Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom made it official on Monday, filing for governor for the 2026 race. So did Click Bishop, the former senator from Fairbanks.
The two are the first to file since the official filing period opened on Monday morning.
Dahlstrom ran for Congress in 2024 and dropped out after coming in behind Nick Begich and Mary Peltola in the primary, when she got 19,252 votes.
She is the first of three of the Mike Dunleavy Cabinet to file; both Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum and Attorney General Treg Taylor are exploring filing. If all three do, it puts the governor in a bind as he tries to get the Alaska LNG gasline built, with some of his top cabinet members distracted by their political interests.
Bishop left office in January, and has been rumored to be a candidate since deciding not run last year for reelection to the seat he had held since 2013 for Fairbanks. Like Dahlstrom, he is a Republican, but he is known as a friend of Big Labor.
Neither Dahlstrom or Bishop have announced running mates, and they have over a year to do so. The 2026 primary, which is going to be a jungle primary due to ranked-choice voting, is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026.
In a reader poll last month, Must Read Alaska readers did not score Dahlstrom highly.
This is a fine demonstration of why Republicans are a joke. When the front-runners for executive office are commies, that means it’s a commie party. The question is whether Republicans are better of worse than Democrats, and it’s very hard to distinguish them.
Gross
Dahlstrom for Governor!
Because Alaska does not have nearly enough high-office effectual RINOs.