4 Special Coverage

A year before Alaska’s 2026 primary election, 10 candidates have already announced their intent to run for governor, and more are expected to announce campaigns in the coming months.

Incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy is term-limited and unable to run himself, and with so many people in the race, there is no clear front-runner.

During a question-and-answer session at this week’s Alaska Oil and Gas Association conference in Anchorage, Dunleavy was asked who he supports.

Among the confirmed candidates are Dunleavy’s lieutenant governor, Republican Nancy Dahlstrom, and his former revenue commissioner, Adam Crum. His former attorney general, Treg Taylor, is also expected to enter the race.

But given the opportunity to endorse any or all of them, Dunleavy didn’t name any specific candidate as his preference and spoke only in generalities.

“Who do you want to replace you as governor?” asked the event moderator.

“Somebody taller than me,” Dunleavy said to laughter. “No, I’m kidding. … Somebody that believes in Alaska like you do and like I do. You’ve got to be on a mission, right?”

Dunleavy said he believes any governor faces distractions and nay-sayers, people who will oppose projects and a governor’s efforts.

“I would hope that whoever is the next governor has a mission to continue the good things that are happening for the state, continue to work with the Trump administration, because I’ll be gone,” Dunleavy said, alluding to President Donald Trump’s efforts to increase mining, logging and oil and gas drilling in Alaska.

“There’ll be two more years, at least, of President Trump, and hopefully someone after him in a similar vein, who wants to keep this going for the country. So whoever you talk to that’s running for governor, ask them what their mission is. If they balk, or they look up at the sky or they think about it, that’s a concern,” the governor said. “Getting things across the finish line, getting things across the finish line, is the most important thing.”

After the governor’s remarks, deputy press secretary Grant Robinson said by email that the governor’s statement about “at least” two more years was “nothing more than an approximation of the time remaining in the President’s term.”

The 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits someone from being elected President more than twice.

Dunleavy’s own political future is also in question. On Thursday, Fox News, citing unnamed sources, said the governor is considering whether to run against Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, when her current term expires in 2028.

The Fox News report could not be immediately corroborated, but Murkowski herself has said she may leave the Senate. In interviews earlier this month, she declined to rule out a run for governor in 2026.

In addition to Crum and Dahlstrom, seven other Republicans have filed documents for a campaign: former state Sen. Click Bishop of Fairbanks; current state Sen. Shelley Hughes of Palmer; 2022 write-in governor candidate Bruce Walden of Palmer; Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries; podiatrist Matt Heilala of Anchorage; former teacher James William Parkin IV of Angoon; and business owner Bernadette Wilson of Anchorage.

Former state Sen. Tom Begich of Anchorage is the only Democratic candidate to have filed paperwork for a candidacy, and no independents have entered the race so far.

It’s municipal election season. That means the KTOO newsroom is busy building out its annual Municipal Candidate Guide. We pose six questions to each candidate and publish their answers in an easy to read – and compare – format. We hope you’ll look it over as you mull your votes in September and October.

KTOO’s local election coverage is part of our commitment to an informed and engaged electorate in our community. We’ll also cover this year’s local ballot measures and anything else election-related that arises.

And as the KTOO newsroom takes on its municipal election coverage, we want to hear from you. What questions do you have for candidates as they compete for your votes this election? On which issues would you like to hear their policy ideas? Submit your thoughts to us through the form at the bottom of ktoo.org/elections or below.

To hear from the candidates themselves, mark your calendar for Friday, Sept. 19. KTOO is teaming up with the League of Women Voters of Juneau to host and broadcast a live candidate forum. You can catch it live on 104.3 FM.

Bringing you the trusted information you need to vote with confidence is at the core of what we do at KTOO Public Media. Tune in!

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor will resign Aug. 29, he told employees at the Alaska Department of Law in an all-staff email Thursday afternoon.

Taylor, who became the state’s top attorney in 2021 after his two immediate predecessors resigned in disgrace, is expected by political observers to join a competitive field of candidates running for governor in the state’s 2026 general election.

Incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy is term-limited and unable to run for reelection, leaving the office open to challengers.

This week, former Alaska Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum formally confirmed his plans to run for governor, and former state Sen. Tom Begich became the first Democrat to announce a run for the office. Bruce Walden of Palmer, who ran as a write-in candidate in 2022, filed for the office on Wednesday.

In addition to Crum and Walden, seven other Republicans have filed documents for a campaign: former state Sen. Click Bishop of Fairbanks; current state Sen. Shelley Hughes of Palmer, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom of Eagle River; Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries; podiatrist Matt Heilala of Anchorage; former teacher James William Parkin IV of Angoon; and business owner Bernadette Wilson of Anchorage.

No independents have filed for the office, and Begich is the only Democrat who has filed.

While Taylor has not formally stated that he will run for governor, he has participated in a significant number of non-state events that appear to foreshadow a campaign.

Next Thursday, he was scheduled to join other Republican attorneys general in Anchorage at an event hosted by the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club. It wasn’t immediately clear whether that event would still take place.

In a written statement, Dunleavy thanked Taylor for his service and noted that he will end his career as the third-longest-serving attorney general in state history. In the same statement, Taylor thanked the employees of the Department of Law.

During four and a half years as attorney general, Taylor has tended to favor Christian conservative and Republican causes, aligning the state legally with other Republican attorneys general.

In 2022, Taylor helped fundraising efforts for a Republican group that ran ads opposing more moderate members of the state House and Senate in that year’s elections. Taylor’s family has backed efforts that would allow state homeschool funding to be used for tuition at private and religious schools.

Earlier this year, Taylor’s travel itinerary drew scrutiny after it was revealed that a corporate-funded group had paid at least $20,000 for a trip to France for Taylor and his wife.

Taylor’s time in office has corresponded with a drop in violent and sexual crime within the state. Alaska ranks among the worst states in the nation for both categories of crimes.

Dunleavy is expected to appoint an acting attorney general on or before Aug. 29.

Former state senator Tom Begich is running for governor.

Begich, an Anchorage Democrat, is the first Democrat in a field already crowded with Republicans.

The main reason he’s running, he said, is to reverse what he sees as state stagnation. He emphasized the need to boost education funding and wants to raise state revenues — from corporate taxes, trimming oil tax credits and the like. He says $500 million in new state revenue is within easy reach.

“That’s just about agreeing that these things make sense. None of those things cost an individual Alaskan anything,” he said. “What it requires is members of the Legislature and the governor to agree, and I’m not seeing that happen right now.”

Bills to change how the state taxes corporations and grants petroleum tax credits are pending in the Legislature but face an uncertain fate.

The last Democrat to win a statewide race in Alaska was Mary Peltola. She was elected to the U.S. House in 2022, lost in 2024 and hasn’t announced whether she’s running for any office in 2026. If she decides to run for governor, said he would drop out.

“I’ve always told her, and I would say this to you: if she were to get in this race, I wouldn’t need to be in this race. She would be in the race,” he said. “But I am in the race, and that is the difference.”

So far, Begich has only filed a letter of intent to run, but if he wins, he’d be the fourth in his family to hold statewide office. His father, Nick, and brother Mark served in Congress as Democrats. Tom is the uncle of Alaska Congressman Nick Begich III, a Republican.

Former Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum is throwing his hat in the ring for the 2026 Alaska governor’s race as a Republican. Crum filed paperwork on Monday allowing him to begin raising money for the campaign.

He’s running to replace his former boss, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is term-limited. Dunleavy first appointed Crum to lead the Department of Health and Social Services when he took office in 2018. He tapped Crum to lead the Department of Revenue in 2022.

In a brief interview, Crum said his experience in senior government roles, as well as in the private sector, gives him an edge in a crowded field.

“I understand the function of government, the function of the Legislature, the important things to the private sector, so I’ll have a functioning government up and running faster than anybody else,” Crum said.

Crum describes himself as a “conservative Christian” but said he’s willing to work across party lines. He said he’d like the state to diversify its economy and that his work as revenue commissioner would help him attract businesses to the state.

“One of the benefits of this role at Revenue is meeting with outside investors and actually talking to them about what are the issues they see, about why they don’t invest in Alaska, and what could be done to improve that,” Crum said.

Echoing Dunleavy, Crum also said he would like to reform the state’s public school system, which has languished near the bottom of national rankings. He said he hopes to work collaboratively with the Legislature on ways to improve education in the state.

“I think it’s very clear that there does need to be a level of investment, but there also has to be some change in policies,” he said.

Crum said he also wanted to work toward a new Permanent Fund dividend formula that’s predictable for residents and affordable for a state struggling with declining resource revenue.

“The reality is right now is there is not enough funds available to pay statutory dividends across the board, and I think we need an honest conversation about what is the dividend going forward, what level is appropriate and what is consistent,” he said.

The Department of Revenue faced criticism from legislative leaders earlier this year as lawmakers struggled to obtain data on oil and gas taxes in a format they could understand. The dispute led lawmakers to pass a bill bolstering the legislative auditor’s authority and override a veto from Dunleavy. Crum says on his last day in office on Friday, he directed department officials to cooperate with legislators’ requests.

“It’s going to be very costly in order to put it in this particular format, but they’re going to do that, and then everybody will see that there is no information that is being lost,” he said.

Crum is the eighth Republican to announce their campaign for governor. No Democrats or independents have formally joined the race. The filing deadline isn’t until next June.

Dunleavy announced Friday that Janelle Earls would take over as acting revenue commissioner. She had been the department’s administrative services director.

The Juneau Assembly decided on Monday to delay voting on whether to adopt a ranked choice voting system for municipal elections beginning in 2026. 

Instead of voting on the ordinance at the Assembly’s next regular meeting later this month, members decided to push back the vote until November — after this fall’s Oct. 7 municipal election. They’ll still hold public testimony on the topic on Aug. 18.

Ranked choice allows voters to rank candidates by preference, instead of just choosing one. Alaska has used it for statewide elections since 2022, though there have been attempts to repeal it. 

Assembly member Ella Adkison proposed the local ordinance earlier this summer and advocated for its adoption at the meeting. She said the system aligns with Juneau’s values and it will encourage more people to run for local office.

“It really is good for races where there are lots of candidates in one seat,” she said, “I think Juneau, in general, likes having lots of candidates in races, because it means that the person that they feel represents them the most is the person who actually gets onto the Assembly.”

The topic received some pushback from residents at a meeting last week, as well as some support. A few testifiers questioned the need for the change, and argued that the decision on whether to adopt it should be up to voters — not the Assembly. 

It’s already too late for the system to be implemented for this October’s municipal election, but Assembly members worried that adopting it now might confuse voters anyway. Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs said she supports ranked choice voting, but wants to wait until there’s less going on. 

“My spidey senses feel like there is just a lot in motion, and there’s a lot on the ballot, and this just feels like too much change and is going to get lost in the noise — I wouldn’t want that,” she said. 

If the system is approved, Juneau would become the first major city in Alaska to adopt ranked choice voting for municipal elections.