Alaska's Democracy Renovation Hero
Join Renovators & Juli Lucky live at the Renovator Assembly next week
Juli Lucky is one of the heroes of the democracy renovation movement. She runs Alaskans for Better Elections, which led the 2020 campaign that delivered the state an All-Party Primary and Top 4 general election with ranked-choice voting. That new election system reduced the viability of MAGA candidates; made Democrat Mary Peltola the first Alaska Native ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives; and then replaced her with Republican Nick Begich after a term. That system also screened out Sarah Palin and saved Lisa Murkowski. And it created an Alaska legislature with some of the lowest incumbency retention rates in the country and an unusually strong record of cross-aisle problem-solving.
Juli will be joining our next First Thursdays Renovator Assembly on May 7 at 7 p.m. EST. What is the Renovator Assembly, you may ask? It’s a forum for The Renovator’s paid subscribers to come together for mutual aid and solidarity.
As Juli knows well, democracy renovation is hard work. She secured victory in 2020 only to have to defend it against a repeal attempt in 2024 and now again in 2026. The retention campaign won by 743 votes in 2024, with late-arriving ballots from far-flung Native communities making the critical difference.
So Juli knows better than most how much resilience is required to win and defend election reforms like these. Establishment insiders from both parties tend to oppose reform and have long-standing infrastructure that provides powerful protection for the status quo. That’s the machine. The reform coalition, by contrast, is made up of dissenters trying to get closer to the voters. Our movement consists of cross-partisan reformers. We are Democrats, Independents, and Republicans who seek to form a supermajority for democracy. Often, participants are also trying to build a “democracy first” caucus within their own parties, or sometimes they leave those parties to join something like the Forward Party.
At the Renovator Assembly, Juli will share some hard-earned wisdom, and also tee up questions for breakout group discussions. This is an opportunity for Renovators to replenish their spirits and strengthen their work through reflection and community connection.
Speaking of Alaska also reminds me to share some more information about our All-Party Primary initiative on the ballot in Massachusetts this November. Someone asked me the other day why we weren’t moving forward with Top 4 like Alaska’s system (there, the top four vote-getters in the primary advance to the general election, where ranked-choice voting is then used to ensure that the winner has majority support.) The Top 4 design eliminates the rare spoiler problem that, for instance, causes anxiety in California’s Top 2 system.
The question felt like an invitation to a therapy session. In 2023, we submitted a ballot initiative for Top 4 to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, but the office declined to certify it. The grounds? An All-Party Primary and Top 4 general constituted two separate policies, not a single combined policy. The AG’s office ruled that the steps would have to be taken one at a time: First, the All-Party Primary, then Top 4 with Ranked Choice Voting. We considered whether to contest the ruling, but at the same time conducted polling on the viability of Top 4 in Massachusetts. To our disappointment, we learned that the RCV element was not yet winnable for statewide elections, even though it’s gaining traction for municipal elections.
Given those combined hurdles, we scrubbed our options, looking for that sweet spot where feasibility and impact overlapped. We committed ourselves to not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. The answer was the All-Party Primary with a Top 2 general. In Massachusetts, that approach attracts majority support from Democrats and Progressives, along with enough Republican support, to win. The aim is to place the decisive election in the general and, especially for a largely one-party state, meaningfully improve voters’ voice and choice. It’s not a silver bullet, but it moves us in the right direction.
To reduce the spoiler danger, we added party endorsements to the ballot, so that voters have all the information they need and parties can still organize effectively. In fact, parties that have to organize for the entire electorate become stronger.
Still, at the end of the day, I am a huge fan of the Alaska system, so we drafted our All-Party Primary ballot initiative with language that would make it easy to layer in Top 4 and Ranked Choice Voting as a second step, if Massachusetts voters develop the appetite for that.
It’s plain as day that here in Massachusetts, what we have isn’t working. More than half of our elections have only one candidate, the lowest of any state. The time for change is here. I also believe that the best way to determine the most valuable path to change is to focus on what’s best for voters, and to ensure that they are not taken for granted
Lastly, while I’ve got you, don’t forget to join me on Wednesday (tomorrow!) at 1:15 pm for the Headstrong Club. I’ll be talking with Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser, about Iran.