The Bronson-Church obsession with Bernadette Wilson continues behind the scenes: Document drop

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Sept. 2, 2026 -Dave Bronson and Josh Church have broken another commitment to Alaska Republicans.

When the Bronson-Church ticket received the endorsement of Republican District 9, he agreed in writing not to disparage other Republicans in the governor’s race.

They accepted that condition.

Now, emails and text messages obtained by The Alaska Story show the Bronson camp continuing to target Bernadette Wilson, the leading Republican candidate, even as Bronson insists publicly that he is not behind attacks against her.

It is the second significant commitment Bronson has made to a Republican district and then broken.

The first involved his promise to withdraw if he was not the leading Republican coming out of the Aug. 18 primary. Bronson finished behind Wilson but refused to withdraw. He remains on the November ballot with Church as his running mate.

Now the Bronson-Church ticket is breaking its pledge not to badmouth another Republican. The disparaging of Wilson has gotten to the point of obsession.

The latest evidence comes from an extraordinary email exchange between Josh Church and Jim Minnery, president of Alaska Family Council. The exchange followed a meeting involving Josh Church, Dave Bronson, campaign adviser Alexis Johnson and Jim Minnery. The Alaska Story has obtained a copy of the email exchange.

According to Minnery, what was supposed to be a discussion about the Republican race turned into what he described as a “relentless personal attack” on Wilson.

“You and Dave and Alexis (Johnson) turned it into a relentless personal attack on Bernadette claiming you were the ‘morally superior’ candidates and that AFC should get behind your team,” Minnery wrote to Church.

Minnery said Bronson and Church repeatedly questioned Wilson’s accomplishments and attacked her character. He reminded them that Wilson had helped elect Bronson as Anchorage mayor, helped elect Nick Begich to Congress, and led the campaign for Ballot Measure 2, the parental-notification initiative approved by 68% of Alaska voters in 2010.

Church defended the Bronson-Church ticket by saying Minnery had asked for the campaign’s political counsel.

“When we raised documented concerns about a candidate’s character, competence, and business record in response to your request for counsel, you dismissed them as personal attacks,” Church wrote.

That sentence is key: Josh Church admitted he and Bronson have engaged in character assassination.

To review: The Bronson-Church ticket agreed, as a condition of receiving Republican District 9’s endorsement, not to disparage other Republicans. Yet Church now acknowledges that the campaign made allegations about Wilson’s character and business record during a meeting with the leader of an influential Christian public-policy organization.

Church also copied local pastors with the email, bringing them into the dispute, including Mark Zweifel of True North Church and Derek Dickinson of Journey Christian Church. That had the effect of drawing pastors into what had become an bitter political fight between an also-ran candidate for lieutenant governor and a prominent Christian leader, Jim Minnery.

The original email from Josh Church was anything but mild. He demanded that Alaska Family Council cancel his recurring donations and refund his previous contributions. He accused Minnery of practicing “partisan advocacy disguised as a biblical ministry” and called him a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Minnery responded by calling out what he saw as the hypocrisy of the Bronson campaign.

“Despite you and Dave telling people you are not connected to public attacks on Bernadette — you certainly do it quite well in private settings — the Bronson/Church Team is intimately connected in that your political consultant you are using, Axiom Strategies, is leading the negative assaults on her,” Minnery wrote.

The Alaska Story has documentation to back up that assertion.

Church denied that hiring an Axiom consultant made the campaign responsible for every action taken by that firm, its employees or its other clients or subcontractors. He challenged Minnery to provide evidence that Bronson or Church had authorized or coordinated the attacks.

That is the word game now being played.

Bronson can say he did not personally authorize a particular blog post by a writer who has hated Bernadette Wilson for years. Church can say he and Bronson did not direct a particular consultant to release a particular allegation. But those narrow denials do not address what members of the ticket themselves are also saying in meetings, emails, and text messages, some of which The Alaska Story has in its files, as they were forwarded by recipients.

The Alaska Story has obtained several copies of text messages Church has sent disparaging Wilson. Others who have attended political meetings say conversations were recorded and messages are being preserved. The Bronson camp may believe its attacks are private, but they are circulating well beyond the rooms where they began.

The pattern is becoming difficult to deny. The Bronson ticket has broken promises made to Republicans from whom they sought support.

The attacks are also notably one-directional. The Bronson-Church ticket is not directing this energy toward Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, the top vote-getter in the primary. It is directing its fire toward Wilson, the Republican with the best opportunity to defeat JKT.

This is the same Republican circular firing squad that conservative leaders have warned about since the primary. Minnery said Alaska Family Council intends to remain neutral precisely because continued attacks among Republicans could help Kreiss-Tomkins and his allies take control of state government.

Many Republicans are believing they need to “rank the red.” But the Bronson campaign is messaging the opposite — they do not care if Bernadette Wilson gets a second vote from their supporters. They only want her crushed.

Rank the Red asks Republican voters to support every Republican on the ballot, and yet it rings hollow when a Republican ticket stays on the ballot after promising to step aside, then works behind the scenes to damage the Republican who finished ahead of it.

Voters are entitled to judge candidates not only by the promises they make, but by whether they keep them.

For the Bronson-Church ticket, two broken commitments are becoming a pattern. It’s also looking like a sickness.

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