By SUZANNE DOWNING
Aug. 25, 2026 – Dave Bronson agreed in writing before the primary election that he would drop out of a race if he came in second after the primary.
That raises a question: Will Bronson honor the commitment he made to Republican voters?
As part of the Republican Party’s pre-primary vetting process, candidates seeking support from House District 8 were given a detailed questionnaire covering the party platform, constitutional principles and issues important to the district.
Bronson completed the document, initialing the positions he committed to with “DB,” and signed the endorsement acknowledgment on May 28. Here’s the document:
Bronson. signed.D.8.Vetting Tool Revision 7
Among the local issues Bronson initialed was this statement:
“Agreeing to drop out of a race where you have garnered less than a majority of votes and where your continued competition with another Republican will split the vote.”
Bronson received nowhere near a majority in the Aug. 18 primary. Among Republicans, if it was a normal primary, the still-unofficial percentages are:
In the latest results published by the Alaska Division of Elections, Wilson and running mate Mike Shower had 15,063 votes, Bronson and running mate Josh Church had 11,822.
Wilson led Bronson by more than 3,241 votes and was clearly the leading Republican.
The two Democrats in the race, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich, still finished first and second. Wilson was third overall, while Bronson held fourth place and therefore remained in position to advance to the ranked-choice general election.
But advancing under Alaska’s top-four system is not the same as winning the Republican primary. Wilson won that contest, and thus the question stands: Is Bronson going to honor his pledge?
Public polling throughout the campaign had indicated Wilson would win.
Wilson made the same promise publicly, when she announced her campaign. She said that if another Republican finished ahead of her in the primary, she would step aside and support that candidate. She took some political risk in making that commitment months before voters had their say.
The voters have now spoken, and Wilson is the leading Republican.
Bronson’s signed District 8 document was not a statewide Republican Party loyalty pledge. The withdrawal language appeared among the positions identified as important to the District 8 committee. But Bronson did more than merely receive or review the document: He placed his initials beside the commitment and signed the completed vetting form. And he did that for other districts as well.
The document Bronson signed also said District 8 expected “ethical conduct, transparency, and accountability” from elected and appointed officials.
That makes Bronson’s reported post-primary activity particularly relevant.
Multiple Republicans have told The Alaska Story that Bronson has been holding conversations around Alaska, trying to gain support for staying in the race despite his second-place finish among Republicans. He has been using those meetings to slander Wilson and hold himself out as a moral alternative to a person he believes is inferior to himself.
If those conversations are aimed at remaining on the ballot, Bronson owes Republican voters an explanation.
Did he mean what he signed in May? If not, why did he initial the pledge? If he believes circumstances have changed, what are those circumstances?
The stakes are substantial. Together, Kreiss-Tomkins and Begich collected more than 41% of the primary vote. Republicans divided their support among Wilson, Bronson, Treg Taylor, Click Bishop, Adam Crum and several other candidates.
Bronson may argue that he remains one of the final four and therefore has a legal right to continue.
The District 8 pledge, however, was never about what a candidate was legally permitted to do. It was about what the candidate promised Republican voters he would do to avoid splitting the party’s vote.
The question now is not whether Bronson can stay on the ballot. It is whether Dave Bronson is good for his word.
31 thoughts on “Bronson pledges to leave governor’s race: Document drop”
If he doesn’t drop out, Alaska gets a Democrat. He will be responsible for ushering in socialism single-handedly in our state. He should do the honorable thing and drop out. We can only have one conservative. Bernadette was the top vote getter.
If Bronson doesn’t drop out, he becomes Sara Palin, who had her fingerprints on installing 3 democrats in statewide office – Begich beating Ted in 2008, Walker beating Parnell in 2014 and Peltola beating Begich in 2022. Choose wisely, Dave, Click, Treg and anyone else who refuses to drop out. Cheers –
Tell Hughes to drop,too
I’ve made less and less time to read these comments in recent years, as they obviously attract people who like to hear themselves speak. This comment absolutely takes the cake. Socialism was ushered in to Alaska an incredibly long time ago. For example, ever read the state constitution and some of its background? Milton Friedman came to Alaska in the 1970s and famously described it as both the freest and the most socialistic of all the states.
Why can’t people do what’s best for the state- seems like a no brainer. Drop out.
From a strategy standpoint, if Bishop wasn’t in play, yes drop out, same with Treg. Issue is if Bronson and Taylor drop out, Bishop is in 4th. His voters then second choice to either JKT or Begich.
The key is we have to keep Bishop out of play.
Bronson’s mistake was to sign that pledge. He never made it anywhere else. He ought to have known that dropping out would not unite conservatives. Dropping out moves up Taylor, who cannot win the Kenai Peninsula with his clumsy and contradictory handling of the Grand Jury crisis, but that could be overcome. Taylor’s war chest is too large and tempting not to use. To his credit, Taylor attacked Dems in his commercials, citing the social issues. But having Bronson drop out does NOT stop dividing the conservative vote. The key now is to have Taylor drop out and allow the RINO Bishop to move up, which will divide the Dems. That’s good. Have they all worked this out? Highly unlikely, but you never know. But what would Bishop do? He takes his orders from the Left. So, if he moves up — and then drops — we get Crum. Another solid guy, but still divides the vote. Is anyone happy with this Daffy Duck system of RCV? Umm, yep. Only the lunatic asylum known as Democrats/LGBTQ/Socialists/Communists.
The ideal answer……. Wilson and Bronson unite and all other would be spoiler Republicans drop out. That’s the way you beat the Democrats. Bishop is a Democrat. His remaining would not hurt a Wilson/Bronson unity ticket.
Going to be difficult to get one strong republican. If Bronson drops Treg moves up. Then Bishop. Will Treg and Bishop agree to drop out?
“He has been using those meetings to slander Wilson and hold himself out as a moral alternative to a person he believes is inferior to himself“
You’re painting with a pretty broad brush here, Suzanne, with no evidence beyond your claim of “multiple Republicans” telling you this?
I’m not surprised, because your loyalty to the girl who’s qualified to lead our state because she knows dirt and she knows trash has been clear from the get-go. But it’s shameful on your part.
You’re attacking Bronson on the anonymous word of “multiple Republicans” with nearly a week left for Bronson to withdraw?
What is Bernadetten afraid of?
What happens when the democrats consolidate to Begich/JKT ticket? Taylor is in with Wilson and Bronson.
Bronson shouldn’t be treating Wilson the same way Demboski betrayed him, After All the campaigning help Wilson did helping a “Nobody” be elected to Anchorage’s Mayor race; while the Fmr Mayor Bronson wasn’t supposed to be Mayor but Dunbar. But. Bronson received a lot of good help.
Bronson owes Wilson one to help her get elected as Governor.
Bronson and Wilson are both equally terrible candidates.
Admittedly though, it’s quite entertaining to watch Republicans eat their own.
Pass the popcorn please
I am going to vote for any R for guv except Click Bishop. I looked at Wilson’s campaign issues yesterday and it was two issues: education and the PFD. It was very light in detail. She needs to more clearly communicate why she is running and what leadership she will provide. So far her campaign is very light, fluffy and uninspiring. I’ll still vote for her because a D guv is vomit inducing.
Mr bronson had a swirl of controversy surrounding his time as anchorage mayor. Sounds like he may have brought that with him. One thing is certain, ranked voting will give us governor begich/kreiss thompkins if the republicans don’t get their act together and start doing what’s best for Alaska vs their personal best interests.
I vote to the right in every election and do not believe Bernadette Wilson has earned my vote. She does not appear to be the candidate, if elected, who would serve Alaska unselfishly as our next governor. She has not presented a compelling case for the policies she would undertake to move our state forward. Her parent/child comment (where she is the parent) about the relationship she will create with the state legislature in order to keep this other branch of government in line is ridiculous. Her very bad financial decisions at the garbage company that her family passed on to her reflect very poor judgement so I worry that her tendency towards bad fiscal judgement would seriously harm us all. In summary, I think Bernadette is only about self promotion. Her actions and behavior would become a state spectacle and a national embarrassment if she ends up as our next governor. Regarding Mike Shower, he was among the most lazy legislators in Juneau when he served there so nobody can reasonably expect actual work out of him if he were to become our next lieutenant governor.
As a final comment, Suzanne Downing calls Bernadette her “best friend” and her writing in this blog reflect this relationship loud and clear. To say that Suzanne is biased in favor of Bernadette is an understatement! I hope she will print this honest comment.
LOL…to say that you are a Republican would be gilding the lilies. B.B. the Democrat.
It’s actually not that simple, because the next one will just move up. You either have ALL R’s drop out, or have ALL R’s rank Wilson and Bronson. Since we have so many independent minded and stubborn people that don’t understand this blasted RCV system, it’s a tall order. But we MUST try our best.
This is what happens with “Rank choice voting”…ala Murkowski…..dump RCV!
I voted for Dave Bronson. For two reasons: I felt that he displayed the most maturity of all the other Republicans. And, I believed that he was toughened and a proven fighter for conservative goals.
.
My message to Dave is simply this: you have no mathematical pathway to the governor’s office in the general election.
Your proven leadership and commitment must now be directed to support your party. By dropping out, or by agreeing to a unity ticket with Bernadette (as Lt. Governor) we conservatives will have a very strong chance at winning with a 50% plus 1 vote in the general election. Your state and your supporters are now calling you to duty again. Do the right thing, Dave.
And thank you for your great leadership and service.
ChrissyB.
Well said as usual, Chrissy.
Here, here.
All the republicans need to drop out and back Wilson. That is the only way we can stop splitting the votes and putting a socialist Democrat in as the Governor. Anchorage and Juneau are already sh#t show cities because of their liberal/democrat politicians. Let’s not forget we have the RINO legislators and Democrats who killed a gas bill at the expense of the people of this state, and their greediness stole money from the PFD to fund their own personal agenda and bank accounts. The Republicans had way too many people on the ballot vying for the job of Governor. It is now time for them to back out and support the leading candidate, Bernadette Wilson.
“Independent”, WTF ever. If you are thinking, at this point “well, my vote is valuable, and I’m going to vote for the candidate I think will make the best governor” you are better off just staying home and not wasting your time. You are going through the motions to accomplish absolutely nothing. Voting for a candidate that you very well know has absolutely no chance of winning makes no logical sense. This is an election. It’s not a statement of ideology. Bernadette would likely not make the ideal governor, but she CAN win. In any case, she’d be exponentially more tolerable than Tom or JKT. The other Rs are, at this point, literally just vote suckers. Wake TF up.
Since Alaska has instant runoff elections, people can vote for Bronson AND Bernadette.
Just vote for your favorite, and note who you’d like to win if your favorite doesn’t make the runoff.
Works great!
This is a losing strategy. Only way to win is a unification of the top two Republican contenders. This involves THINKING, not reacting. The Democrats understand unification in order to make RCV work for them. Republicans better do the same, or they will be knocked out on election day, and the post mortems will be ugly.
But if we vote for, say, Bronson, but Wilson and JKT still have more votes, we can write on our ballot that our vote should then be credited to Wilson. Just write on the ballot that you want Wilson as a backup! Just ask Rep. Begich! He won in 2024 because lots of John Wayne Howe supporters wrote on their ballot they wanted Begich as their backup. Same for Sen. Bjorkman, who won because some Tina Wegener fans wrote on their ballot they wanted Bjorkman as their backup. Works great!
Bitsy, when you say “write on our ballot,” do you mean rank our choices?
The Alaska Republican Party needs to organize as a private club which one must pay dues to belong to (say $3) and agree to a code of conduct to remain a member. Part of this code should be to support the candidate the party elects and to be truthful in campaign statements .If one violates the code of conduct, membership is rescinded and any funds are forfeit.
If a member runs for office they should have to post a bond to ensure they abide by the code of conduct and honor campaign promises. The bond should be $100k to $250k and would be forfeit if a candidate, once elected with support of the party, reneges on their public campaign statements or conspires and/or caucuses with an opposing party to violate the Party Platform and/or contravene the intent of statements the candidate made to get elected.
The Party would then be expected to use the bond to hopefully sue the lying scumbag for breech of contract and at the least to oppose their future political endeavors.
It seems some candidates’ personal finances are a bit of a trainwreck. then there are candidates who make pledges that they don’t keep because they never intended to keep their word. There are various types of pledges like saying you’ll drop out if you are not #1. Even worse is the Lucy and the football move running as an Republican and upon election caucusing with the heathens. But the greatest lie of all is the one about saving your hard-earned dividend from the people who think it is a public resource that should be used for public purposes…the way a fiscally well-run country like Norway does it.
Most commenters on here are urging, in an unclear manner, for Bronson to secede in deference to Wilson. If Bronson secedes before general election ballots are printed then Treg Taylor takes his place; Bronson will have accomplished nothing by seceding. Bronson must wait until after general election ballots are printed; after which point he secedes and tells the world he supports Wilson. Only in this manner can the Republican party repossess what little control they have left.