This is part of a series of interviews by Debilyn Molineaux, project director for AmericanFuture.US. The project's mission is to help everyday Americans to imagine a better future for themselves, and together we’ll write the next chapter of the United States of America. This interview is also available as a podcast for Terrified Nation (episode seven).
Eric Bronner is a veteran, husband, father and reformer. He’s also the founder and chief operating officer of Veterans for All Voters. Eric is an optimist – but he’s also a realist. In 2021, he and a group of friends wondered if there were any organizations where veterans worked for nonpartisan reforms to support voters. It was a way to continue his lifetime of service, and invite other veterans to do the same. Like more than half of veterans, Eric is a lifelong independent voter who continues to uphold his oath to the Constitution. He does this by making elections more competitive and accessible
In the course of this interview, which took place Jan. 16, we spoke about Eric’s challenges to balance his big vision with family needs, his strong drive to continue serving our nation and a love of Ethiopian food. It has been lightly edited for clarity.
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Debilyn Molineaux: As I go through the questions with you today, keep in mind we're looking for what is your preferred future, not what you think is possible, not what you think is likely. What is it that you actually prefer for your future? So the first thing that we're going to do is some time travel within your current life. And so I'm going to recommend somewhere between two and 20 years. And what sounds about right for you?
Eric Bronner: Somewhere around 10 years.
DM: All right, 10 years. We're going to jump forward into 2034. As we get going here in the time machine, let's go ahead and close your eyes for a second and take a couple of deep breaths. And when we get out of the time machine we're going to be in 2034, and you're going to be observing your future self and responding to these questions about what you see. And so we're pulling into 2034. Ding! Here we are. We're going to get out of our time machine. And the first question is simple, where are you in 2034? What do you see?
EB: I don't know exactly physically where we will be. I have three children and a wife and we will probably be living somewhere else. I will be serving in a national office, like the House or the Senate. It's a lifelong dream of mine. It's a big reason why I'm doing the work that I started in 2019.
DM: Can you describe, physically, what you see around you? It's probably not St. Louis.
EB: Probably not. Let's just say Washington, D.C.
DM: What's your neighborhood like?
EB: We live in the city. It's a very diverse, eclectic neighborhood, maybe we're not too far from Little Ethiopia. The city has addressed some of its issues, thanks to a successful ballot initiative back in 2024, Petition 83, that helped open up primaries and use ranked-choice voting. So you have a much more representative government in Washington, D.C. That people feel much more ownership of. They see people who reflect not only some of their external attributes, but they see people in office who are independent thinkers and problem solvers, who are serving for all the right reasons, not serving to build their own platform, or to aggregate more power for themselves or their party.
DM: As you observe yourself, being a member of Congress and you're living in D.C., and you've got this eclectic neighborhood. What is it that you're most proud of?
EB: I'm proud from a work standpoint that we, Veterans for All Voters, were a big part of reforming the system, and we were able to pull through that really dark time in 2024. And thankfully, enough people woke up to the reality that the parties were just aggregating power for themselves. The people got smart, and the people in enough states passed reforms that changed the system and made this representative democracy more representative. And I'm really proud of the role that we played in that.
DM: What about non-work? What about personally?
EB: I'm still happily married and have a great relationship with my three kids, who are all adults now. A couple of them have started families of their own. We have grandchildren. I've grown as a person. In my family history we have a number of people who thought they could change the world, and in many ways they did, and in other ways my family felt the brunt of them being so passionate about their mission that the family members felt left behind or forgotten.
And I'm grateful that through good therapy and a good church community, my faith, and good friendships that we navigated some tough times as a family, and we're in a much healthier place together than we were 10 years ago.
DM: Since you just kind of touched on your family dynamic, of previous generations wanting to change the world, would you like to share that story a little bit? It's a compelling story.
EB: I'm happy to share that. I assume you're referencing my grandfather, the late Dr. Bronner. Ny dad's dad, who was raised orthodox Jewish as a soap maker in Germany, came over to the United States in the 1920s. And in many ways he has the immigrant success story that Americans love to tell. Along the way, he experienced incredible loss and tragedy, including that both of his parents were killed in the Holocaust. He lost his first wife to mental illness, and we don't know exactly how she died and left him with three young children. He was sent to a mental institution in Elgin, Illinois, escaped on the third attempt, and made his way to Los Angeles, literally without a penny to his name. He started making soap in his tenement apartment building. That's what he knew how to do. He would go to Pershing Square in Los Angeles, where freethinkers could get out and speak, and he would literally get on a soapbox and give speeches. He wanted to unite spaceship Earth. He felt like he had an epiphany somewhere along the way, maybe in the mental hospital. He spoke out about his All-One belief and he tried to get his message out to the world. People got tired of hearing him speaking, so he put his message on the bottles of the soap. Then, despite of him not even trying to be a successful business person, the soap really took off in the '60s, and it became the number one selling natural organic soap in the world.
This is part of my legacy is inheriting the good and the other things that come with an eccentric genius grandfather. My dad would note eccentric geniuses don't make good fathers.
DM: That sounds really tough.
EB: My dad was in over 12 different foster homes between the age of 8 and when he left for college. And so that's the family legacy that's challenging too. My grandfather did change the world. It's an example of constructive capitalism. It's an example of the good we can do with the resources that we're given. He defined constructive capitalism as giving back to the workers and the Earth, from whom your profits are made. I'm proud to say our families carried on that legacy by turning the company into a B corporation, and operating in many ways more like a nonprofit than a for-profit.
DM: I have been using Dr. Bronner's soap for far longer than I've known you. And so thank you for sharing that story with us because it puts in perspective the challenge of work-life balance that I think Americans struggle with more than any other culture. There is also this desire to do good for people we don't even know and contribute to the world at large. And sometimes there's a private cost to that, such as your father experienced.
EB: Yes.
DM: I love that in your future. What you're most proud of is that you still have an intact family with great, deep relationships.
EB: Early in starting Veterans for All Voters, I was practicing our pitch, our slide deck presentation, with my wife, Halli, and in there I had a photo of her and my kids, and talked about how important family was to me, and how I was doing this work for my family. In a grace-filled way, she said, "You know, it just doesn't really feel like that on this end of things." That's something I could ignore, but I haven’t. Honestly, it's not as if I've arrived or figured this all out. I'm still working on this balance, right? But trying to figure out how to do something that feels impossible, and also taking good care of those closest to me at the same time.
DM: Thank you for sharing what you're most proud of, and how that formed in you. The next question, as you're observing your future self as a member of Congress, living in D.C. How will you spend your day?
EB: They'll be full right? Lots of meetings, hearings, constituent meetings. I look forward to being a representative who truly knows and represents their district well, and being a person of the people, not ever being above the people that I'm supposedly serving. I think that that was one of the most toxic things about politics. In 2024 it just felt so ego-driven, and even good people serving in Congress would tell you they felt forced to have to dial for dollars because it was all about the money, and thankfully we are able to reform and overturn Citizens United through the 28th Amendment. There is some public financing for campaigns, so representatives no longer have to spend so much time raising money. We can spend more time caring for our constituents, which is what we're supposed to be doing.
DM: The coach in me is coming out. So you just talked about your work life again. (laughter) Tell me how your family fits into your day?
EB: Sure. Well, our kids are all grown at this point, and they're out of the house. So it's Halli and me. She has her own thriving business. Hallie is a home designer, and has turned that into a really neat platform. She's using her gifts to serve and help women with design elements, making their homes and their offices more beautiful. That's a passion of hers. Faith is incredibly important to us. So we've been members of a faith community our entire married life. And we're really excited to be a part of a vibrant faith community in Washington, D.C. And part of smaller groups where we know our friends and neighbors well, and live out what we say we believe, and make our Founder proud!. And by Founder, I mean Jesus.
DM: You've touched on my next question a little bit. But how do you feel in 2034? What do you observe about your future self?
EB: I feel a lot of gratitude. I get to do the work I dreamed of, serving as an elected official and helping to make really important decisions that honors my constituents, honors the integrity that I hope to bring to this office. There is a collegial spirit in the way we're making policy. Now, this wasn't even possible [in 2024], because the conflict profiteers — as you called them --- were so good at polarizing us for their own selfish gain that problem solving wasn't even possible. And now it is. I really enjoy being a part of solving the biggest problems our country is facing.
DM: As you look at your future self, what can you identify as your three, or maybe five, priority values or qualities?
EB: I mentioned faith and how we live it out, so that it's authentic and genuine and is a way that invites people in, to be curious. Integrity, being the same person, no matter who I'm with. Whether I'm with a homeless person on the streets of D.C. or with the president, I'm the same person. And independent thinking. When I think back to 10 years ago [in 2024], we were stuck in this place of toxic groupthink where the voices that got amplified seemed to be some of the craziest voices at that time. There was a lack of independent thinking, and people who would try to push back against narratives often times were ostracized. No grace was given to people, a lot of it was superficial virtue signaling, doing and saying all the right things. But then you dig a little bit deeper, and some of the people 10 years ago, who looked so shiny and new and hopeful, there was no integrity involved.
DM: Does anything else come to mind?
EB: Collaboration. I really pride myself in being able to work with people from all over the political spectrum. I really believe in that team of rivals approach where there's no one side or no one party that has all the answers or all the solutions. So let's get the best thinkers together in a room to argue about what is possible, what's achievable, what's powerful for moving our country forward in a way that benefits the majority or as many people as possible.
DM: As you look around, you're living in D.C., you have this diverse, eclectic neighborhood that's close to Ethiopian food. I'm assuming there's a story there. But what about beyond Ethiopian food? What does the community that supports this future need to include for you?
EB: The community includes many people who reflect the values that I just shared, right? Faith-based community, but also neighbors who might look and think very differently from me to help keep me grounded. We don't want to live in some gated community that's in a bubble removed from people. We've been in both, and we prefer to be in neighborhoods that help keep us grounded. Then, surrounded by good friends and close advisers who know me, warts and all, and they're willing to speak the truth in love to me, and vice versa. We have open hearts and open minds toward each other, and are living as our authentic selves.
DM: So your community needs to include a level of authenticity, where you can authentically be yourself and feel like you belong.
EB: Yes.
DM: Do you want to go into Ethiopian food?
EB: The first time I ever had it was in Little Ethiopia, in D.C. My cousin had studied in Ethiopia for six months and I picked him up from the airport, and we went straight to an Ethiopian restaurant. He could speak a little Amharic, so they gave us the royal treatment, and it was just a super memorable experience. And there's still words he taught me that have stuck with me since that time. Then one of my wife's closest and dearest friends adopted a boy from Ethiopia. I think we, just for many reasons, have a soft spot in our hearts for Ethiopia.
DM: I love that, that is wonderful. Well, we're down to the last question. So we're going to move ourselves back into 2024 real quick, so don't get whiplash. Let's talk a little bit about what you are doing today in 2024 to create this future that you see for yourself and for the nation. So let's do a deep dive into Veterans for All Voters. How did it start? How did you do this?
EB: It started in a collaborative way, putting together a kitchen cabinet of about 10 veterans from across the country and across the political spectrum to see whether or not there was a need for yet another veteran service organization (there's over 40,000 or 50,000 already), working specifically on election reforms. There's maybe about 10,000 pro-democracy, civic bridge-building or nonpartisan reform organizations, right? And if there was someone else bringing those two worlds together in a meaningful way, we would have happily joined them. But when we convened this kitchen cabinet in 2021 after a little bit of time and research there really wasn't anyone being very intentional with bringing veterans in to use their trusted voice in a way that is political but not partisan. In a way that is reforming, not dividing, or for partisan gain or short-term gain, but really on a much longer term, a reform vision.
DM: So what is it that you're looking to do here in 2024? Is there anything that you can or are doing today to influence or co-create that community you've mentioned, as we have done the backward casting? You mentioned Measure 83 in D.C.
EB: Petition 83 is a great example of the work that Veterans for All Voters does in partnership with an entire ecosystem of effort. Petition 83 is a ballot initiative in Washington, D.C., for open primaries to get rid of partisan primary elections and use ranked-choice voting in both the primary and the general election. Sometimes it's called majority-choice voting. Something we know from other cities and states that have used majority-choice methods is it really improves democracy on many levels by making it more representative, more participatory. People are more excited, because they have more choices, and in every other industry, we love choices and competition. But in politics we've been told by the two private political parties that you can either choose Coke or Pepsi, or more Coke or more Pepsi.
DM: And when somebody pops up and says, I want some root beer ...
EB: The two brands would respond, “Yeah, sorry if you want root beer, you're going to end up selling more Coke. And that would be really bad, because we know your second choice is Pepsi. But you can't even express that second choice. Whatever you do, don't drink root beer.”
DM: Or cream soda. That's my other favorite. (chuckling) OK, what you're doing right now in preparation for moving to D.C., as a member of Congress is, you're trying to help the residents of D.C. to have more choices, more voice in their local elections.
EB: Yes, absolutely more choices, more voices. One of the leaders of Petition 83 is Lisa Rice, a mutual friend of ours, and someone who I really admire and who inspires me on so many levels. A lifelong independent voter. She lives her values. That's who she authentically is, and she wants to be able to fully participate in her taxpayer-funded elections. So she helped start Petition 83. There's some other great organizations working on this behind the scenes. The Dr. Bronner's family foundation has helped with some funding too. Ballot campaigns are expensive, and sometimes that's used against reform initiatives, that all this money is coming in to change the system. And we love to point out that literally, 10 to 20 times as much money is going to protect and maintain the status quo. In some places it's a hundredfold. So yes, it costs money to reform our broken system, and that requires partners and funders from all over all over the country.
DM: One of the things I learned from you and from others in the democracy reform space is not just how much money we spend on the initial primary election, but keeping people from voting in the primary if it's a closed primary state. Or the primary ends up with a runoff because nobody got 50 percent plus one, so you end up having three elections when you could just do it once. The tax savings from a taxpayer standpoint is a huge bonus for me. I like being able to vote “this person the best, but I like this person the second best, and this person the third best.” Then I know that my voice is going to count.
EB: Yes, majority-choice voting methods reward common-sense problem solvers. They reward collaborative campaigners. Because if you're not everyone's first choice, you want to be their second choice. You can no longer win by demonizing one person or demonizing the other side. In our current status quo system the quickest way to win is by saying, “Vote for me, cause I'm not as bad as them,” which is a terrible way to run a system.
DM: We're talking about the future here. And one of the things that I know when I've talked to young people that they really want something to vote for.
EB: Yes. The reality is that 61 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds do not identify as a Republican or a Democrat. They want a system that they can fully participate in, and closed primaries don't allow for that. So we'll open things up to all voters, and then let's get some new parties. Let's have a truly multiparty democracy which will be possible in the Alaska model, where you could have four parties running their own candidates and and on a level playing field. And that's really what we're pushing and hoping for.
DM: Some of the opponents of ranked-choice voting or majority-choice voting have said that it leans a partisan direction but when Alaska passed this reform package, the very next election they had a Democrat, an independent-minded Republican and a MAGA Republican who all won, using ranked-choice voting. We just need to remember that the people who oppose it are the people who are going to lose power.
EB: Yes. In red states, the misinformation is that it's a Trojan horse for Democrats. And in blue states, the misinformation is, it’s a Trojan horse for Republicans. It will make all of our elections more competitive. So there's truth in that. It will be more competitive. But ranked-choice voting is not going to turn red states to blue or blue states to red. That's just silly.
DM: Quite frankly. That's the fodder of conflict profiteers.
EB: Yes. Who can only see the world in blue or red? Right? And we're trying to create a completely new paradigm. I should have started with the big picture values for Veterans for All Voters. Our new name reflects our values better, like we are truly fighting for all voters to be able to fully participate in all public elections. It sounds like a simple thing, your average person on the street would say. “Sure! Of course!” But that's not true in most of our states. If you're an independent voter, if you're not registered with one of the major political parties, you, in some shape, form or fashion will be treated like a second class citizen. You may be able to participate in a limited way, or not at all in primary elections. The first round of voting determines 85 percent of our outcomes. You know, when we get to November, people wonde,r why are my choices so terrible? The real competition has already taken place. And most people didn't even participate.
DM: Right? Well, Eric, this has been just such a pleasure. I'm going to close with an invitation for you and for everyone else who's reading this interview today. This invitation comes from neuroscience. We geeked out on the politics here with Veterans for All Voters today. Let's geek out on neuroscience, too. If each of us spends five minutes a day thinking about our future self and feel those feelings that include a sense of awe and wonder, what the neuroscience research shows is that we begin to subconsciously create that which we focus on. And so we have a choice. We can actually co-create this future that we prefer. We can do that instead of choosing the dystopian options that are presented to us by the conflict profiteers.
EB: Yes, yes.
DM: Thank you, Eric very much for participating today, and my invitation to all of us, is to spend five minutes a day envisioning the future we want. One that doesn't suck.
EB: We are going to pull through these dark days, and things are definitely going to be better. So thanks for all the good work you're doing.
