Alaska Governor Race 2026

Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) is term-limited, and the open seat is decided under Alaska's top-four system: the four leading tickets from an open primary advance to a ranked-choice general election, where last-place tickets are eliminated and their votes move to voters' next choices until one ticket has a majority. One Democrat faces three Republicans.

Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D) spent 10 years in the state House representing a Trump-carried district around Sitka. He is running on stable, forward-funded school budgets, a retirement benefit to keep teachers, and making Hilcorp pay corporate income tax, and he holds a heavy fundraising lead. Bernadette Wilson (R), an Anchorage garbage-hauling business owner in her first run for office, is running on paying the dividend under the statutory formula, funding school programs that show results over more money, and a tighter spending cap. Former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson (R) is campaigning on economic growth, infrastructure, housing, and protecting the dividend; former Attorney General Treg Taylor (R) is running on his public-safety record and on expanding mining, timber, and oil and gas.

President Trump endorsed Wilson on October 13, before a Wasilla rally, writing that Republicans should "unite behind Bernadette" and calling Bronson and Taylor "lesser" candidates. Bronson told reporters Trump's account of their talks was "different from mine," and both remain on the ballot. Bronson and Taylor said at the October 8 debate they would rank each other second and Wilson third, so the outcome likely turns on whether Republican voters rank all three GOP tickets. At the same Debate for the State, Kreiss-Tomkins pinned state gridlock on Dunleavy ("If you like the last eight years, you can get four more"), while Wilson mocked rivals for "singing Kumbaya." Cook and Sabato's Crystal Ball rate the race Lean Democratic; Pluribus News still calls it a Toss-up. The same ballot carries Ballot Measure 2, which would repeal ranked-choice voting and the open primary; Wilson is one of its sponsors, and a similar repeal failed by 737 votes in 2024.