Bipartisanship Alaska-style provokes MAGA GOP repeal

Moderate Republicans and Democrats are co-governing after the shift to Ranked Choice Voting and Top 4 primary. But MAGA Repubs are striking back

In a time of extreme national polarization and toxic partisanship, to the point where many Americans are anticipating the upcoming presidential election with fear and dread, one state stands out as a model of bipartisanship. This state is known as being fiercely conservative – Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by nearly 15 points and Joe Biden by 10 points.

That state is Alaska. The Last Frontier State, with its 663,000 square miles, two and a half times larger than Texas, also happens to be the first frontier of states that has combined Ranked Choice Voting with a Top 4 (open) primary in a conscious attempt to support the election of more moderate politicians.

“Moderate” and “Alaska”? Previously, those two words were seldom used in the same sentence.

But lo and behold, Republicans and Democrats in Alaska are actually cooperating. More than that, they have actually formed a governing coalition together. A bipartisan coalition.

And that is a threat to MAGA Republicans, who are mounting a repeal attempt of ranked choice voting. Their fearless leader, Donald Trump, has called it “ranked choice crap voting.” Already the right-wing GOP leaders have managed to enact bans of RCV in 10 states, and the Alaska MAGAs are hoping to join them. It appears they have collected enough signatures to qualify a voter initiative for the November 2024 ballot.

The MAGA message is clear: bipartisanship anywhere is a threat to MAGA extremists everywhere. In a sense, it’s understandable. Following Alaska’s first election using ranked choice voting and the Top 4 primary, we saw something unexpected: a European-style coalition government like the type you expect to see in places like Germany and Sweden.

That’s pretty peculiar in the US context, kind of like seeing someone wearing a Speedo tightie at the North Pole.

Bipartisan coalition in the Senate

In the Alaska Senate, 20 members are elected by RCV and Top 4, and the senators formed a bipartisan majority caucus that consists of 17 of the members. The caucus includes nine Democrats and eight of the 11 Republican senators. The only legislators who are not in this governing coalition are three right-wing Republicans who are belligerent MAGA activists. They form a small and lonely minority.

Moderate Republicans, who had been pushed around by right wing extremists like Donald Trump and Sarah Palin for a number of years, finally struck back. Not only are they starting to use RCV along with Top 4 open party primaries, so that candidates from all parties must run together and the winner must earn majority support, but now key Republicans in Alaska and other parts of the US are embracing the “RCV mentality” as part of the governing and campaigning process itself.

GOP Senate President Gary Stevens says, "This is a new era in the Alaska Senate. It is an opportunity to build relationships with members across the aisle, the other body, and the Governor so we can work together to resolve the issues Alaskans face in education, the economy, and high energy costs…Nothing will happen without 11 members of this caucus agreeing.”

Which means that, even if all Democrats or all Republicans in the 17-member caucus get together on a single issue, it does not advance without support from some members of the other party. “So we really have to work together to get anything done,” says Stevens.

His cross-partisan counterpart, Democratic Senator Jesse Kiehl, agrees, concluding that the state's open primaries and ranked choice voting were key factors in the creation of the new caucus.

"Together those things mean more influence for the majority of Alaska voters and less for the fringe right or left," Kiehl said. "For example, it turns out most Alaska voters don't mind their electeds working across party lines as much as party hardliners do."

This is not as surprising as it might seem. While Alaska is certainly a conservative state, what’s really unique about its politics is that 60% of its registered voters have chosen "Non-Partisan," "Undeclared" or some other category of independent as their political affiliation. Fewer than 25% of registered voters in Alaska are Republicans, which is less than the percentage of Republicans in heavily-blue California. Those independents tend to be no-nonsense self-reliant types, with low tolerance for Washington DC games and a former resigned governor turned Lower 48 celebrity like Sarah Palin.

Moreover, in recent years, the GOP’s Senate majority has been bitterly split over a range of issues, primarily over fiscal policy, government spending and the size of the Permanent Fund (the Permanent Fund provides an annual payment to all Alaskans that allows them to share in a portion of the State’s petroleum and minerals wealth). A number of more moderate Republicans have grown exasperated with their far-right counterparts, who frequently obstructed legislation.

Senator Scott Kawasaki from Fairbanks says, “We’ve had many, many years of just divisive infighting based on party politics. I think this coalition is going to be different than that.” Senator Cathy Giessel, a Republican who represents Anchorage and who defeated an incumbent Republican, was elected despite the disapproval of local party officials who preferred her MAGA opponent.

"We are a very diverse group politically and geographically, just like the people of our state," Giessel says. "This team of Senators is responding to Alaskans' loud and clear message to work together to solve our state's challenges."

The previous GOP Senate majority leader is now one of the three senators relegated to a small minority rump. She had proposed forming a Republican-controlled majority and reached out to all her Republican colleagues, but she found little interest. Hughes said she believes that since a majority of Alaskans voted for a Republican candidate, then Alaska should have “a right-of-center majority.”

But members of the newly formed coalition said they heard a different message from voters.

“All the members of this caucus are responding to what we heard from Alaskans,” says Senator Giessel, who serves as majority leader. “The one message that came through loud and clear is that Alaskans are looking for people in the Legislature who will work together to get something done — to get those important things done that Alaskans are waiting to have accomplished.”

Since the election, many observers have noted that the Alaska State Legislature seems much more productive than in past years. Recently the Senate passed its capital budget with little partisan drama or tension, focusing on school maintenance and housing which attracted support from both Republicans and Democrats.

Positive impacts of RCV and Top 4 – a change in political culture

Another significant shift has occurred in how some candidates are campaigning. Senate majority leader Cathy Giessel ran for her old seat that she lost in the old closed primary system to a MAGA Republican candidate. But under the new RCV/Top 4 electoral system, she found it completely changed the way she campaigned. In the past, Giessel would only knock on doors of households that had been rated based on their likely partisanship. She would only talk to the voters who were likely to support her in the GOP’s closed primary.

But Giessel and other candidates had to adapt their mind frames to attract second and third rankings from the supporters of other candidates. As Unite America’s Nick Troiano tells it in his book “The Primary Solution,” under the new system now every voter, including all those independents, could participate in the primary and vote for whichever candidate they desired. Says Giessel, “I just went to every single door and it was delightful. I was knocking on doors I walked past in the past and having great conversations with incredible people of such diversity. It was just a breath of fresh air to find the common themes,” she said.

In the November general election, voters had the option of ranking the three continuing candidates rather than choosing only one. Giessel would encounter voters who preferred another candidate over her, and she would say, “That’s fine. But you get a second choice,” and she would ask the voter to rank her as well. In her November race, Giessel won 33.8%, the Republican incumbent 33.1%, and the Democrat 33%. In the instant run-off tally the Democrat was eliminated and Giessel prevailed with 57%, having picked up a lot of voters from the Democratic candidate’s supporters. A minority of voters in a party’s primary could no longer block the will of the majority of voters in that district.

Not all of this bipartisanship and coalition-making can be attributed to ranked choice voting and the Top 4 open primary. RCV and Top 4 were only used in Alaska for the first time in 2022, but there have been previous cross-partisan coalitions in the Alaskan state legislature. Still, a number of observers have noted how quickly the Alaska political culture changed. In a strongly conservative state, Democrat Mary Peltola decisively defeated Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich on the strength of votes from conservative but independent, i.e. non-Republican voters. Peltola endorsed Senate incumbent and Republican moderate Lisa Murkowski, who undoubtedly would have lost a closed GOP primary to the MAGA Republican candidate but prevailed under the Top 4/RCV format. Yet in the same election, the Alaska voters who selected Peltola and Murkowski also elected a strong conservative, Republican Mike Dunleavy, as governor. Three very different flavors of politicians, all winning statewide elections in the same year from the same voters.

Bruce Botelho, former Alaska attorney general and chair of Alaskans for Better Elections, says ranked choice voting and the Top 4 primary together have shown positive results. His organization released a press release stating that “by requiring candidates to earn majority support, Alaska’s election system paves the way for more civil discourse about the state’s most pressing issues and supports elected officials in finding common ground and focusing on solutions.” Says Botelho, “Not only do Alaska’s reforms change how we elect our officials but it changes their incentives once they’re elected.”

Nevertheless, the MAGA Republicans are striking back. It appears that they have collected enough signatures to qualify a voter initiative for the November 2024 ballot. At the same time, a campaign to defend RCV and Top 4 is gearing up. GOP Senate president Stevens indicates that he hopes that Alaska keeps the new voting methods.

“Most people I talk to are reasonably happy with how ranked choice voting worked. It made a big difference. I think it has led to a little more moderation in the Senate.”

Game on, it’s going to be a battle royale over RCV in Alaska this November. And it’s pitting moderate Republicans vs MAGA Republicans.

Steven Hill     @StevenHill1776