Bernadette Wilson responds to a question. Eleven candidates for governor participated in the Commonwealth North Gubernatorial Candidate Meet & Greet event at Wildbirch Hotel in Anchorage on July 20, 2026. (Marc Lester / ADN)

Having survived a heated 17-way primary, the remaining candidates in Alaska’s race for governor are still mulling over possible strategies in a general election that will feature one Democrat and three Republicans.

For months, Alaska political observers have warned that having more than one politically aligned candidate on the ballot could spell doom for both the contenders. That is why Democrat Tom Begich, who finished second in the primary behind another member of his party, dropped out last week, clearing the way for Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins — a former lawmaker from Sitka who topped the primary — to consolidate Democratic support.

But on the GOP side, three Trump-aligned Republicans are set to duke it out in a contest that is leaving some conservative leaders worried about their prospects. Bernadette Wilson, Dave Bronson and Candi English offer platforms similarly focused on avoiding new taxes and bolstering the resource development industry.

The way they choose to set themselves apart in the coming weeks could determine the outcome in an open race, with Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy termed out from seeking reelection.

The emerging message among some Republicans is “rank the red,” a familiar phrase from recent election cycles, even as the Republican Party is actively advocating for a ballot initiative that would abolish the state’s ranked choice voting system.

“It’s going to be tough for Republicans, there’s no doubt, because it’s a mixed message: Get rid of it, but do it,” said Jim Minnery, executive director of the conservative Alaska Family Council.

Wilson was the top Republican vote-getter in the primary, with 10% of the vote. Just days after primary results were certified, she took to social media to call on her voters not to rank the other candidates on the ballot.

“You have got to get behind the top vote-getter. People will say, ‘Oh, what if we just rank all the Republicans?’ The issue with that is, with one Democrat, you risk him taking 50%-plus-one of the vote,” she said in a social media post. “If he does, you will never get to a second round. So it doesn’t matter if you rank your ballot. Nobody cares. We’re not going to get to the second round.”

Under Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, the top vote-getter in the general election can win if they receive more than 50% of first-place votes. If they receive less than that, the winner is determined by ranked choice tabulation.

“Republicans need to unify behind the top vote-getter,” Wilson said, referring to herself. “People have said, ‘Well, that’s easy for you to say, because you won the primary.’ No. That’s what I said before I got into the race.”

Wilson — a talk radio host and garbage disposal company owner — received 16,468 votes in the primary, roughly 3,000 votes more than Bronson, a one-term Anchorage mayor, who received 13,364.

Wilson served as co-chair of Bronson’s 2021 mayoral campaign, but the two have avoided talking about each other publicly since launching their respective campaigns. Bronson vowed last week to remain in the race despite calls for him to step aside.

Given the way votes split among the 12 Republicans who ran in the primary, none of them received a clear mandate, Bronson said in a social media post last week.

Gubernatorial candidates Dave Bronson speaks during a forum at the Alaska Oil & Gas Association (AOGA) 10th annual conference at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (Bill Roth / ADN)

Wilson did not respond to an interview request. Bronson declined to be interviewed for this story.

The late rise of English onto the general election ballot has left Republicans unsure about her intentions. English, a wealthy business owner, has never held public office. She was a candidate for lieutenant governor running on former Attorney General Treg Taylor’s ticket, until Taylor was found ineligible to run over his failure to disclose the names of his tenants as required by law.

Taylor finished fifth in the primary, but he was on track to advance to the top-four general election after Begich dropped out.

English then chose to take Taylor’s place on the ballot, though she has no apparent campaign platform and has not indicated how she would set herself apart from other candidates in the race. She chose Treg Taylor’s wife, Jodi Taylor, as her running mate, despite the fact that Jodi has also refused to disclose the names of the tenants in the buildings she owns with her husband.

Staff for the Alaska Public Offices Commission, which recommended Treg Taylor be barred from running, have not responded to questions about whether Jodi Taylor could be disqualified before ballots are printed later this month.

This is English’s first foray into Alaska politics. Her husband, Stanley English, gave $1,000 to Bronson’s 2021 mayoral campaign, and $3,000 to Bronson’s unsuccessful 2024 reelection campaign.

Candice English, photographed at the Alaska Division of Elections office in Anchorage on June 1. (Marc Lester / ADN)

English, Treg Taylor and Jodi Taylor have not responded to multiple interview requests. Treg and Jodi Taylor’s eldest daughter, Quincy Azimi-Tabrizi, is serving as the campaign spokesperson. Azimi-Tabrizi did not immediately respond to questions about English, including whether she would endorse the other Republicans on the ballot.

Azimi-Tabrizi confirmed that English and Taylor have no website, nor had they filed a candidate registration form as required by law. The candidates still list an email with the domain name “tregforalaska” as the only way to reach the campaign.

The Alaska Republican Party has yet to land on the specific message for its voters. Party Chair Carmela Warfield did not respond to an interview request, and has remained silent on the gubernatorial results on the party’s otherwise thrumming social media accounts. The Republican Governors Association has also not commented on the primary results.

In the absence of a clear message from party leaders, current and past Alaska GOP members are weighing in.

Former Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan said in a social media post last week that the race revealed a “major flaw” of Alaska’s election system, which was adopted by ballot initiative in 2020.

“In a closed party primary, the candidates tout their experience and take shots at their primary opponents. After the primary, with just one candidate representing the party, there is a natural tendency to coalesce around that candidate,” Sullivan wrote earlier this week. Because there is more than one Republican candidate in the general election, “there is now an inclination for the R candidates to continue to take shots at each other, rather than the Democrat opponents. Infighting that would normally end after a traditional primary is not only continuing, but seemingly escalating.”

“Let conservative voters choose our next Governor based on policies, not negative attacks on each other,” the former mayor wrote. “Play nice, my friends.”

The view was echoed by Rep. Kevin McCabe, a sitting lawmaker from Big Lake.

“We should not be asking Bronson to get out, or getting angry when he doesn’t. We should be insisting that we will vote for the first one who says ‘vote me #1, but OF COURSE vote the Republicans in the top two,’” McCabe wrote.

Minnery, the leader of the Alaska Family Council, said Republicans “can’t afford to be divisive at this stage.”

“There’s one goal, and that is to ensure that a conservative gets into the governor’s house,” he said. “The circular firing squad is never a good thing.”