In between speeches at Vice President J.D. Vance’s rally in Fairbanks, Alaska, in the closing weeks of the election, Tammie Wilson weaved through the crowd to spread a message to the Republicans around her: Rank all the Republican candidates for governor.
Wilson, the Republican chair for a district right outside of Fairbanks, said she encountered voters who were torn between participating in the ranked-choice process they abhor or allowing the lone Democrat on the gubernatorial ballot to waltz into victory.
“You have to rank whether you like it or not. That is what it is," Wilson told National Journal. "All we could do is then vote yes on two and hope it goes away. But it won't go away for this election.”
Wilson is just one of the district chairs National Journal spoke to who are taking the onus upon themselves to urge voters to rank all three Republican candidates. The Republican Governors Association and the state party are also encouraging voters to rank their ballots after it became apparent they had a voter-education crisis on their hands.
But the Republicans actually on the ballot aren’t on the same page about ranked-choice voting. Bernadette Wilson, the leading Republican in the race, isn’t backing a ranking strategy. And President Trump said the other two Republicans should coalesce around her, further complicating the message.
Independent polling found Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins leading Wilson and the other two Republicans on the ballot, Dave Bronson and Treg Taylor, in the final ranked-choice-voting simulation. This indicates that some voters backing Bronson and Taylor aren’t ranking Wilson further down their ballot. An AARP poll last month found that 25 percent weren’t ranking their ballots for Kreiss-Tomkins or Wilson. The more recent New York Times/Siena poll had 70 fewer participants in the final ranked-choice-voting tabulation, another sign that voters aren’t ranking their ballots through.
If Taylor and Bronson supporters fail to rank Wilson, their ballots could be exhausted before the final round, leaving Wilson with fewer votes to overcome Kreiss-Tomkins’ lead. The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter has shifted the contest to "Lean Democrat."
It’s an issue in the governor’s race more so than in the House and Senate races, because the long-shot GOP governor candidates are still pulling double-digit support, or close to it. The initial ballot poll from AARP for the Senate race had former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola with 46 percent and Sen. Dan Sullivan with 41 percent. By contrast, in the poll of the governor’s race, Kreiss-Tomkins got 40 percent, Bernadette Wilson got 20 percent, Bronson got 14 percent, and Taylor 7 percent.
In previous elections, Alaska Republicans pushed a “Rank the Red” strategy to consolidate Republican support in a four-candidate field. The party circulated a guide, authored by then-Chair Randy Ruedrich, explaining how to rank candidates for House in 2022.
But after that strategy failed to prevent Peltola’s win in 2022, Republicans began to abandon it. Instead, following the primary, Republicans embraced a strategy of dropping out after the primary in an attempt to create a two-man race between a Democrat and a Republican.
Bernadette Wilson seems to be embracing that strategy. She has repeatedly called on Bronson and Taylor to drop out of the race in lieu of supporting ranked-choice voting, and has floated polling showing her as the leading Republican on initial ballots.
Russell Luke, assistant professor of political science at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, said embracing a “Rank the Red” strategy could come off as a sign of weakness.
“If you were confident, if you were the front-runner, you wouldn't need to call on people to 'Rank the Red' because you were going to win outright,” Luke said.
But Robert Wall in District 8 worries that Wilson’s failure to embrace ranked-choice voting and appeal to Bronson and Taylor supporters could cost Republicans the race.
“We are so honored to have President Trump's endorsement in this race, and to have Alaska conservatives continue to unite behind our campaign. This race is too important to be divided, and I'll keep working hard to earn every single vote,” Wilson said in a statement to National Journal. “As the President said: ‘Now is the time for all Republicans to unite behind Bernadette to ensure she has a tremendous Victory in November!’”
Other Republican leaders are siding with Wilson’s strategy. Cheri Voiles, GOP chair in District 13, said her district in Anchorage quickly endorsed Wilson after the primary because she was the top Republican vote-getter. Voiles said Bronson and Taylor should bow out of the race.
With three weeks until Election Day, though, Bronson and Taylor are showing no sign of dropping out. And even if they did, their names would still be on the ballot.
Taylor and Bronson have embraced ranked-choice voting, appearing together to encourage voters to rank Republicans “1, 2, 3, not JKT,” a nod to Kreiss-Tomkins, the sole Democrat in the race after Tom Begich dropped out.
The RGA is finally stepping in.
The Kodiak PAC, a group backed by the RGA, is distributing mailers encouraging voters to “rank all Republicans for governor to stop the radical liberal agenda,” according to documents reviewed by National Journal. The RGA contributed $1.6 million to the PAC earlier this month.
The state party is also “investing considerable resources this cycle to educate” voters on how to “‘Rank the Republicans and blank the Democrats’ on the ballot,” Chair Carmela Warfield said in a statement to National Journal. The party is deploying statewide mailers, texting, and social media posts to get their message out.
“Whatever our frustration with the process, we will rank every Republican on our ballots, and we call on you to do the same," party leadership wrote in a letter. "Make your choices deliberately: choose your favorite Republican, rank the remaining Republicans, and leave every Democrat blank. This is how we win.”
But after Trump’s endorsement, Voiles said the state party should follow his lead, instead of backing a ranking strategy.
“I think the world of our party leadership, and I'm not sure what their reasoning is for staying so quiet, but I do wish, now that President Trump has literally spoken—I think it would behoove them to maybe say, 'You know, we need to listen to our president,'” Voiles said.
District 37 GOP Chair Dan Magone said it has been ”passed down to me through the chain” via regional supervisors of the state party to educate voters in his district about ranked-choice voting.
Magone has filled out a sample ballot with annotations to educate voters in his area. But his district, which includes the sprawling Aleutian Islands, stretches over 1,000 miles. He said it’s hard for him to reach voters, many of whom have to devote their time to long workdays or are in remote parts of the region.
Wall said he and his fellow district chairs have walked attendees at their monthly meetings through the ballot-ranking process. And they’re relying on word of mouth.
“We all need to leave our egos at the door, and help save the Republic. And the only way to do that is to tell people to vote to rank 1-2-3, just pick your favorite, and then keep voting down and stop at three,” Wall said.
