What could have been: A path forward for the Democratic Party

To the editor:

For months I’ve worked as Alaska’s statewide director for Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign.

I was excited to work on behalf of someone who could have been our country’s first female president, and furthermore, I was excited to work on behalf of a candidate who was smart, thoughtful, compassionate, and had a vision of bringing our country together.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Warren wasn’t the first choice for many across the country during Super Tuesday, and I watched with great sadness and pride as she did the right thing and suspended her campaign for the presidential race.

The unfortunate part of the process is we’re now left with a split for many: there are those who will never vote for Joe Biden because he’s too “conservative” and there are those who will never vote for Bernie Sanders because he’s too “socialist.” And all of the votes that have been cast so far, for everyone other than Bernie or Joe, are not being counted because our first choices have withdrawn.

This year, Alaska is adopting a mail-in, ranked choice ballot for the Democratic Presidential primary. That means all of our choices are counted. Not just our first one.

What would have been the outcome if all states would have used this Democratic Presidential Primary process. Who would have been the second choices of Yang, Mayor Pete, Klobuchar, and others.

Would those votes have gone to Biden and Sanders? Would the outcome have been different? We’ll never know.

I’m proud to have worked on the campaign of such an amazing candidate. We will eventually have a female president I pinkiepromise

Joni Bruner,

Lead for Alaska

Warren Presidential Campaign