A member of the Kenai Borough Assembly has filed for Alaska Senate for Senate Seat D, previously known as Senate Seat O.
Jesse Bjorkman, a personal friend to Senate President Peter Micciche of Kenai, has put his name on the list at the Alaska Public Offices Commission and has publicly stated he wants to give Kenai Peninsula voters someone else to vote for other than Tuckerman Babcock, who has already filed for the seat.
Babcock is from the Soldotna area and has statewide name recognition, having served as the former chairman of the Alaska Republican Party. Bjorkman is a teacher from Nikiski, with less name recognition but union backing.
Senate President Peter Micciche has not said whether he is going to stay in the race, but he has filed. Micciche assumed office in 2013. His current term ends in January 2023.
Bjorkman was a proponent of Ballot Measure 2, the initiative that brought in ranked choice voting to Alaska, and which has now created a challenging election cycle, since the death of Congressman Don Young.
Last year, Bjorkman said that he felt a “large increase in male energy” from having taken a Covid vaccine and so encouraged everyone to get vaccinated, as seen in this video from a Kenai Assembly meeting:
A National Education Association member, he was also featured in the New York Times for his work teaching his students how to butcher wild game such as moose.
