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.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
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.
25 Comments
This is a lost cause. JKT is running a general election campaign, and the Republicans are still running a primary campaign,, slashing each other instead of slashing the JKT and the Democratic Socialist “party”. Thank Lisa and Scott for this disaster, and pray that Ballot Measure #2 passes.
Did you even read the article?
Exactly!
I endorse this column without any reservations. We don’t need to be reminded that all candidates carry with them something we don’t approve of — whether it is their personal life, personality or public failures. The bottom line is: each of the Republican candidates is infinitely more palatable than a pro-homosexual, pro-transgender, pro-men-in-women’s-sports, anti-resource development member of the Lunatic/Communist Party. A victory for JKT is a victory for Outside control of Alaska. If you thought our faked “statehood” ended THAT problem, think again.
I don’t understand how the Republicans can win. In the primary, 47% of the vote went to the 2 main democrats. I can’t remember exact numbers, but our 2 main candidates got a little over 20%. If the percentage of voting people in the different parties stays the same in the general and the fact that one democrat dropped and all ours stayed in, I don’t see how we have a chance.
If no one gets over 50%, but the Democrat gets the highest vote count (just going by primary results), he will eventually become the winner. Because in the first round, the lowest count candidate will be dropped which will be a republican. Then we have 2 Republicans splitting the rest of the votes and I don’t see how we even have a chance. It will only be by the grace of God for a republican to win…….
The reason 47% went to the two main democrats is because of the piss-poor turnout of Alaskan voters. Less than 25% of eligible Alaskan’s got off their dead butts and voted. I’m ashamed of the Alaskan stupidity when it come to the most important event our country/state still allows. Maybe if it was required to pickup your PFD check at your polling location we’d see 100% turnout.
K, the primary ballot had numerous Republicans on it that split the primary vote into smaller percentages. Yet the overall total of primary votes FOR Republicans exceeded the votes by several thousand vs the two Democrats. And this was despite a low primary voter turnout averaging around 20% of registered voters. So do your part to GET OUT THE VOTE come the 2026 General Election. Call/text at least 10 people on your contact list, offer to help people get to the polls (early voting too), and tell them conservatives CAN win if we show up to vote.
Please explain to me how Bronson can be effective. I did not see any effective leadership as Mayor. I saw him get slaughtered at the assembly meetings and never heard from him in other communications of things he actually accomplished other than some push back re assembly actions. I acknowledge he had a hard job going up against those against them, but it will be the same as governor. I would like to see Bernadette as governor. I see her as being able to effect change more successfully than Brinson.
https://www.muni.org/departments/mayor/pressreleases/Pages/Mayor-Dave-Bronson-Bids-Farewell-to-Anchorage-with-2024-Transition-Report-and-Reflection-on-Achievements.aspx
Check it out.
Bernadette’s track record is that of a paid cheerleader for conservative causes, not a public servant. And her stints at head cheerleader for those causes did not end well in most cases. She knows how to make noise and get attention, and that helped Bronson and Begich get into office. But her leadership roles? They ended in her getting fired. Not a gamble I’m willing to make with the Governor’s office.
Trump was an outsider too. Like him or hate him he’s been extremely effective in fighting off the legal system, Lisa Murkowski (slimy she is), and the deep state. Bernadette is a political outsider too, and I’m willing to give her the opportunity to prove herself. I took a chance with Trump and haven’t regretted it. I hope to be able to give Bernadette the same endorsement on her second term also.
@K That’s what’s great about RCV. If it was everyone-only-votes-for-one-person, then the republicans would be cooked because of vote-splitting. Some people vote for Bronson, some for Taylor, and some for Wilson. But all the dems would vote for JKT and he’ll win handily even if most people oppose him.
But we have ranked-choice. Which means that we can rank Bronson, Taylor, and Wilson and not vote for JKT. So if the people oppose JKT, he’s gonna lose.
What you seem to have forgotten is if we went back to our original voting method we’d have a primary and only one person would be on the ballot representing the Republican party, Duh! Typical, lacking of the ability to understand anything past your bias.
First of all, I believe I know and have worked with these candidates more than the author of this article. I had to laugh at some of the statements and assumptions made. He only lists Taylor as the one with controversy. I am still laughing. Being from the Kenai, it seems the grand jury issue is the only one being considered. What we have to remember is grand juries are under the judicial branch not administrative.
Wilson and Bronson will lose. They’ve put too much support behind Trump that it’s hurting them and creating a distaste much like the current opinion of Dunleavy. None of these folks have addressed our states current predicament with rising costs across the board. Last I heard, health insurance is gonna go up again in 2027. Why aren’t we focused on that?
That all sounds mathematically possible but the only way to win is for two of them to unselfishly drop out.
Good luck on that. Republican’s have a ego problem when it comes to public office. Bernadette Wilson received the highest percentage of vote cast amount the republicans. The other two should drop out, but their egos won’t allow them to, rather they’d prefer to split the party. That’s my main issue with the republican party, if they can’t come together now then how can they lead?
Hi K,
Unfortunately, many voters share your opinion and, for one reason or another, plan to select only their one preferred candidate on the November ballot. When they do so, they are essentially picking JKT as their second choice, even if they don’t mark his name. Ask yourself who hates you more: one of the Republicans you don’t prefer, or JKT. If you really do not want a governor for the next four years who will steal the rest of your PFD, implement a statewide income and sales tax, or put boys in your daughter’s locker room, you must hold your nose and rank all three Republicans. This is going to be an RCV election, and those are the rules. That was the entire point of this article. Thanks for the comments.
Yesterday, I answered a phone call poll. I told them that if the election were today, I’d rank Bronson 1, Treg 2, and Bernadette (hold my nose) 3. I was pleasantly surprised to see that same lineup as the visual for this piece.
If ranking can actually work, why don’t the democrats do it???? It works alright, against us, because the Republicans are so “proud” they don’t get out. Charlie Pierce suspended his race 4 years ago and Dunleavy won on the first round. Support him or not, he did the right thing.
Since the ego’s won’t go away, the only chance of ranking working is by ranking the top in the primary 1st – Bernadette – yes it matters.
Vote blue to save ANWR and other wilderness areas.
People before plants and animals, please.
Jon, Please crawl back, into your cave. Tell me you don’t drive a car, ride in a plane, ride a bicycle on tires made from oil? And many other things you have in your possession.
Unbelievable situation. You can’t even make this shit up.
As an alternative, to ranking JKT, write in , your name, my name or your dog’s name
> That is what we are facing unless the Republican voters get smart.
As a lifelong conservative I have to tell you any strategy that depends on the intelligence of your voters is doomed to failure.