Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, who entered politics as a teenager on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, won the chance to become the youngest governor in Alaska history by securing one of four spots in the November general election, The Associated Press said.
Another Democrat, Tom Begich, also secured one of the four spots, according to The A.P.
Mr. Kreiss-Tomkins, a 37-year-old Democrat, pitched himself as the only candidate capable of bringing together Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters to solve Alaska’s fiscal crisis and population loss. As a five-term Democratic state legislator from Sitka, Alaska, he represented a southeastern district that Republican presidential candidates have consistently won.
He was among the top fund-raisers in the 17-candidate primary, raising much of his money from out-of-state donors linked to the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, but he also campaigned hard in rural Alaska. That included driving a snowmobile to the Arctic Ocean and riding a skiff 450 miles down the Yukon River.
“We’re potentially at a moment where the next governor and the next Legislature will be making decisions similar to the start of the pipeline here,” he said in an interview last month, referring to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, built five decades ago. “It’s going to take a different approach to do this right.”
He and the three other top finishers will compete in a November election that will use ranked-choice voting. Alaskans are selecting a successor to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a conservative Republican barred from seeking a third term.
Alaskans have backed President Trump in the last three presidential races, but unaffiliated voters outnumber both Republicans and Democrats, and the Legislature has been governed for nearly a decade by a coalition of Democrats, Republicans and independents.
