Approaching the national event of Super Tuesday, polls show Republican voters are supporting GOP front-runner Donald Trump with Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in second.
Alaska’s Presidential Preference Poll will be held tomorrow across the state. Wayne Ogle, who serves as the Republican Party Chairman for District 8 encourages Republican voters to get out there and participate. “I think it’s an opportunity for people to express their, you know, very clear determination as to who they would like to have as their Republican candidate,” said Ogle.
With former President Trump seeming the clear presumptive nominee, it seems odd to hold the primaries at all. According to Ogle, however, the former president was the driving force behind other candidates even being on the primary ballots this year. “The RNC basically was going to just declare [Trump] the presumptive nominee,” said Ogle. “The Trump campaign, and especially President Trump, has said, ‘No, we want to go through the electoral process, let people vote for their candidate,’ and we do have two viable candidates. That’s the reason why we’re going ahead with a preferential poll.”
Alaska is considered a “powerhouse” Republican state and sends 28 delegates to the national convention, the same number as Oregon, more than New Hampshire, and just slightly below Iowa. The Alaska GOP explains, “It’s because of the strength of our Republican base here in Alaska,” where there are three GOP representatives in Congress, and Republican majorities in the state House and Senate.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the presidential election, is also on the ballot. That might seem an odd choice by the Alaskan GOP, but Ogle says Ramaswamy had already paid to be on the preferential polling ballot, so party leadership chose to honor the money put forth by the former candidate and leave him on the ballot.
Candidates who receive at least 13 percent of the Super Tuesday vote will be awarded delegates through a “mathematically proportional system.”