This commentary was originally published on akmemo.com.
Elections have consequences, and one consequence of this election is that far-right Republicans who wielded committee chairmanships in the House during the last session to boost anti-trans bills, “Don’t Say Gay”-style legislation, anti-abortion measures, election “reforms” that seem designed to make it harder to vote and bills proposing to make gold legal tender are now out of power. Key flips by Democrats, independents and bipartisan-minded Republicans mean the House will join the Senate in organizing into a multi-partisan coalition, marking the first time in my time covering the Legislature that both chambers have done so.
It will also be the first time after six years in office that Gov. Mike Dunleavy — who announced he’ll finish out his term after being skipped over for a spot in the Trump cabinet (SAD!) — will not have a Republican majority to back him up in the Legislature.
It’s hard to overstate just how big of a difference this will be for the course of the next two years. We place a lot of attention on who holds the speakership and the makeup of the powerful Finance Committee — which is typically made up of more politically savvy legislators — but so much happens in the largely siloed fiefdoms of legislative committees. Chairs have near-complete say in driving a committee’s agenda, allowing them to promote or kill bills to their liking, and when they’re held by hyper-partisan wackadoos, it rarely goes well.
One of the biggest changes for this next session will be the Education Committee, which is set to be chaired by Southeast Reps. Andi Story (D-Juneau) and Rebecca Himschoot (I-Sitka). Himschoot, a long-time teacher, and Story, a long-time member of the Juneau School Board and other groups, spent much of the last two years butting heads with soon-to-be-former Education co-chair Rep. Jamie Allard. Allard, the extreme-right Eagle River Republican who lost her spot on the Human Rights Commission when she defended Nazi-themed license plates, used the committee to advance anti-trans sports legislation and promote the kind of “school choice” that allows public funds to flow into the private and religious educations of wealthier, whiter families. For school boards and teachers who were frequently ignored by Allard and, in some particularly spectacular cases, were shouted at by Allard, it’s a night and day difference.
In the big picture, though, the biggest consequence of Alaska’s election is the failure of Ballot Measure 2. Failed by a razor-thin 664-vote margin, the conservative-backed measure sought to repeal the state’s open primary and ranked-choice voting system and return to the semi-closed partisan primaries that made it easier for Republicans to weed out anyone unwilling to fall into line. Backers are already talking about another repeal initiative for the 2026 ballot, but the failure of Ballot Measure 2 means that at least one more election cycle — one that will include an open governor’s race and a U.S. Senate seat — will be conducted under the system.
Yes, the measure is headed for a recount — the margin is well within the 0.5% needed for the state to fund it — but it’d take something really wild to flip that many votes. The 2020 hand audit of the initiative that originally instated open primaries and ranked-choice voting, after all, only resulted in a few dozen votes flipping. And while some Republicans, such as Allard, are busy fomenting election conspiracies about the failure rather than accept that it’s one in a long line of close Alaska elections, it’s also hard to ignore the fact that the Division of Elections is literally run by a Trump supporter who refused to say Joe Biden fairly won the 2020 election.
And let’s not forget the Division of Elections was also accused of giving the initiative special treatment to fix otherwise fatal flaws with its signature-gathering effort.
The survival of open primaries and ranked-choice voting will likely be one of those key inflection points in Alaska’s political history, a junction between a system that reinforces the cultish us-versus-them of modern national politics and a system that better reflects Alaska’s refusal to abide by those ill-fitting labels. The open primary system sets up general election contests that are more nuanced than the typical Republican vs. Democrat choice. And while that will still be the key choice for many districts, there are many other districts where the decision should be between different shades of Republican or Democrat. The simple political landscape of some districts means they will always produce Republicans or Democratic legislators. The difference between the old and the new system is that everyone — not just partisan primary voters — will get to make that choice.
And, hey, we’ve seen that when given the choice, voters have generally opted for the more moderate, non-wackadoo candidates.
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.
