Bernadette Wilson, a dynamic Alaskan who has tirelessly worked in Alaska’s political realm for 20 years, was the far-and-away winner of the Must Read Alaska Newsletter Question of the Week:
Who should run for governor?
The nonscientific survey only had space for five names. The names that MRAK chose for the five were some possible contenders: Mary Peltola, Adam Crum, Treg Taylor, Nancy Dahlstrom, and Bernadette Wilson.
With the exception of Wilson, all four others have campaigned for office and held high positions in government. Mary Peltola is the former House member for Alaska, Adam Crum is commissioner of Revenue and former commissioner of Health and Social Services, Treg Taylor is attorney general, and Nancy Dahlstrom is lieutenant governor.
Wilson is the only one who has never run for office.
Here are the final result of the three-day poll:
None of the names on the poll has actually filed for the 2026 race for Alaska governor, but all are known to be “kicking the tires” to see if they can mount a credible campaign. All on the poll are Republicans except for Peltola.
The question was sent to the 33,000 people who subscribe to the three-times-a-week newsletter, which generally is opened by about 14,000 recipients for each edition. The question ran in the March 31 and April 2 editions of the newsletter (subscribe here.) The newsletter subscribers are generally conservative, although there is a small but loyal readership among Democrat politicos, as seen in the results above, where Peltola received 4%.
Must Read Alaska newsletter readers might be described as the conservative super-voters of the state, and many are politically active in their communities.
Thus, it’s an interesting result to see that Wilson got more than double the support of the next contender — Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who ran for Congress last year but withdrew after the primary.
Who is Bernadette Wilson? She owns a garbage disposal company, is a single mother, and got her political start managing the 2010 Parental Notification Initiative, which won statewide with 56% of the vote. She has worked on several campaigns ever since, most recently as a senior advisor to the Nick Begich congressional race. In addition, she was the state director for Americans for Prosperity, and hosted a television show and a radio talk show (coincidentally, the co-host was Democrat Ethan Berkowitz.)
Wilson is known for organizing the People’s Memorial Day in 2020, when then-Mayor Ethan Berkowitz cancelled the Memorial Observance at the Veterans’ Memorial in Anchorage.
And she organized community action against the shut down of the Anchorage economy during Covid, and even held a “dance off” protest in front of the Loussac Library, as a protest to the Berkowitz ban on dancing in 2020, and later a convoy of trucks that rolled through downtown.
Is this Wilson’s time to run for office? Readers seem to think so.
There are other possible contenders for governor besides those five names. Must Read Alaska will have another Question of the Week with some of the other possibilities. You can vote in that poll in the Monday, April 7 and Wednesday, April 9 newsletter.
