted ballots favor the party with only one candidate in the race. That is why the Democrats were so anxious to have Tom Begich drop out. With the favorable matchup of one Democrat against three Republicans, there will likely be no outright winner in the first round, meaning the election is likely to go to an RCV runoff. With Republican ballots being exhausted in each round of counting, the Democrat candidate will eventually win.

That is what we are facing unless the Republican voters get smart. The only way to play the game is for conservative voters to rank every conservative candidate in the race. It doesn’t matter if they have a favorite. The primary is over, so it doesn’t matter now. Failure to rank every Republican on your ballot means a Democrat will win. I heard it put best by Representative Sarah Vance in a meeting last night: “Rank all three or get JKT.”

Voters need to take Rep. Vance’s words to heart when voting for governor. Rank the three Republicans in whatever order you think best, but be sure to rank them all and leave JKT off your ballot completely. Failure to rally around all three Republicans will lead to a liberal takeover of our state that could be catastrophic.

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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