Veterans for Political Innovation (VPI) is an electoral administration advocacy group founded and run by military veterans. VPI supports “Final-Five Voting,” a package of election procedure changes that includes open primaries, ranked-choice voting, and other alternatives to plurality voting.

VPI has numerous state-level chapters throughout the United States advocating for its electoral changes. The “most active” state chapters are in Missouri, Nevada, and Wisconsin. ¹

Funding

Veterans for Political Innovation receives funding from the Institute for Political Innovation and Dr. Bronner’s Family Foundation, a charity funded from the Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap company fortune. ² Eric Bronner, the co-founder and brainchild behind VPI, ³ is a member of the Bronner family and personally contributes funds to it. ⁴ In 2022, VPI received $50,000 from the foundation. ⁵

Policy Goals

Veterans for Political Innovation supports what it calls “Final-Five Voting,” a package of voting-procedure changes. VPI “is generally supportive” of other voting changes but focuses its efforts on Final-Five Voting. ⁶

VPI considers closed primaries the “biggest form of voter suppression in the country” because a majority of U.S. Congressional races are de facto determined by primaries because the dominant party’s primary winner has no viable challenger in the general election. ⁷

VPI supports the adoption of single-ballot primaries, as opposed to primaries for each political party, in which the top five candidates would advance to the general election. VPI claims this system will reduce political polarization since the current primary systems tend to promote more extreme candidates who cater to party interests. VPI supports the procession of five candidates because “Too many candidates can cause voters to feel confused, overwhelmed, or discouraged from completing their rankings. Five is an ideal number to optimize competition without overwhelming voters.” ^{8 9}

VPI supports the adoption of numerous potential changes to the plurality voting systems that most states use. It supports a ranked-choice voting system where a candidate wins if they earn more than 50 percent of the votes, but ranked-choice determines the winner if no candidate gets a majority. VPI argues that ranked-choice voting lessens polarization by incentivizing candidates to curry favor from political opponents to gain higher rankings from opposition voters. ¹⁰

VPI also supports approval voting, which allows each voter to vote for multiple candidates, instant run-off voting, and other viable alternatives to the currently dominant plurality voting system. ¹¹

Leadership

All of Veterans for Political Innovation’s employees and board members are military veterans. ¹²

VPI was co-founded and is led by Todd Connor, an executive in residence at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Connor is the co-founder of the Collective Academy, a career-development organization, and the founder of the Bunker Labs, a nonprofit that supports veteran-run businesses. Connor served in U.S. Navy and exited service as a lieutenant. ¹³

Co-founder Eric Bronner is the chief operating officer of VPI. Bronner is a former real estate agent, lawyer, and flight officer in the U.S. Navy. Bronner originated the concept of the VPI and brought the idea to the other two co-founders. In an interview, Bronner said he was always passionate about politics and wanted to be a politician but was dissatisfied with the two major political parties. ^{14 15}

Co-founder Dan Biga worked as chief-of-staff of VPI until he left the organization in December 2022. Biga is a lead specialist at the accounting firm Deloitte and a former employee of the With Honor PAC and Bunker Labs. Biga served in the U.S. Marines Corps. ¹⁶

1. ^[1] “Our State Presence.” Veterans for Political Innovation. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.veteransforpoliticalinnovation.org/state-leaders.
2. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Veterans for Political Innovation. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.veteransforpoliticalinnovation.org/faqs
3.  ^[1] “Episode 60: Level the Playing Field with Eric Bronner.” Speaker. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.spreaker.com/user/unitynowpodcast/un-ep60-ericbronner-topublish.
4. ^[1] Baugher, David. “Dr. Bronner’s Legacy of Giving.” Webster-Kirkwood Times. October 19, 2018. Updated October 26, 2018. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.timesnewspapers.com/webster-kirkwoodtimes/dr-bronner-s-legacy-of-giving/article_377f6156-d2d9-11e8-aa81-5bf095793b4d.html.
5. “Dr. Bronner’s Family Foundation.” ProPublica. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/431979565/202202729349100210/full.
6. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Veterans for Political Innovation. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.veteransforpoliticalinnovation.org/faqs
7. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Veterans for Political Innovation. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.veteransforpoliticalinnovation.org/faqs
8. ^[1] “Frequently Asked Questions.” Veterans for Political Innovation. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.veteransforpoliticalinnovation.org/faqs
9. “Final Five Voting.” Veterans for Political Innovation. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.veteransforpoliticalinnovation.org/final-five-voting.
10. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Veterans for Political Innovation. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.veteransforpoliticalinnovation.org/faqs
11. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Veterans for Political Innovation. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.veteransforpoliticalinnovation.org/faqs
12. “An Experienced Team.” Veterans for Political Innovation. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.veteransforpoliticalinnovation.org/leadership.
13. “Todd Connor.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddconnor.
14. “Episode 60: Level the Playing Field with Eric Bronner.” Speaker. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.spreaker.com/user/unitynowpodcast/un-ep60-ericbronner-topublish.
15. “Eric Bronner.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbronner/.
16. “Dan Biga.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbiga/.