ERIC BRONNER, VETERANS FOR POLITICAL INNOVATION

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, in 1997, Eric served in the Navy for eight years. Eric graduated from Washington University School of Law in 2009, and served as a federal law clerk before practicing municipal, then real estate law.  Eric started a successful real estate business where he consistently ranked in the top 2-3% of all agents in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Real estate was financially rewarding, but Eric missed the mission and purpose he experienced in the Navy. Early in 2019, Eric helped Show Me Integrity – a young cross-partisan political reform organization – form it’s 501(c)(3) education fund and he served as the first Board President. In November 2020, Show Me Integrity helped pass an innovative new, nonpartisan “approval voting” system in St. Louis City.

Shortly after the 2020 election, another veteran saw Eric’s passion for political reforms and suggested that he build an organization to inspire more veterans to join him.  That idea turned into “Veterans for Political Innovation” ; officially incorporated in March of 2021 and launched, in Wisconsin, in October 2021. Prior to launch, he connected to Lauren Postler through Bunker Labs, a national nonprofit supporting veteran and miliatry-connected entrepreneurs, to learn more about opportunities for collaboration. In addition to founding People for Liberty, Lauren has served as a volunteer leader of the Houston chapter of the nonprofit for the last four years and she was excited to meet Eric through the Veterans-in-Residence program. They are both looking forward to advocating for political innovation by plugging individuals from the People for Liberty community into volunteer opportunities to #Act4Liberty with Veterans for Political Innovation!

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

Veterans for Political Innovation is focused on advocating for and implementing specific, actionable strategies for election innovation across the country. The military veteran population is a cross-section of American society, and military veterans and supporters know how to leverage individual differences to accomplish a mission. Specifically, the organization is focused on supporting: Top Five Open Primaries, Ranked Choice Voting, and Final Five Voting. Eric and his team are looking forward to building relationships with organizations already working in this space and helping to elevate the conversation nationally with the power of the veteran and military connected community behind them.

NEED TO KNOW:

• Eric is a Navy veteran, and one of the close to 50% of veterans who are independent, unaffiliated voters.  In our two-party duopoly that means Eric is a second-class citizen.
• Eric was born and raised in Wisconsin, where his parents were school teachers and proud union members.
• In 2005, Eric moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in part, to live closer to his in-laws from rural, Southeast Missouri.  Eric has thus experienced, first-hand, the urban-rural divide.
• Eric is an independent political entrepreneur and a dedicated, cross-partisan political reformer.

SIDEBAR:

Eric’s political career may have peaked during the summer of 1992 at Badger Boys State in Ripon, Wisconsin, birthplace of the Republican Party.  Eric was “his party’s” nominee for “Governor,” so he gave a speech to 1000 of his peers and then-Governor Tommy Thompson, but alas, he lost to a young, charismatic African-American boy from Milwaukee.  Since then, Eric has spoken to: college classes, civic organizations, churches and groups ranging in size from 5 to 500.

Tune in on Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 8:00 ET during our Veterans Day Livestream Event with the Military Supporters for Liberty Group to hear more from Eric – and find out more about the “Primary Problem” and need for political innovation and election reform in the video, below:

At People for Liberty, we believe in #PeopleB4Politics and through education, advocacy, and opportunities for action, we are working to create and sustain a community dedicated to this end – the end of politics as we know it today. To keep up with our efforts and find a way to become a part of the movement, we hope you’ll subscribe to our newsletter.