Alaska Elects Its First Democratic Governor Since 1998

Alaska voters have elected a Democrat as governor for the first time since 1998, The Associated Press projected on Friday, handing former state lawmaker Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins a historic victory in one of the most Republican-leaning states in the country. At 37, Kreiss-Tomkins will also become the youngest governor in Alaska's history when he takes office on December 7.

Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins in Sitka, Alaska. At 37, he will become the youngest governor in Alaska's history.

Kreiss-Tomkins defeated three Republican candidates, including Bernadette Wilson, a business owner and former talk-show host who had the endorsement of President Donald Trump. His win gives Democrats control of the governor's office in 30 states, capping a midterm election wave that delivered the party sweeping gains in state governments across the country.

In a victory declaration on Friday, Kreiss-Tomkins said Alaskans had “voted for change.” The Associated Press called the race after more than a week of vote counting, including ballots that arrived by mail and from remote parts of the state.

A Historic First in a Deep-Red State

The scale of the result is difficult to overstate. Alaska has not elected a Democrat to its top office since 1998, when Tony Knowles won re-election to a second term. Knowles left office in 2002, and Republicans have held the governorship ever since.

Alaska is one of the most Republican-leaning states in the nation. Democrats make up just 11 percent of the state's registered electorate, according to reporting on the race, and the state has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964. Kreiss-Tomkins won anyway, and he won big — a result that immediately drew national attention as one of the most surprising outcomes of the 2026 midterm elections.

He will succeed Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy, a conservative who has held the office since 2018 and was barred by term limits from seeking another four years. His lieutenant governor will be Zac Johnson, an independent, in a sign of the coalition-style government Kreiss-Tomkins has promised to build.

The Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, where Kreiss-Tomkins will take office on December 7.

How the Race Was Won

Kreiss-Tomkins won 50.8 percent of first-choice votes — 139,293 ballots, according to unofficial results from the Alaska Division of Elections — defeating Wilson, who took 28.1 percent, by a margin of 22.7 points. The other two Republican candidates in the four-way race were Dave Bronson and Treg Taylor.

Alaska uses ranked-choice voting in its general elections, but no second round was needed. A candidate who receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes wins outright, and Kreiss-Tomkins crossed that threshold as additional ballots were counted, The Washington Post reported. The Associated Press subsequently called the race, and NBC News also projected his win.

The result was not a sudden surge. Kreiss-Tomkins finished first in August's open primary, ahead of a second Democrat, Tom Begich, who later withdrew from the race. He then built a campaign designed to appeal to moderates and to Republicans tired of legislative gridlock in the capital, Juneau, rather than relying on the state's small Democratic base.

The results remain unofficial until the Alaska Division of Elections certifies them on November 25. Certification is a routine administrative step, but it is the final formal hurdle before the outcome is official.

Who Is Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins

Kreiss-Tomkins, widely known by his initials JKT, is a former state lawmaker from Sitka, a fishing town on Alaska's southeastern coast. He is a Yale dropout who served in the Alaska House of Representatives before leaving the legislature three years ago. His victory on Friday completed a political comeback that few outside Alaska saw coming.

He ran as a pragmatic coalition-builder, emphasizing a willingness to work across party lines. He has said he wants a Cabinet that includes Republicans, Democrats and independents — a pledge that fits a state where coalition governments are a familiar feature of life in Juneau, and where the legislature itself has often been governed by bipartisan coalitions.

Wilson, his leading opponent, was a former Republican talk-show host who owns a garbage-collection company. Her campaign carried the endorsement of President Trump, but it was not enough in a race where Kreiss-Tomkins drew support well beyond his own party.

Part of a National Midterm Wave

The Alaska result was the latest piece of a national midterm wave that gave Democrats sweeping wins in state governments. With this victory, Democrats will hold the governor's office in 30 states, up from 24 before the midterm elections — a net gain built on flips in states including Iowa, Georgia, Ohio and Texas, where the party broke through after years of Republican rule.

The wave extended beyond governors' mansions. Democrats also won six new state trifectas — full control of the governorship and both legislative chambers — in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and flipped a dozen legislative chambers nationwide. Alaska's call filled in one of the last outstanding pieces of that map.

The pattern has been consistent: in state after state, Democrats made gains in places where they had been locked out for years, often by running candidates who campaigned on affordability, public services and bipartisan governing rather than on national party slogans. Kreiss-Tomkins fits that mold almost exactly.

What This Means

Kreiss-Tomkins's victory is, first, a reminder that Alaska politics has never followed the national script neatly. The state has a long tradition of independent-minded voters, ranked-choice elections that reward candidates with broad appeal, and governors who govern from the center rather than from either party's base. A Democrat who promises a bipartisan Cabinet and talks about fixing gridlock can win there — even in a year when the national parties are as polarized as they have ever been.

Second, the result complicates the story of the midterm elections. Much of the national coverage has focused on the battle for Congress, where Democrats won back the House. But the state-level results may prove more durable. Governors control budgets, veto legislation, appoint judges and administer elections. Holding 30 governors' offices gives Democrats a far stronger hand in state capitals than they have enjoyed in years — and Alaska, of all places, is now part of that count.

Third, the margin matters. A narrow win could have been dismissed as a quirk of a four-way race under ranked-choice rules. A 22.7-point victory over a Trump-endorsed opponent, with an outright majority of first-choice votes, cannot be. Kreiss-Tomkins did not slip through a divided field; he won it decisively, in a state where his party holds barely a tenth of the electorate.

There is also a practical side to the win. When Kreiss-Tomkins takes office on December 7, he will inherit a short-term budget surplus, thanks to the war in Iran, which sent oil prices skyward and boosted Alaska's oil revenues. That gives the incoming governor rare fiscal breathing room — and a chance to deliver on campaign promises before the harder budget choices arrive.

Downtown Juneau, Alaska's capital, seen from above.

What Happens Next

Kreiss-Tomkins will be sworn in at noon on December 7, replacing Dunleavy. Between now and then, the formal steps are straightforward: the Alaska Division of Elections will certify the results on November 25, and the governor-elect will begin assembling his promised bipartisan Cabinet and preparing a transition with the outgoing administration.

The bigger questions will take longer to answer. How much of his coalition-building agenda can survive contact with a legislature that remains closely divided? How will he use the oil-driven budget surplus — for one-time spending, for savings, or for the permanent fund dividend that Alaskans watch so closely? And will his victory become a template for Democrats in other red states, or remain a distinctly Alaskan story?

One race in Alaska is still unresolved. The state's U.S. Senate contest remained uncalled, with former Congresswoman Mary Peltola leading on 49.8 percent of the vote with 95 percent counted, according to reporting on Friday. Whatever its outcome, the governor's race is settled: after 28 years, a Democrat will lead Alaska again — and at 37, the youngest governor in the state's history will be the one to do it.