Gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins hoists a campaign sign on the morning of Aug. 18, 2026, Alaska’s primary election day. Kreiss-Tomkins and his supporters spent part of the morning at the intersection of Northern Lights Boulevard and Minnesota Drive in West Anchorage. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Democratic governor candidates Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich, and Republican candidates Bernadette Wilson and Dave Bronson led in early vote counting for Alaska’s Tuesday primary election for governor.
Seventeen people, including two Democrats, 12 Republicans and three independents, are seeking to replace Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is term-limited and unable to run again this year.
As of 2 a.m. Wednesday, with 378 of 402 precincts reporting results from election day, Kreiss-Tomkins had 21.7% of the vote, Begich had 20.1%, Wilson had 10.5% and Bronson had 8.4%.
The first candidate outside the top four was Republican Treg Taylor, with 7.5%, followed by Republican Click Bishop, with 7.1%.
Ballot-counting is expected to continue through Aug. 28, the deadline for mailed absentee ballots to reach the Alaska Division of Elections.
Candidates who finish in the top four have until Aug. 31 to decide whether they will remain in the race or withdraw. In 2022 and 2024, several high-finishing candidates have withdrawn from statewide races in order to consolidate party support, and the leading governor candidates have said that they are considering their options.
Kreiss-Tomkins, 37, would be the youngest governor in Alaska history if elected in November and has campaigned as a progressive Democrat.
“Today, Alaskans took the first huge step in choosing a new direction for our state,” he said in a written statement Tuesday night.
Begich, a former state senator, has likewise run as a progressive Democrat. He is the son of former Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, brother of former Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich and the uncle of current Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III.
Wilson, a businesswoman from Anchorage, has been active in statewide Republican politics for decades but never before as a candidate. An opponent of the state’s existing open-primary/ranked-choice general election system, she has offered a platform similar to that of incumbent Gov. Dunleavy.
Bronson is a former mayor of Anchorage whose sole term was marred by repeated controversies and scandals before he was voted out of office. He has likewise offered a platform similar to Dunleavy.
While the two Democratic candidates are almost certain to finish with the highest vote tally in the primary, success in the primary doesn’t always signify a win in November.
Two years ago, incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola earned almost 51% of the vote during that year’s pick-one primary for U.S. House, outpacing all Republican candidates combined. In the general election, the result flipped and Republican challenger Nick Begich III defeated Peltola.
On Tuesday, the combined vote total of Begich and Kreiss-Tomkins appeared on track to be less than 50% of all votes cast.
Voter turnout appeared to be high; with only 60% of precincts reporting results, participation was already above the 2024 primary and inching toward the near-record turnout of 2022, when the primary coincided with a special election to fill out the term of U.S. Rep. Don Young, who had died in the spring.
As of Tuesday morning, voters had returned only 47% of the 21,266 absentee ballots that were sent out, indicating that thousands more ballots are likely to be added to the tally in coming days.
In the 2024 primary, 86% of absentee ballots were returned, and in the 2022 primary, almost 98% were returned.
Ahead of the election, President Donald Trump had sought to ban states from counting absentee ballots received after election day.
In addition to the absentee ballots, there were 25,407 early votes, cast in person at 10 locations on the Railbelt, in Juneau and in Nome, between Aug. 3 and Aug. 17.
Only early votes cast through Aug. 13 were included in the election day count; ballots cast during the final five days of early voting are sequestered by the division to prevent double voting.
While the number of Alaskans casting ballots at early voting centers set a primary-election record, most votes this year came on election day, at more than 400 polling places spread across the state.
Voters line up on Aug. 17, 2026, at the early voting station set up in Anchorage’s Midtown Mall. Voters reported waiting about an hour to cast their primary election ballots. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Over a month ago, Shelley Cotton cast the first vote in Alaska’s statewide primary election, downloading a blank ballot and sending it quickly by mail from Texas to Alaska.
Since then, more than 31,000 other Alaskans have cast their ballots, and starting at 7 a.m. today, tens of thousands more residents will vote in an election that will start to decide who Alaska’s next governor will be.
What’s on the ballot?
Seventeen people are vying to replace Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is term-limited and unable to run this year. In that race and all others on the ballot, voters will pick one candidate. The top four vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to November.
There are 15 candidates for U.S. House, including Republican incumbent Nick Begich III, independent challenger Bill Hill, and Democratic challenger Matt Schultz, who suspended his campaign last month and decided to back Hill.2026 Voter Guide
The candidates, the ballot measures, and the tools you need to cast your vote.
As in the governor’s race, voters pick one candidate for each of those races, and the top four candidates advance to November.
There are 40 state House races and 10 state Senate races; each part of the state has one House race, and only half of the state has a state Senate race.
If there are four or fewer candidates for one or both of the legislative races, all candidates advance to November. Only five of the 50 legislative races have more than four candidates.
On the back of the ballot, there’s also an up or down vote on Ballot Measure 1, which would reimpose limits on how much money that people can donate to political candidates.
Ballot Measure 2, which has been the subject of extensive advertising, isn’t until November.
Where do I vote and what do I need to vote?
You can find your polling place by entering your information here. Bring a governmental ID; it doesn’t have to have your photo. If you don’t have an ID, bring a piece of mail with your name and address.
If you can’t make it to your polling place on election day, you can go to another polling place and vote there, but you’ll be asked to provide additional identity information because that polling place won’t have a way to immediately check that you’re registered to vote.
What do I do if I want to vote by mail?
It’s too late to request a blank ballot. If you already have your blank ballot and need to return it, DO NOT just drop it into a mailbox. Your ballot must be postmarked by election day, and in Alaska, it may take a day or more for a ballot to be postmarked after it is mailed. Instead, go into a post office with your sealed ballot and ask the postal clerk to postmark it by hand.
If you’re near a polling place, you can also drop your sealed ballot in the box there.
How many people have already voted?
As of noon Monday, according to statistics published by the Division of Elections, almost 22,000 Alaskans had already voted early, in person at 10 polling stations in the Railbelt, Juneau and Nome. Another 9,000 voters had cast absentee ballots.
That’s less than 5% of all eligible voters.
In early voting, a voter’s ID is checked when they cast their ballot, guaranteeing that the vote is counted. In absentee voting, the voter’s ID is checked later, and their ballot could be disqualified if elections officials aren’t able to verify that it was cast by an eligible voter.
In 2020, 2022 and 2024, absentee ballots leaned Democratic, with election day results favoring Republicans and then leaning away from Republican candidates as additional votes were counted.
This year, through Sunday, the division had received absentee ballots from 2,702 registered Republicans, 1,996 registered Democrats, and 4,467 undeclared and nonpartisan voters.
Importantly, of the 22,838 blank absentee ballots requested by Alaska voters, only 9,232 had been returned by Sunday, indicating many more filled-out ballots could still be in the mail.
When do we know the results?
The Division of Elections has said the first partial, preliminary results will be available on its website about 9 p.m. Tuesday night. As more votes are counted, those results will be updated until early Wednesday morning, when elections officials take a break and go to sleep.
More counting may be needed on Wednesday or later this week to complete the election day tally.
Mailed ballots will be counted through Aug. 28, with results updated regularly through then.
Governor and lieutenant governor run on a single ticket, and a governor can change out his or her lieutenant governor candidate until then as well.
Entering election day, six big questions remain unknowns.
Who will be the finalists in the governor’s race?
Pre-election polling indicated Democratic candidate Tom Begich was likely to finish first among the 17 candidates for governor. Because there are only two Democratic candidates, fellow Democratic candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins also appeared likely to finish in the top four.
What was less clear was which of the 12 Republican candidates would finish in the top four, and whether independent former Gov. Bill Walker would also make the cutoff.
Will there be voting problems in rural Alaska?
In previous years, the Division of Elections has struggled to find election workers in rural towns and villages across Alaska. On Monday, observers tracking the division said the polling station in the North Slope community of Point Lay would open late because workers would not arrive until the morning flight.
In addition, prior elections saw elections officials reject an unusually large number of absentee ballots cast in rural Alaska. It isn’t yet clear whether that trend will continue this year.
On Saturday, the early voting station in Nome failed to open on time, an issue that helped prompt the Alaska Federation of Natives — in conjunction with other groups — to issue a statement saying they were deeply concerned by potential staffing issues and any effects on rural voters.
How enthusiastic are Democratic voters this year?
In other states that have already held their primary elections, Democratic voters turned out in large numbers, motivated by the desire to vote for candidates who oppose Republican President Donald Trump.
If the number of votes cast for statewide Democratic candidates exceeds or approaches the number of votes cast for statewide Republican candidates, that could indicate strong Democratic enthusiasm in Alaska as well, something that could affect the November result.
Two years ago, Democratic candidates posted unusually strong results in the August primary — but Alaska still voted for Trump by six percentage points and elected Republicans to statewide office.
Will any incumbents be voted out early in the Alaska Legislature?
Of the 50 state House and Senate races on the ballot Tuesday, there are only five with more than four candidates. Three of those races — two in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and one in Eagle River — have incumbents.
Incumbent lawmakers traditionally have an advantage in crowded primary elections because of name recognition and popularity, but it’s possible that one or more could lose.
Rep. Garret Nelson, R-Sutton, was appointed to his office by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and is running for election for the first time against five challengers. Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, is facing four challengers, as is Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake.
In Bristol Bay, Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, is competing with four other candidates to replace Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, who is retiring as the longest-serving state legislator in Alaska history.
Seven people are competing to replace Edgmon in the state’s most crowded legislative race.
Will donation limits return to Alaska’s state political campaigns?
In 2006, 73% of participating voters approved a ballot measure that limited the amount of money that a political candidate can receive from a person or group.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned those limits in 2021, and the Dunleavy administration declined to fight the issue further.
Now, voters will be asked to reimpose some limits. The new measure isn’t as comprehensive as the last measure, in part because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that states cannot limit third-party spending by groups acting independently of campaigns.
Those groups have flooded Alaskans’ mailboxes with mailers ahead of the primary, but stanching the flow could require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution or a new ruling by the Supreme Court.
The Alaska State Capitol in Juneau is seen on Apr. 24, 2026. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
There are five competitive races for the Alaska House and Senate in this year’s primary election, where candidates are vying for the top four places in order to advance to the ranked choice general election in November.
Early voting has begun across Alaska, and ends on Tuesday with polls closing at 8 p.m. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday, Aug. 18.
All 40 members of the Alaska House are up for election; 10 of the 20 Senate seats are up for election.2026 Voter Guide
The candidates, the ballot measures, and the tools you need to cast your vote.
In those races with four or fewer candidates, all are expected to advance to the general election unless they decide to drop out by an Aug. 31 deadline.
Those competitive primary races include one of the largest Senate districts that extends from Western Alaska to the Aleutian Islands, as well as House districts in Southwest Alaska, Eagle River and in the eastern and western districts of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
In the Western Alaska Senate District S, longtime incumbent Bethel Democrat Sen. Lyman Hoffman is retiring. The district extends from Western Alaska to Lake Clark and south across the Aleutian Islands, and the Senate seat represents approximately 36,800 Alaskans.
The candidates are current House Speaker Independent Rep. Bryce Edgmon of Dillingham, Republican Darren Deacon of Aniak, Democrat Wassilie Guy of Napaskiak and Independents Wayne Morgan of Aniak and Rick Robb of Bethel.
The winner of the Senate race in November will serve a four-year term.
Alaska House seats represent approximately 18,335 Alaskans each, and representatives serve two-year terms.
Edgmon is vacating a seat representing House District 37, which includes Southwest Alaska communities from Bristol Bay to the Aleutian Islands.
Seven candidates are running for the top four spots this race: Independents Peter Angasan of King Salmon, Kimberly Johnson of Dillingham, Mark Smith of Aleknagik and Cade Woods of Dillingham; Democrats Dennis Robinson of Unalaska and Evelynn Trefon of Newhalen; and Republican Brenda Wilson of King Cove.
Five candidates are running for House District 23, which encompasses Eagle River, a northern suburb of Anchorage near the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Incumbent Republican Rep. Jamie Allard is running for re-election, challenged by Republicans Nick Capozzi and Ruby Jones, and Democrats Jim Arlington and Lee Hammermeister.
In the eastern district of the Manatuska-Susitna Borough, House District 29 covers communities in the Palmer-Fishook area eastward to Valdez. Incumbent Republican Rep. Garret Nelson is running for the seat for the first time. He was appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to the seat last year, after former Rep. George Rauscher, R-Sutton, was appointed to the Alaska Senate to fill a seat vacated by Shelley Hughes who is running for governor.
Challenging Nelson are Independents Amber Hansen of Wasilla and Jessica Kusner-Kalarchik of Palmer, Republican Steve Menard of Palmer, Democrat Kimberly Slone of Wasilla and Libertarian Candice Frisby of Palmer.
In House District 30, in the western region of the Mat-Su Borough from Big Lake to Talkeetna, four candidates are challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe. He was first elected to the seat in 2020. McCabe will face Democrat Sandra Loomis of Talkeetna and Republicans Mike Alexander of Big Lake, Doyle Holmes of Willow and Doug Massie of Wasilla.
In the House, 36 races are expected to be competitive in the general election. Four incumbents are running unopposed: Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, in District 4; Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage in District 10, Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage in District 19; Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage in District 10, and Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks in District 32.
In the Senate, seven races are expected to be competitive in the general election. Three Senate incumbents are running unopposed, including Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman, and Anchorage Democrats Bill Wielochowski, and Löki Tobin.
From left to right, Click Bishop, Dave Bronson and Adam Crum, three of the 10 candidates at the Capital City Republican governor candidate forum, are seen on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, at the Baranof Hotel in Juneau. (James Brooks photo/Alaska Beacon)
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
From left to right, Click Bishop, Dave Bronson and Adam Crum, three of the 10 candidates at the Capital City Republican governor candidate forum, are seen on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, at the Baranof Hotel in Juneau. (James Brooks photo/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska’s two leading Democratic candidates for governor have quietly been discussing whether one of them should quit the race if both are among the top four vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary election.
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich each said by phone on Thursday that they’ve been discussing different scenarios about what could happen when the final votes are counted.
Republicans have been talking about similar maneuvers for months, with one prominent Republican group going so far as to run ads urging lower-finishing candidates to withdraw in order to consolidate the vote in November.
“Both sides are trying to figure out: What does the top four look like? And how are we best positioned for success?” said Bernadette Wilson, one of the leading Republican candidates for governor in Alaska’s 17-person race.
Under Alaska’s election system, the top four vote-getters — regardless of political party — advance to the November general election. That may mean multiple Republicans or Democrats on the same ballot, competing for the same votes.
In November, voters in the general election will be asked to rank those four candidates in order of preference.
After all the votes are in, the candidate with the fewest number of first-choice preferences is eliminated. Any voters who ranked that candidate first will have their votes go to their second choice.
The process repeats until only two candidates are left.
In theory, that means no vote splitting. Anyone whose favorite candidate is eliminated can instead vote for someone else.
In practice, some Alaska voters ranked only one or two candidates in the 2022 and 2024 statewide elections, leading to an unusual number of “exhausted” ballots whose votes went to neither of the final two candidates.
That November, Hafner was eliminated first, and fewer than half his votes transferred to the other Democrat, then-incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola.
That was less than Peltola’s margin of defeat — Peltola was defeated by current Rep. Nick Begich III, R-Alaska — but in a closer race, it could have been decisive.
Now, as Peltola runs for U.S. Senate against incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, a similar strategy is playing out.
National groups have spent more than $2 million in an attempt to boost lesser-known candidates into the final four and potentially split the field.
Dan J. Sullivan, unrelated to the incumbent senator, is on the ballot but told the Chicago Tribune that he’s uncertain whether he will remain in the race if he makes the top four.
In the 17-person race to replace Gov. Mike Dunleavy — who is term-limited and unable to run this year — candidates have been talking for over a year about whether or not they will be willing to bow out after the primary.
Wilson entered the race in May 2025 and promptly pledged to withdraw after the primary if she finished behind another Republican. It’s a pledge she’s renewed since then.
“I don’t think that it’s smart to carry on. … I don’t think that we need any more division as we head into November. I don’t think that it’s smart to split up the voting base, the volunteers that help, I don’t think it’s smart to split up the finances,” she said.
Wilson also said that having multiple candidates from the same party risks denying the eventual winner a mandate — a margin of victory so large that it gives the winner political backing to implement their platform.
“I think it’s important that a governor win by a strong strongest margin as possible, because I think that it’s important for the stability and the unity of the state past November,” she said.
Wilson has also been campaigning hard to repeal Alaska’s current elections system with Ballot Measure 2, which will come in front of voters in November.
Post-primary juggling is evidence that ranked choice voting doesn’t work, she said.
“I think it’s just made it worse,” Wilson said. “I think it’s handed more power to backroom conversations, and I just don’t think the public’s gonna like it.”
Jenny-Marie Stryker, executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, was traveling on Friday and unavailable for an interview, a spokesman said. Carmela Warfield, chair of the Alaska Republican Party, did not respond to an email.
The Valley Republican Women, an influential group based in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, has an ongoing ad campaign that urges Republicans to “vote the primary, consolidate the vote” and “don’t split the field.”
Julia Anastos, campaign manager for the group opposing Ballot Measure 2, said by email that gamesmanship isn’t new in Alaska.
“Parties and political insiders will always strategize about who should run and who should drop out. These kinds of maneuvers happen under a partisan primary as well, like in the 2014 and 2018 gubernatorial races, when would-be spoiler candidates dropped out to clear the lane for a stronger candidate,” she said. “Under our system now, ranked choice voting addresses that spoiler effect and ensures the winning candidate has earned majority support.”
The issue of what to do after the primary was a key issue at a forum earlier this month in Soldotna, when five candidates were directly asked about the issue.
“I would stay in,” nonpartisan candidate Meda DeWitt told forum attendees.
As a nonpartisan, she sees herself able to attract second-choice votes from both Republicans and Democrats.
“I actually appreciate ranked choice voting because your vote is not lost if your top pick doesn’t get in,” she said.
Adam Crum, a Republican candidate and former Dunleavy cabinet official, said he thinks there’s an advantage to having multiple Republicans in the general election.
“It actually does make more sense for more conservatives to stay in it, because you actually work together,” he said.
In the 2022 special election to replace Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, Republican candidates Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III frequently fought each other on the campaign trail. That turned off Republican voters, Crum noted.
During the current primary election campaign, he said, “We have actually done a very good job … of actually working together and pushing forward ideas.”
A cordial campaign keeps voters involved and going to the polls, he said.
“You actually increase the ceiling, and the math actually works out. I’m a numbers guy. Over time, it does work,” Crum said.
Matt Heilala, a podiatrist and Republican who has put more than $1.5 million of his own money into a campaign for governor, said that last year, “I had the thought that I would immediately withdraw because we saw what happened with Sarah and Nick.”
Now, he’s not as sure. What if there’s “an indictment, an October surprise, some kind of a shenanigan that the opposing party is going to play on the person that is 10 votes ahead of me, and they’re just waiting for me to leave?” he asked.
In that case, having another Republican would be helpful, he suggested.
Dave Bronson, the former Anchorage mayor and Republican candidate for governor, said he intends to reserve his options until he sees what happens in the primary.
“The notion that I would stand up and say at this point in time I’ll absolutely get out if I’m No. 2 on the Republican side — that’s foolishness,” he said.
Glenfarne CEO Brendan Duval speaks on May 21, 2026, at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage, while Gov. Mike Dunleavy listens. Glenfarne is the company now proposing to build a liquefied natural gas project to commercialize North Slope’s stranded reserves. Dunleavy on Wednesday introduced a new bill proposing tax concessions to encourage construction of the LNG project. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday introduced a new natural gas pipeline bill that he characterized as a compromise between conflicting philosophies on oil and gas taxes that he wants lawmakers to pass during the ongoing special session.
The new bill would nearly eliminate property taxes that would be charged on the operator of a yet-to-be-built gas pipeline. Dunleavy and Glenfarne, the Texas-based investment company that is now the main sponsor of the gas pipeline project, have argued in recent months that such concessions are a major requirement for the project to be built.
The special session is due to end in less than two weeks. Lawmakers are still evaluating the proposal, but on Monday members of the Senate’s bipartisan majority expressed reticence to make quick decisions on a gasline bill.
Dunleavy’s new bill contains a concession to a tax previously sought by the Senate majority. It would also impose a small corporate income tax on certain private oil- and gas-producing corporations. Those companies, also known as S corporations or pass-through corporations, are currently exempted from such taxes in Alaska law. For now, the main corporation that would be affected is Hilcorp, a privately held Texas-based company that operated the Prudhoe Bay field and other North Slope assets that used to be owned by BP. Several legislators view Hilcorp’s exemption from corporate income taxes as a loophole that should be closed.
The governor said legislators should pass his bill in what is now the third special session he has called on the subject.
“I have never been in favor of new taxes on Alaska’s producers, and I still am not,” Dunleavy said in a statement. “This bill is a compromise that removes a significant barrier to moving the gas line forward. Given the robust discussion and work that has already gone into this bill, I am hopeful the legislature can swiftly pass a bill that will help the AK LNG project get the financing it needs to start construction as soon as possible.”
The 2% tax rate Dunleavy proposed on petroleum-producing S corporations is significantly lower than the lower than tax rates legislative leaders have previously proposed, which went up as high as 9.4%.
Doug Fletcher, a Glenfarne employee, prepares to close down the company’s “Build The Line” booth at the Fairbanks Golden Days street fair on June 25, 2026. The campaign aims to convince state lawmakers to pass tax concessions that Glenfarne argues are needed to make the LNG project a reality. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Officials and energy companies in Alaska and elsewhere have been pushing since the 1970s — even before oil began flowing through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System — for a second pipeline to deliver the North Slope’s vast but stranded natural gas resources to markets. None of the plans has been economically feasible, even though politicians at various points over the past decades declared that construction was imminent.
The current iteration of the gas commercialization plan calls for a pipeline to run about 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to tidewater at Cook Inlet, where the product would be liquefied for shipment by tanker to markets. The estimated price tag is $65 billion to $70 billion, according to legislators.
A bill considered during an earlier special session, House Bill 381, proposed to grant the property tax concession, but it also included several conditions for any LNG sponsor to meet, such as timeline assurances, labor protections, alternative sources of state revenue and required financial support of local school districts.
The bill also included a bracketed income tax with rates up to 9.4% on petroleum-producing S corporations such as Hilcorp — significantly higher than the 2% that Dunleavy is now proposing.
One lawmaker on Wednesday said Dunleavy’s new bill, just like any oil tax legislation, should not be rushed.
“It would be wildly irresponsible to pass complex oil and gas legislation without due diligence to understand the consequences,” said Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage.
Leaders of the state Senate majority caucus, in a statement on Monday, expressed skepticism about the need for any further concessions to help Glenfarne’s plan.
“For more than fifty years, Alaskans have worked to bring our gas to market, and every member who has served in this building shares that goal. The Senate has done its part in good faith, passing two bills that would let this project move forward while protecting the people we answer to,” Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said in the statement. “A decision of this scale will outlast all of us, and it deserves to be made with care rather than in haste. We are ready to evaluate the project further once the producer, Glenfarne, and the Administration bring us the numbers this year. These are Alaska’s resources, and they must work first and foremost for Alaskans.”
The special session is scheduled to end on Aug. 25.
A road sign marks the road towards the Lower Kuskokwim School District offices and the Bethel High School on October 9, 2023. The district is a recipient of Alaska Native Education Program grant funding. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
The U.S. Department of Education is expected to award $41.3 million in grant funding through the Alaska Native Education Program to 26 Alaska grantees after some delay, according to an announcement from Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
The grant funding was expected on July 1, but has been delayed more than a month. Grantees alerted Murkowski’s office they had not yet received the funding, prompting Murkowski to press the U.S. Sec. of Education Linda McMahon to release the awarded funding, according to the statement on Aug. 5.
“Last week, I raised this issue with Secretary McMahon, and I’m pleased she agreed to expedite the obligation of the funds for the Alaska Native Education Program grants that Congress appropriated earlier this year,” Sen. Murkowski wrote.
The Alaska Native Education Program provides federal funding to “meet the unique education needs of Alaska Natives” and to support education programs to benefit Alaska Native people, according to the program website.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Education’s grant office for the program did not give a reason for the delay or specify when the funds will be dispensed after a query on Friday.
The grants are awarded to Tribes, tribal organizations and school districts with a majority of Alaska Native students to support a variety of initiatives across a three-year grant period.
“Grants provide, for example, culturally relevant curriculum, tutoring and other academic supports, indigenous language revitalization, workforce development opportunities, teacher professional development, postsecondary planning and support, and success, early childhood education, and afterschool programming,” Murkowski said in the statement.
“I will continue to champion this program and work with the Department to ensure this funding is administered more expeditiously going forward,” she said.
Grantees include several early learning and literacy programs. Millions are slated for Indigenous language, art, science, and medicine including $2.1 million for the Baby Raven Reads project by Sealaska Heritage Institute and $1.4 million for tutoring and college readiness programs through the Rural Indigenous Students College Readiness Alliance launched by the Bering Strait and Lower Kuskokwim School Districts, two of Alaska’s largest, rural districts.
Rosita Kaaháni Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Native non-profit corporation focused on Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, said her organization was one of the grantees that alerted Murkwoski’s office to the delay. Sealaska has not received its grant funds yet.
The Sealaska Cultural Values Totem Pole represents all three tribes of Southeast Alaska – Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. (Photo by Lisa Phu/Alaska Beacon)
Worl said in an interview Friday that federal funds and support for Alaska Native communities is critical, given Alaska’s history of suppressing Native education and language.
“So these programs have helped us overcome the effects of that kind of suppression,” she said. “Our data shows definitely that it promotes and enhances Native education, and we show that through all of our evaluations…it’s led to higher academic performance.”
She said SHI has seen success in early childhood programs like Baby Raven Reads project and initiatives to support students continuing education, which reduces drop out rates. “We’re still behind non-natives, but we’re gaining ground,” she said.
Worl said the federal support helps Sealaska Heritage Institute provide annual funding for education across Southeast Alaska where state funding has fallen short. SHI provides $1 million each year to the Juneau School District and $2 million annually to the University of Alaska Southeast, as well as funding to support school districts across the region for teacher training, arts and language programs.
“It’s a program that has proven benefits,” she said. “There, there’s no doubt about it.”
The UnCruise ship Wilderness Legacy is seen in an undated file photo provided by UnCruise. (Handout photo)
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
Editor’s note: This article, initially published Friday, was updated Sunday morning with a statement from Zuckerberg.
A small cruise ship operating in Southeast Alaska made an unexpected detour on Monday night to help a 21-foot skiff that ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau.
Michael Love, a software developer from New York City, was a passenger aboard the cruise ship and described the event on social media.
What got his attention the most wasn’t the rescue itself — it was when the captain announced that the yacht of billionaire Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg was closer and hadn’t answered the radio call for help.
“There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this,” he said in a post on the social media network Bluesky.
Vessel tracking services in the area back up that account — they show the $300 million, 387-foot yacht Launchpad slowing to a halt outside Farragut Bay as the UnCruise Adventures ship Wilderness Legacy steams around and past the Launchpad, stops at the apparent site of the skiff, then tows it into sheltered Farragut Bay.
Through a Bluesky message, Love said it was nice to be on a boat that was engaging with its surroundings in a positive way.
“Frankly, if I was Mark Zuckerberg I would be absolutely ecstatic at a chance to do something helpful for someone in need and maybe get some good PR out of it,” he said.
Social media accounts responding to Love’s account accused the yacht’s crew of violating international agreements that mandate aid from the nearest ship to one in distress.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Marine Exchange of Alaska, which monitors ship traffic in Alaska, there was no distress call — just a general request for assistance.
Coast Guard Public Affairs Specialist Shannon Shepard said by email that the Coast Guard heard the call for help just after 9:30 p.m. Monday night.
“At approximately 9:56 p.m., the Coast Guard determined they were not in distress and issued a marine assistance request broadcast on their behalf,” she said.
John Hollingsworth is the chief operations officer of the Marine Exchange, which is based in Juneau and repeated the broadcast.
“We did assist the Coast Guard with callouts on our radio and (were) able to hail the Wilderness Legacy who ended up rendering assistance,” he said.
“From my experience, I know that situations like this contain myriad details for the vessels involved, so the AIS (tracking) snippet you obtained only reveals one of those details,” he said by email. “I do know that Wilderness Legacy is an UnCruise vessel and is very familiar with Alaska waters, so that may have contributed to them rendering assistance quickly.”
No information was available Friday about who may have been aboard the Launchpad on Monday evening. The Launchpad has been in Southeast Alaska for much of the summer.
After the initial publication of this article, a spokesperson for Mark Zuckerberg emailed a statement: “Mark and his family were not on board at the time of the incident. As the Coast Guard noted, the boat was not in distress, and by the time the crew reviewed the Coast Guard contact on a different radio channel from the one they were operating on, the assist was already underway. We’re grateful all parties are safe.”
The Wilderness Legacy’s detour is the second incidence of aid rendered by a small cruise ship in Southeast Alaska within two weeks. On July 30, the National Geographic Quest assisted a family who had to swim to shore in Glacier Bay National Park after a humpback whale sank their sailboat.
Dan Blanchard, who owns UnCruise, said he wasn’t initially aware of the Wilderness Legacy’s detour because “this kind of aid is such a common thing that it does not always rise to my attention.”
Sarah Scoltock, a spokeswoman for UnCruise, said the Wilderness Legacy was able to refuel the skiff after towing it into a sheltered area.
“The next day the (Wilderness Legacy’s) captain, Sean Manske, contacted them and received word they made it safely to Petersburg,” she said by email.
Six candidates for Alaska governor and lieutenant governor participated in a debate on education hosted by the Alaska Superintendents Association in Juneau on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith)
Six candidates for Alaska governor from across the political spectrum appeared side-by-side in a room full of superintendents and school officials in Juneau and promised that boosting education funding would be a priority of their administration, if elected.
Six candidates participated in the debate, out of 17 running for governor this year. Randy Hoffbeck, a candidate for Lieutenant Governor who stood in for his running mate, Bill Walker. They discussed their plans for education in a two-hour event hosted by the Alaska Superintendents’ Association on July 30. 2026 Voter Guide.
The candidates, the ballot measures, and the tools you need to cast your vote.
The gubernatorial candidates included Republican Click Bishop, Democrat Tom Begich, Republican Matt Heilala, Republican Lesil Maguire, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, and Independent Hoffbeck.
The panel was moderated by Randy Trani, superintendent of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, with questions organized by the board of the Alaska Superintendents Association. A group of roughly 50 superintendents and school administrators from across Alaska attended as part of the association’s summer conference event in Juneau.
All six candidates agreed Alaska education has been underfunded by the Dunleavy administration, with several candidates characterizing public education as “in crisis.”
A record 12 schools were closed this year, amid millions in budget shortfalls, and others have cut teachers, programs and extracurricular activities. Districts reported funding has not kept pace with skyrocketing operating costs, amid declining enrollment as families leave the state or move to homeschool programs.
Trani said afterward he found all the candidates “super impressive,” particularly their ideas for funding education.
“They understand that there’s a fiscal reality problem in the state and it has to be addressed,” he said. “They all have different ideas of how they’re going to do it, but at least they’re leading with it as a top priority.”
Superintendents and school officials from across Alaska gathered for a summer conference in Juneau listen to a gubernatorial candidate debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Luke Meinert is superintendent of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, which has closed seven schools in the past five years due to budget shortfalls and declining enrollment. He said he was impressed with the candidates, their willingness to invest in education and their experience working on education issues in Alaska.
“They’ve been in the game,” Meinert said. “I think maybe every one of them went to public schools here in Alaska, and so they had experienced public schools at a time where we were investing a lot in our school districts. And it was great to hear that they want to get back to those times because that can improve our retention and recruitment efforts for teachers, and then obviously student outcomes on the other end of that.”
Hoffbeck, who is running for Lieutenant Governor on Bill Walker’s ticket, did not go to Alaska public schools, but Walker did.
The candidates shared their plans for funding for Alaska districts, tackling billions of dollars in deferred maintenance, boosting recruitment and retention of teachers and staff, and providing them healthcare and retirement, as well as views on local control of school boards, fiscal plans for the state and other issues.
Funding for education
Despite Alaska school districts reporting severe budget shortfalls and cutting teachers and programs, Gov. Mike Dunleavy has opposed sustained increases to per student funding, arguing against more funding without changes to policy. He has particularly sought changes related to charter schools and homeschool programs.
Democrat Tom Begich discusses his education policy platform, with Independent Randy Hoffbeck (left) and Republican Click Bishop (right) at an education debate on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
But all six candidates agreed that schools have not been adequately funded under the Dunleavy administration, and that stable and reliable funding for districts is essential. They all said boosting investment in education is a priority of their campaigns.
Begich, Hoffbeck, Kreiss-Tomkins and McGuire said they support “forward funding” education and providing budgets to districts earlier in the year to provide more stability to districts. The state budget is currently finalized in June.
Begich said he would advocate for an immediate boost to per student funding, known as the base student allocation — the core of the state’s funding formula — to account for rising inflation. He proposed increasing the figure by roughly 15% to $7,680 per child and tie increases with inflation each year. He said he would also support fully funding pre-K to be available in all school districts.
Bishop said he would focus particularly on investing in career and technical education, referring to his experience growing up in a family of operating engineers and working in construction. “I’m going to push that till the day I die,” he said. “Nothing wrong with four-year degrees or higher. Career and tech ed needs to be improved upon in this state, and I’m the person that can do it working with you.”
McGuire and Kreiss-Tomkins said they support reviewing and revising the state’s complex funding formula to ensure districts are adequately funded. Both McGuire and Kreiss-Tomkins as well as Heilala said education has become a politically divisive issue which has obstructed progress. Kreiss-Tomkins called education policy a “Pandora’s box” avoided by lawmakers not wanting to take political risks.
Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a candidate for governor, speaks at a debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Kreiss-Tomkins and Hoffbeck said they support a constitutional amendment to create a special fund for education separate from the state’s budget. “A constitutional amendment’s only way to dedicate funds in Alaska that can effectively politically de-risk education funding going forward, and also largely account for inflation,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.
Hoffbeck agreed there is a lack of trust between districts and the state under Dunleavy, which he said must be repaired. He said he believes adequate funding varies by school district across the state, and he and Walker both support a review of state funding for education by an independent third party to study and assess how much funding is needed by each school.
“Just throwing more money at it doesn’t fix the problem. We need to be surgical on how we add that money,” he said. “Yes, absolutely, we are underfunded. We need more funding, but we need to fund very surgically as we go forward.”
Teacher recruitment and retention
The candidates agreed investing in hiring and retaining teachers is a major priority, but diverged on the question of whether the state should revive a defined benefit retirement plan for educators.
Bishop and Heilala said they would focus education investments on boosting teacher pay. Heilala said funding should be more focused and efficient, and directed to teachers. “I believe teachers need pay raises. I think they probably need 15 to 30% pay raises, and of course, that’ll happen with a booming economy,” he said.
Independent Randy Hoffbeck, candidate for lieutenant governor running with Bill Waker, speaks at a debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Hoffbeck said teacher recruitment and retention should focus on training and hiring local teachers, particularly for rural Alaska. “The local teachers would stay in the rural communities,” he said, referring to his time working in the North Slope Borough. “And so I think we need to have a robust local recruitment process, including certification programs that make it possible for somebody in the village that may not have a four-year degree.”
Bishop, Begich and Kreiss-Tomkins support reviving the defined benefit retirement system for teachers, and said they believe offering that again would boost recruitment.
The state defined benefit retirement system for public employees was ended in 2006, after the system accrued a multi-billion dollar shortfall. Lawmakers passed legislation to revive the program this year, but Dunleavy vetoed it.
Begich said he would also want the state to provide medical benefits in a new defined benefit retirement plan, as well as grants for teacher housing.
Heilala disagreed, and said the defined benefit system is the “biggest mistake.” He said a 401(k) retirement plan has greater certainty to create income.
Republican Lesil McGuire speaks at a gubernatorial candidate debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Hoffbeck said he has concerns about a defined benefit retirement system as some districts would not be able to afford it.
McGuire said she does not support a defined benefit retirement plan, but supports a retirement system that the state can afford. She said she supports a student loan forgiveness program for teaching in Alaska, and low interest loans for housing to boost recruitment and retention.
“I think housing is a huge issue. Let’s make Alaska the place you want to come teach,” she said.
School maintenance backlog
The candidates all agreed that addressing the state’s multi-billion dollar backlog in deferred maintenance in K-12 schools and the University of Alaska system would be a major priority of their administrations, and presented various ideas on how to fund it.
Republican Click Bishop speaks at a gubernatorial candidate debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Bishop said part of his plan for funding education would be to levy an “education head tax,” a flat-rate tax per Alaskan regardless of income to pay for school maintenance. He said he’d introduced similar legislation when he was a member of the Alaska State Senate.
“It’s ludicrous that we have this much of a deferred maintenance schedule,” he said.
Begich said he supports the state paying to help boroughs and districts with school bond reimbursement, which is debt incurred by voter-approved bonds to fund school maintenance. He also supports the state backing a general obligation bond to generate hundreds of millions to address the existing maintenance backlog list.
McGuire, Hoffbeck and Kreiss-Tomkins agreed issuing bonds was a good idea. Hoffbeck and Kreiss-Tomkins also said prioritizing hiring local contractors for construction and maintenance is important.
Kriess-Tomkins noted maintaining schools is an obligation under Alaska’s Constitution. He also cautioned that there will be changes to schools with declining numbers of students as a result of outward migration from the state and families having fewer children. He said he’d want to invest in a system to keep up with school repairs in order to avoid large costly repairs like roof replacements decades in the making.
Republican Matt Heilala speaks at a gubernatorial candidate debate on education on July 30, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Heilala said the deferred maintenance backlog is a challenge, but sees opportunities for consolidating schools with “goodwill.” He said he believes “connectivity” will change infrastructure needs and said he sees artificial intelligence as a “supersonic tsunami” hitting American society now, and creating opportunities for education. “Education is going to be disrupted and changed. I believe in a good way,” he said. “There’s a lot of great opportunity, but we need to approach it with optimism.”
McGuire said a variety of solutions are needed to address school maintenance and repairs. “We’re so far behind at this point. We’re actually bordering up against litigation,” she said.
She cited legislative hearings and public outcry around the state-run boarding school, Mt. Edgecumbe High School this year when a quarter of students disenrolled sparking public focus on deteriorating school facilities.
“It was a stomach-turning event,” McGuire said. “So I think there are a variety of solutions. We need to be brave and bold, pull it out, assess what we need to do, and then look at solutions and address it immediately.”
Fired federal workers formerly with the U.S. Forest Service based at the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau speak at the Alaska State Capito; on March 21, 2025, about their experiences. The Forest Service was among the federal agencies in Alaska most heavily affected by job cuts. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska lost a higher percentage of its federal workforce last year than almost all U.S. states to sweeping Trump administration cuts, according to a newly published analysis by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
By the end of 2025, Alaska’s federal workforce was 10.5% smaller than it had been at the end of the prior year, according to the analysis, published in Alaska Economic Trends, the monthly magazine of the department’s research section. In the fourth quarter of 2025, after many workers accepted buyouts or early retirement, the state’s federal workforce had dropped by 1,607 from the total in the fourth quarter of 2024, to 13,767 from 15,374 the year prior, according to the analysis.
The job losses came through mass firings and cuts made by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the government-reducing campaign led by trillionaire Elon Musk that started shortly after Donald Trump took office for his second term. To a large extent, job losses were concentrated at the end of the year.
Calculated by the annual average, Alaska lost about 4.5% of its federal jobs in 2025. Only Maryland, which lost 6.5% of its federal jobs, and New Mexico, which lost 5.8% of its federal jobs, lost more.
Federal job losses reduced Alaska’s total earnings by $36.5 million on average in 2025, according to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development analysis, and they brought federal employment in Alaska to the lowest level since at least 1990.
Much of the cutting in Alaska came in the U.S. Department of Defense’s civilian workforce. Calculated by annual average, 340 defense related jobs were lost to the DOGE cuts, but the fourth-quarter loss was calculated at 755 jobs.
The large amount of job losses in the Department of Defense category was a bit surprising, said Karinne Wiebold, the state labor economist who wrote the Trends article. “I assumed early on that the DoD might be one of the less affected departments and that our strong military presence might insulate us,” she said by email.
Federal agencies that sustained high numbers of job losses included the U.S. Forest Service, which had 180 fewer employees at the end of 2025 than in late 2024, the Bureau of Land Management, which had lost 133 jobs at the end of the year, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which had lost 101 of its workers by the end of 2025.
The fallout from the job losses continues, and the public does not yet have a complete picture, Wiebold said. “I do think the public is aware of the federal job losses and that they have been deep and a bit unpredictable,” she said. “I don’t know if the public generally understands what the ramifications of the cuts will be — federal employees perform a wide variety of oftentimes highly specialized work.”
Certain parts of the state were harder hit than others. The Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, which has been reliant on military-related employment, and parts of Southeast Alaska, where employment related to the Tongass National Forest is important, are among those regions with steeper job losses by percentage, according to the analysis.
Alaska’s ranking among states hit by DOGE-related job cuts could change, Wiebold said. Data from this year has yet to be fully analyzed, she said. “Even in the first parts of 2026, there are reports of the rankings shifting somewhat,” she said.
The Alaska Beacon, Alaska Public Media, KTOO and the Anchorage Daily News worked together this year and have created a voter guide to help Alaskans make informed choices when they vote.
The 2026 Alaska Voter Guide won’t replace debates, forums and public statements. Instead, it’s something extra, aimed at informing voters about what candidates believe and providing a tool to hold them accountable once elected.
We’ve been working for months on this and are pleased to present it to you today, on the opening day of early in-person voting.2026 Voter Guide
The candidates, the ballot measures, and the tools you need to cast your vote.
Each news organization asked its readers, viewers and listeners a basic question: What do you want candidates to talk about?
That’s what’s called the “citizens agenda” — where election reporting is less about determining who’s ahead, and more about what a candidate’s positions are and how they would affect things if elected.
We sent emails to every candidate in the first week of July and followed up by phone calls in the second week. We continued reaching out, by email, text message and phone call, throughout July.
In the end, 107 of 132 state legislative candidates responded — 81% of everyone running for the Legislature. That’s a huge improvement over two years ago, when 78 of 115 candidates answered a survey from the Beacon alone, or 67.8%. Four years ago, the Beacon’s rate was below 60%.
For the governor’s race, 14 of 17 candidates responded. For the U.S. House race, we received responses from 11 of 15 candidates, including Democratic candidate Matt Schultz, who has suspended his campaign but is still on the ballot. In the U.S. Senate race, we have answers from 11 of 16 candidates.
While it isn’t everyone — and we’ll continue pursuing answers — we’re proud to say that this questionnaire is the most complete one that you can find anywhere in Alaska.
When it comes to the Legislative races, the Beacon had the lead role and was in charge of questions. Here’s what we asked candidates and why:
Would you be willing to serve in a coalition majority where members of the other party are in leadership? Why or why not?
Whoever is in the majority controls the agenda and decides which bills advance and which bills fail. Alaska is the only state in the country with coalitions in both the House and Senate. The difference between a Republican-led majority and a coalition one is a big one in terms of what the Legislature does over the next two years.
What’s the biggest need in your district, and how would you address it?
This is an opportunity for candidates to show how much they know about local needs; it’s also a chance for them to talk about any issues we didn’t bring up.
What do you think should be done to improve public education in the state?
You, our readers, wanted candidates to talk about education more than anything else. This gave candidates a chance to talk about their platform.
How should the Alaska Legislature handle the Permanent Fund dividend?
This was probably the No. 2 issue that you brought up when we asked you what you wanted candidates to talk about.
How should lawmakers balance state revenue and expenses in the long term?
This is closely tied to the dividend question and meets your request to ask candidates about a fiscal plan.
When you look at the state budget, what’s the No. 1 thing you’d like to see cut or reduced, and what’s your No. 1 preferred way to raise new state revenue?
Like the previous question, this is a way to test candidates about their knowledge of the state budget and get their thoughts on a fiscal plan. That will be a major topic over the next two years.
What, if any, changes does the state need to make to its elections and voting system?
Voting and elections came up again and again when we asked readers what they wanted candidates to discuss. The Legislature has tried — and failed — to enact an elections bill over the past six years, so it’s a safe bet that the 35th Legislature will try again.
What threats do you see facing Alaska in the next four years?
This was our way of allowing candidates to show their priorities — what are they most worried about?
What should legislators do to make Alaska a better place for children and families?
This question came in response to your desire to see candidates talk about preschool, daycare, early childhood education and more.
As Alaska’s average age rises, what needs to be done to make the state a better place for older residents?
Alaska is the fastest-aging state in the country, and that trend is expected to continue. It’s something that the next Legislature will have to address. This question allows candidates to speak to older Alaskans directly.
What should Alaska do to keep residents and visitors safe from crime and disaster?
This question gave candidates a chance to talk about crime and climate change, data centers, energy shortages … it was really open-ended.
What, if any, change would you make to state law to support the Alaskans who are dependent on fish harvests and the fishing industry?
Candidates have been talking about fishing quite a bit this year, but it’d be a mistake to ask state-level candidates about trawling, given that most of it takes place in federal waters and there’s little the Legislature can do about it. So this question is more general.
What do people not know about you that you think they should know?
We’re not normally a fan of softball questions in these surveys, but they can be an opportunity to get to know a candidate’s personality, so this was an open-ended opportunity.
What should the Legislature do to help Alaskans with the high cost of living?
Inflation and cost of living came up as issues in a big way later in the spring, and we wanted to make sure we asked candidates about it.
How are the Trump administration’s policies working in Alaska? Where do you see them working well, and where do you see problems?
Our readers wanted very much to hear candidates talk about Donald Trump and whether they’re for or against him and his policies. This is a way to bring that question to a state level and make it applicable to the Legislature.
