A Hopkins will again be in the Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor’s office.
Grier Hopkins, a former Democratic legislator and son of former Mayor Luke Hopkins, extended his lead in the race for borough mayor today with the counting of more than 1,000 absentee and question ballots, cementing his victory over conservative challenger John Coghill.
According to the latest count, Hopkins has 48.41% of the vote to Coghill’s 47.62%, a 154-vote lead. Hopkins closed election night with just a 43-vote lead over Coghill. Third-place candidate Robert Shields received 705 votes, 3.62% of the vote.
Hopkins will replace Mayor Bryce Ward, a centrist conservative who reached his term limit.
In the races for Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly, progressive incumbents Kristan Kelly and David Guttenberg held onto their seats, while one open seat previously held by a progressive was flipped. That means Hopkins is set to enter office with progressives holding a 6-3 majority on the Fairbanks Assembly, which will be the first time in more than six years that progressives have controlled both branches of the Fairbanks North Star Borough.
Guttenberg, a former Democratic state legislator and also the uncle of Hopkins, held an eight-point lead over challenger Miguel Ramirez. Kelly had a roughly two-point lead over conservative former Assemblymember Jimi Cash, who was seeking a return to the Assembly after losing his seat by a nearly six-point margin in 2023.
Fairbanks conservatives can chalk up a win with Tammie Wilson’s victory over progressive Garrett Armstrong for a seat on the Borough Assembly. Wilson, a former Republican legislator, has served multiple previous terms on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly. Her last stint on the Fairbanks Assembly ended in 2023, when she lost by a roughly 8-point margin in a year that saw intense backlash to right-wing conservatives.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
