The race to be Alaska’s next governor is set after a wild weekend leading up to Monday’s withdrawal deadline, which saw the second-place Democrat drop out, the fifth-place Republican be disqualified, and several rumors of even bigger shake-ups never come to pass.
Once all the dust settled, Democrats and moderates consolidated around Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, who led the Aug. 18 open primary race with 22.5% of the vote, while Republicans are fielding three candidates who finished the primary with between 7% and 10% of the vote each.
Kreiss-Tomkins got a boost on Friday when fellow Democrat Tom Begich, who finished with about 20% of the vote, ended his campaign and endorsed him.
A major and much-rumored consolidation of Republican candidates—which reportedly included an attempt by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Alaska Republican Party officials to negotiate a unity ticket—never materialized.
That leaves Republicans with a divided field featuring businesswoman and conservative media personality Bernadette Wilson, who finished the primary with 10%; former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, who finished with 8.1%; and oil-field services executive Candi English, who replaces former Attorney General Treg Taylor after his disqualification on Monday.
State campaign finance regulators ruled last week that Taylor, who finished the primary with 7.3% of the vote, shouldn’t be allowed to run because he never properly disclosed the identity of the renters at the 234-apartment building he owns with his wife in Anchorage.
Under Alaska law, candidates must disclose any and all sources of income, which would include the identity of anyone paying a candidate rent.
The couple had requested special treatment from regulators last year and were denied, but continued to hide the identities of their renters, claiming that it’d open them up to harassment. After months of refusing to update the disclosures or even offer a legal explanation justifying their lack of transparency, regulators delivered their decision last week.
On Monday, the Alaska Division of Elections formally blocked Taylor from running, finding that the letter of the law was clear that candidates cannot run if they haven’t properly filed their financial disclosures.
In the wake of the news, Taylor’s running mate, English, took over as the leading candidate on the ticket, with Taylor’s wife, Jodi Taylor, joining the ticket as English’s running mate.
It’s important to note that Jodi Taylor’s financial disclosures are nearly identical to the ones that got Treg Taylor disqualified, listing only renters’ first names and the first letter of their last names. However, the Alaska Department of Law has also recently argued that candidates may intentionally file incomplete or inaccurate financial disclosures, provided they update them within 30 days of filing, so it’s likely that she can make it nearly halfway through the race to the general election without having to update the disclosures before she’s also disqualified.
After eight years under Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, an era that was marked by his failure to deliver on lofty promises like large cash payouts through the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend and an ever-growing slate of shuttered public schools, Kreiss-Tomkins has plenty to run on.
“Alaskans are demanding change: better schools, abundant fisheries, and lower costs for energy, healthcare, and housing,” Kreiss-Tomkins said in a prepared statement after the ballot was finalized. “Most of all, Alaskans are demanding a government that works—where their elected officials can work together (not toss political grenades at each other), compromise, and solve the huge problems facing our state.”
Kreiss-Tomkins will head into the general election with moderate nonpartisan Anchorage Assemblymember Zac Johnson as his running mate. Speculation that he would drop Johnson in favor of a Democratic running mate ultimately proved to be unfounded.
“I don’t believe compromise is a dirty word,” Kreiss-Tomkins said at a candidate forum last week, adding that the ultimate goal is to “have an administration that supports all Alaskans, regardless of their political affiliation.”
Republicans, meanwhile, have struggled to coalesce on a message heading into the general election.
But the one area where they seem unified is their total opposition to any new taxes, particularly to taxes on the oil and gas industry, which many Democrats and moderates see as the easiest path to closing the state’s structural budget deficit. Dunleavy’s refusal to entertain any new taxes, coupled with his inability to propose significant cuts to services, led him to pursue deficit spending for much of his two terms in office.
The deterioration of state services under Dunleavy has galvanized moderate Republicans to form bipartisan legislative coalitions with Democrats, with several arguing that rigid political allegiances aren’t as important as the understaffing and lack of investment directly undermining the state’s economy.
But the slate of Republican candidates doesn’t seem keen on courting bipartisan-minded voters.
At the Alaska Oil and Gas Association candidate forum last month, Bronson claimed that “the greatest policy threat is — God forbid — this state elect a Democrat to this governor’s office. That is the greatest threat facing this state.”
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 Bluesky.
