Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a former state representative from the small island community of Sitka, won Alaska’s gubernatorial race, according to a calling the race by The Associated Press.
At 37, he will be the youngest governor in state history.
Kreiss-Tomkins will replace outgoing Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a term-limited Republican who has served as governor since 2018. The state’s last Democratic governor was Tony Knowles, who left office in 2002.
Kreiss-Tomkins, known by his initials JKT, has made his “energetic, bipartisan, problem-solving approach” a centerpiece of his campaign.
He has said he plans to build an administration made up of Democrats, Republicans and independents and described himself during a debate as a “man in the middle.” He was supported by three former governors – a Democrat, a Republican and an independent – as well as Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski.
“Alaskans want change,” Kreiss-Tomkins said in an interview Friday. “They want (a) bipartisan approach to problem-solving from their elected officials, and that’s what they’ll get with me as governor.”
Kreiss-Tomkins is on track to win more than 50% of the first-choice votes, meaning the race would not be determined by the ranking of choices. Results remain unofficial until certified; election officials plan to do so on November 25.
The call for the PA race came after 10 days of counting votes, including those arriving by mail and from remote parts of the state. In the ranked-choice system used by the state, he faced three Republican candidates, including business owner Bernadette Wilson, who was endorsed by President Trump.
Wilson acknowledged his loss in a phone interview with the Alaska Beacon Friday morning. She told the Beacon that despite deep disagreements over the best path forward for the state, she was glad someone born in the state was elected to lead it. Neither Wilson nor his campaign have responded to calls, texts or emails from Alaska Public Media since Election Day.
Another Republican running, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, praised Kreiss-Tomkins on social networks Friday.
“The Alaskans have made their choice and I respect their decision,” he said.
With the victory of Kreiss-Tomkins and others in the midterms, Democrats will hold 30 governorships across the country, up from 24 currently.
Kreiss-Tomkins will take office in a state where voters are loudly complaining that things aren’t working the way they should.
Rising costs and relatively stable state funding have forced schools to close and increase class sizes. The already high costs of food, fuel and housing have risen sharply, and the looming shortage of easily available natural gas near the state’s population centers threatens to drive up prices. And Alaskans have been migrating out of state for more than a decade.
Plans to focus on ‘making government work’
Kreiss-Tomkins has provided insight into what her administration will bring in her interviews and speeches since Election Day.
Speaking to the Resource Development Council in Anchorage on Wednesday, Kreiss-Tomkins said his first priority was to address the core issues — what he called “unsexy, unglamorous” issues like wait times for state permits and government benefits like Medicaid. He said he hopes to “cultivate a culture of constant improvement in state government.”
“I really want to focus on making government work… making sure that the core processes and services that government is responsible for, that industry and others rely on, are working in the best possible way,” he said.
Kreiss-Tomkins has not yet announced possible appointments to his administration, but hinted Wednesday that he may retain some commissioners from the Dunleavy administration. In an interview Friday, he declined to give details and said he planned to begin naming people next week.
“Our campaign was probably pretty clear on the areas where we felt Alaska needed to go in a different direction than the Dunleavy administration did, and I think in those areas, as a result, you know, we’ll have new leadership,” he said.
The next governor is expected to take office amid a war-driven surge in oil prices that could leave the state budget with a surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars. An updated revenue forecast is expected to be released next month.
Despite this, Kreiss-Tomkins said he hoped to propose a “moderate” dividend to the Permanent Fund and demonstrate what he described as “responsibility and restraint.”
Alaska’s dependence on oil revenue lends itself to a feast-or-famine dynamic, he said.
“I know what the famine cycle looks like because that basically describes the 10 years I was in the Legislature,” he said. “But I’ve seen the history of what the holiday cycle looks like, and I really don’t want the pendulum to swing too far the other way.”
Along the same lines, Kreiss-Tomkins said he plans to propose an amendment to the state Constitution to place stricter limits on the amount the state can withdraw from the Permanent Fund each year. And he said he wants to deposit some of the coming year’s potential surplus into the state’s emergency fund.
But as Kreiss-Tomkins has said repeatedly on the campaign trail, there is one area he would like to see more spending on: education.
“I think the state needs to make a change in direction in terms of the degree of investment in public education,” he said.
Democrats won big nationally on Election Day. Kreiss-Tomkins is expected to take office with a friendly legislature whose two chambers are controlled by Democratic-heavy coalitions.
Despite this, Kreiss-Tomkins said he still plans to look for ways to work with Alaskans across the ideological spectrum.
“If we go from one extreme to the other, I think if you zoom out and look at the big picture, you’re going to get a lot less and sometimes you’re going to go backwards,” he said.
Kreiss-Tomkins will be sworn in on December 7 at noon.
“We can’t wait to get to work,” he said.
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