Alaska voters also reject a ballot measure to end ranked-choice voting

Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a former state representative from the small island community of Sitka, won the race for Alaska governor, according to a race call by the Associated Press. At 37, he will be the youngest governor in state history. He is set to take office at noon Dec. 7.

The AP call came after more than a week of counting votes, including those arriving by mail and from remote parts of the state. Under the ranked-choice system the state uses, Kreiss-Tomkins faced three Republican candidates, and winning required getting a majority of the votes. The Republicans in the race were Trump-backed business owner Bernadette Wilson, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson and former Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor.

Voters were also deciding a ballot question on whether to scrap the ranked-choice system. That proposal failed, according to another AP race call, keeping the system in place.

Kreiss-Tomkins will replace outgoing Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a term-limited Republican who has been governor since 2018. Alaska’s last Democratic governor was Tony Knowles, who left office in 2002.

Kreiss-Tomkins, known by his initials JKT, made his “high-energy, bipartisan, problem-solving approach” a centerpiece of his campaign. He has said he plans to build an administration of Democrats, Republicans and independents, and he described himself at a debate as a “man of the middle.” He was endorsed by three former governors — a Democrat, a Republican and an independent — along with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Alaskans have had enough of zero-sum partisan politics, Kreiss-Tomkins said in an interview just before voting at a precinct in Anchorage on Election Day. “I strongly believe people just want things to work, and want people to work together,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.

Kreiss-Tomkins takes office in a state where voters have loudly complained that things aren’t working as they should. Rising costs and relatively flat state funding have forced schools to close and class sizes to rise. Already-high costs for food, fuel and housing have risen sharply, and a looming shortage of easily accessible natural gas near the state’s population centers is threatening to push prices higher. And Alaskans have been migrating out of the state for more than a decade.

With Kreiss-Tomkins’ win and others in the midterms, Democrats will hold 30 governors’ offices across the country, up from 24 now.

Eric Stone covers state government for Alaska Public Media.