Democrat Kreiss-Tomkins wins Alaska governor’s race

Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has won Alaska’s governor’s race, flipping the office from Republican control and becoming, at 37, the youngest governor in the state’s history.

The former state lawmaker defeated three Republicans to succeed term-limited Gov. Mike Dunleavy. His win helps bring the number of Democratic governors nationwide to 30, up from 24, after the party flipped six governorships in this year’s elections. He will also be the youngest sitting governor in the country next year, NBC News reported.

Kreiss-Tomkins, widely known as JKT, built his campaign around bipartisan cooperation. He said he plans to appoint Democrats, Republicans and independents to his administration and described himself during a debate as a “man of the middle,” according to NPR.

“I strongly believe people just want things to work, and want people to work together,” he told NPR before voting in Anchorage on Election Day.

His supporters included Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who endorsed him a week before the election, and three former governors: a Democrat, a Republican and an independent. Murkowski called him “a young Alaskan with a view and a perspective that I think Alaska needs right now — a freshness of energy, a common-sense guy who has a known ability to be working together,” in an interview with NBC affiliate KTUU of Anchorage.

Kreiss-Tomkins campaigned on increasing funding for public schools, lowering energy costs, expanding Medicaid and protecting Alaska’s fisheries, according to NBC News. He also proposed a moratorium on new data centers until state lawmakers pass regulations and said he would not allow direct or indirect subsidies for their electricity costs, NBC News reported.

The Republicans on the November ballot were Anchorage businesswoman Bernadette Wilson, who had President Donald Trump’s backing; former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson; and former state Attorney General Treg Taylor. Wilson finished a distant second, according to NBC News.

Alaska’s election system sends the top four primary candidates to the general election regardless of party, then uses ranked-choice voting if no candidate receives a majority. Kreiss-Tomkins won a majority on the first ballot, so no ranked-choice rounds were needed, NBC News reported. Former state Sen. Tom Begich, a Democrat who placed second to Kreiss-Tomkins in the August primary, withdrew soon afterward to consolidate Democratic support behind him, according to NBC News.

The Associated Press called the governor’s race after more than a week of counting ballots, including votes arriving by mail and from remote areas, NPR reported. In a separate race call, the AP said voters rejected a proposal to scrap ranked-choice voting, leaving the system in place.

Kreiss-Tomkins, a former representative from the island community of Sitka, is set to take office at noon Dec. 7, according to NPR. Dunleavy has served as governor since 2018. Alaska’s last Democratic governor was Tony Knowles, who left office in 2002.