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.
If you think either of these candidates is a “commie”, you should consider the possibility that you are an extremist whose views represent just a tiny minority of Alaska voters. Reminds me of the constitutional convention vote a few years back, when a small, but loud, minority arrogantly assumed, before a single vote was cast, that they’d be rewriting the constitution. Then they wound up on the very short end of a big electoral blowout.
Gross
Grosser than gross.
Dahlstrom for Governor!
Because Alaska does not have nearly enough high-office effectual RINOs.
This a joke right? Time for Nick Begich to get in involved ~ more of his group the merrier ~ please.
Look at me, I’m a Republican…
Whatever. No one here is fooled by either of them.
Both completely blah RINOs who just blended in and went with the flow. Kelly Tshibaka maybe? My ideal candidate would be David Eastman.
Would it be rude to ask Candidate Dahlstrom why, as Lieutenant Governor, she apparently never found time to restore honesty and transparency to Alaska’s election system?
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You could have done it, but you didn’t, Dahlstrom, so what good would you be as governor, or is this just a rest stop on your way to higher office?
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Would it be rude to ask Candidate Bishop for an accounting of where his $35M motor-fuel tax goes, or went, is something better because of it, are children smarter because of it, are public-employee unions happier because of it?
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And you, Bishop, what’ve you got to say for yourself, struggling to reward Alaska’s failed education industry, sexual groomers of children, with even more taxpayer money? Rewarding officials who let transvestic deviants in schools and apparently harbor illegal aliens, what does that make you, Bishop?
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Remind again what makes you any different from the nasty vermin who do this, since you’ve advocated for no law forbidding it, no order to fire every official involved in the doing of it?
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Ole Bishop would make one hell of a governor, assuming anyone took him seriously.
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Okay, maybe a word about Bishop administration plans to jump his motor-fuel tax up to where he says it oughtta be and his plans to stiff productive Alaskans with sales and income taxes after grabbing the last of their PFD’s …then everyone would take him seriously, no?
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Both of you look like what’s on Co-Governor Giessel’s lunch menu, so why not do us a solid …just forget your tired old campaign catchword crap you deal out to voters for whom your contempt is palpable?
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No? Either of you got the cojones to say out loud The Giessel is damn well not the Co-Governor and the Senate Finance committee will never, ever stick our ass in a sling like they did with AKDOT&PF because The Giessel declared us “…impossible to deal with”?
(https://mustreadalaska.com/lucas-smith-what-sen-cathy-giessel-said-at-south-anchorage-constituent-meeting-about-her-pension-proposal-natural-resources-and-budget-cuts/)
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No? So why not keep your crap to yourselves, just do what it looks like you were sent to do, which is mess up the GOP ticket, and help get someone elected who’s not afraid to identify as Democrat.
That was a good read.
Thank you.
Has Click ever explained or apologized to the family of the underaged kid who was seriously injured in his boat during a race? Bishop didn’t get the parent’s permission for their son to be racing. As a result of the boat flipping in the Tanana River, the kid has a lifetime injury. Say what, Click???
Very well spoken Morrigan.
Thanks for taking the time to point out the details of these two wannabe’s.
There is not enough time to “cure” the election system so it is no surprise Nancy is on the ticket.
She had years to do the right thing and failed miserably.
Thanks, Andy.
Do you think Jesus hates Democrats or RINOs more?
NO THANKS on either! Bishop is Democrat pretending to be a Republican. Dahlstrom is a Republican without a work ethic. Either would be terrible. The good news is that there will be more filing for governor within the next year. Lots of choices in 2026.
Nope to Dahlstrom. What makes her think she could run the state of Alaska? She couldn’t run a prison even with all of her constituents locked-up.
She’s never worked an honest day in her life.
Click is a leftist…imo…look at his voting record, an Union affiliations…
Lots of republicans are union members. Your point?
🤢🤮
I hope and pray there is a better “Republican” candidate out there. Dahlstrom couldn’t even clean up the voter roles or get us out of the corrupt, and Democrat-run ERIC (Electronic Registration Information Center) which has led to the embarrassing election division we have. She’s a fraud and failure. And Bishop…….another RINO fraud.
I hope Dahlstrom is running on her record of doing such magnificent work in cleaning up our broken elections…Or maybe that’s why she knows she will win?
We don’t need a Murkowski wannabe for Governor That would be the end of Alaska
Can we spin the wheel again, there has to be better choices than these two.
NO NANCY NO
Yuck
We can’t get anyone better in that situation?!
Hard pass on both of these stooges.
What a disaster! Need to rethink our decision to move to a “RED” state of Alaska with these choices for governor. The last frontier with its tiny population and huge land mass is quickly becoming a quagmire of corruption and incompetence. Can’t we find a real Republican to govern our state effectively and as the “Free” state we sought when moving here.
Well if you’re not from here, pack your bags and leave. Like we need an Outsider fresh off the AlCan telling us how to run things. Go back to America.
Ummm Jeff Melvin, since when is Alaska not America?
The same could, and should, be said, and much more forcefully, to all the Left Coast carpetbaggers who move to Alaska and immediately want to run for office in order to turn Alaska into the exact same kind of radical leftist hellhole that they moved from.
No, no, he// no! If you haven’t been asleep you’ve seen what the traitors in the “republican” party has done in Juneau. The AK GOP is unethical and untrustworthy, and can’t be trusted. I won’t vote for either, right now I would vote for Shelley Hughes.
Why are these two even running when all the polls on this website show that they aren’t even close to being what people want in a Governor? They need not waste their time and money as neither of them will be the Governor.
PLZ LORD..Please nudge-speak to Bernadette..
Click Bishop is a Republican?
That’s why they both have announced 18 months before the election. Name recognition. Dumb, and Really Dumb. You decide which. It’s only for pure entertainment. Their combined IQ might hit the low 60’s. One doesn’t have a bucket to p*ss in, and the other IS the bucket in which to be p*ssed
Begich supporters got rid of Dahlstrom without much trouble. Bishop, a Sarah Palin appointee for Labor, probably has about a 9th grade education. Another demonstration of how Alaska politicians think they can fool the public. These two choices are at the lowest wrung of the ladder.
The bottom line is:
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Bishop and Dahlstrom both have established records in Juneau. Bishop is a union Democrat who got lucky because he knew Todd Palin and took an appointment as Labor Commissioner. The Republican Party will never endorse Bishop as long as Trump is President. And Bishop has a lot of hidden baggage that will be revealed.
Dahlstrom is LAZY. Hanging on the threads of Dunleavy’s coattails won’t get her anywhere past It. Governor. Her level of incompetence was proven while she worked as Commissioner of Corrections. As head of Alaska Elections Division
(Lt. Govs Office), she hasn’t done squat.
These two are standard jokes among the electorate.
Good Luck Nancy, your accomplishments as LT. Gov shine for all Alaskan’s. The um, those things , the, well so much I just can’t recall here sitting on the toilet. But thanks.
Great, more mercenary RINOs. That’s just what we need to completely eliminate the PFD & reign in spending. Why can’t we find anyone to run with less ego & selfish motivation. Nancy Dahlstrom is known for her willingness to backstab to get ahead. Why she’s even still around on taxpayer dollars is baffling to many with personal experience. We don’t need people who will compromise anything to get ahead, we need people with integrity who care about all Alaskans, not just the one in the mirror.
Kelly Tshibaka or Mayor Dan Sullivan.
Pick, Click, stick, flick.
Get Click and whatever remains with the PF Dividend, he’ll take away from you.
Shelley Hughes would be a great option.
Hell No! & NO!
The worst of the worst just made a bad decision for the State jobs. Alaskans need to get busy and look for talent and business minded people to put in those jobs.
Enough with the bad actors and state business. These two lead to a path of failure.
Treg Taylor. Time to file. I’m waiting for you.
I second that, Treg and Neal.
I do not, after I was told by a direct reputable source that Treg Taylor has been encouraging Governor Dunleavy to not give his approval for Nancy Dahlstrom to release the Tshibaka Report – sorry, I don’t trust him as Governor based on that direct information I received in person.
I’m registered AIP, but if I had to vote for one of the two of them I’d vote for Bishop. I worked under Dahlstrom when she was DOC commissioner, and I’ve seen how’s she been as Lt Gov.
The only way Dahlstrom(or Bishop) could be governor is via RCV. Which is why Dahlstrom kept counting till the repeal failed.
Nancy D was a loser in private enterprise (GCI) and certainly total failure in Government service. She is a hanger-on, no more.
Click ole Bud sold his soul long ago; he will pick your pocket in the first minute of shaking your hand.
Both of these folks are complete loosers.
Cast then aside
I’d still go Bishop because he might win over the Demo Labor party folks still left. Dalstrom had an opportunity to change election process and did nothing, RCV should be dead in the water.
Neither is worth the cost of the powder to blow them to Hell