Chris Tuck, who served in the Alaska State House from 2009 to 2022, filed Wednesday to run for mayor in the 2024 Municipality of Anchorage election.
Incumbent Mayor Dave Bronson, a conservative, will now face off against Tuck, an establishment Democrat, and former Anchorage Assembly chair Suzanne LaFrance, a registered nonpartisan. Currently, no conservative has entered the race to challenge Bronson, despite a first term mired in controversy and lawsuits.
The field will likely grow further soon. Bill Popp, the CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, has been a rumored potential candidate and the domain PoppForMayor.com was recently purchased.
With more than 11 months until election day, an even larger field is likely: 15 candidates ran, with Bronson and Forrest Dunbar advancing to a run-off special election.
During his time in Juneau, Tuck was a member in two bipartisan Alaska House Majority coalitions and often served in positions of leadership, including House Majority Leader in 2022.
Tuck chose not seek reelection in 2022 after the state redistricting process placed him in the same Midtown Anchorage House district as fellow Democratic incumbent Andy Josephson and passed on a potential state senate run against another Democratic incumbent, Elvi Gray-Jackson. Outside of politics, Tuck, a divorced father of two, has worked as an electrical contractor and union organizer.
Ballots for Anchorage’s vote-by-mail election will be mailed in March 2024 with the final day of in-person voting held April 2, 2024. If no candidate receives at least 45% of the vote in the first round, the two candidates with the highest vote share advance to a special runoff election.
