Frank Hughes Murkowski is an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was a United States Senator from Alaska from 1981 until 2002 and the eighth governor of Alaska from 2002 until 2006. In his 2006 re-election bid, he finished in third place in the Republican primary behind Sarah Palin and John Binkley. Murkowski is notable for having appointed his daughter, Lisa Murkowski, to replace him in the U.S. Senate after he resigned his Senate seat to become governor of Alaska.
Walter Joseph Hickel was an American businessman, real estate developer, and politician who served as the second governor of Alaska from 1966 to 1969 and 1990 to 1994 and as U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1969 to 1970. He worked as a construction worker and eventually became a construction company owner/operator during Alaska's territorial days. Following World War II, Hickel became heavily involved with real estate development, building residential subdivisions, shopping centers and hotels. Hickel entered politics in the 1950s during Alaska's battle for statehood and remained politically active for the rest of his life.
The 2006 Alaska gubernatorial general election took place on November 7, 2006. The former mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin, defeated incumbent governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary, and then went on to defeat former governor Tony Knowles in the general election. Palin would later become the unsuccessful Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, before resigning as governor in 2009.
Sean Randall Parnell is an American attorney and politician. He succeeded Sarah Palin in July 2009 to become the tenth governor of Alaska and served until 2014. Parnell was elected governor in his own right in 2010 with 59.06% of the vote, as the largest percentage margin of any Alaska governor since statehood. In 2014, he narrowly lost his bid for re-election and returned to work in the private sector. He is a member of the Republican Party.
The Alaska Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in Alaska, headquartered in Anchorage.
Terrence B. "Terry" Miller was an American businessman and politician. Miller served as the fourth lieutenant governor of Alaska from 1978 to 1982. His political career, which began while he was in his early 20s, lasted over two decades and was cut short by his death from lung cancer at age 46.
The 2008 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 4, 2008. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator and former President pro tempore Ted Stevens ran for re-election to a eighth term in the United States Senate. It was one of the ten Senate races that U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, predicted as being most competitive. The primaries were held on August 26, 2008. Stevens was challenged by Democratic candidate Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage and son of former U.S. Representative Nick Begich.
Although in its early years of statehood Alaska was a Democratic state, since the early 1970s it has been characterized as Republican-leaning. Local political communities have often worked on issues related to land use development, fishing, tourism, and individual rights. Alaska Natives, while organized in and around their communities, have been active within the Native corporations. These have been given ownership over large tracts of land, which require stewardship. The state has an independence movement favoring a vote on secession from the United States, with the Alaskan Independence Party, but its membership has shrunk in recent decades.
Lyda N. Green is a retired educator and Republican politician in the U.S. state of Alaska. Green, as a political newcomer, was elected to the Alaska Senate in 1994, defeating a 22-year Democratic incumbent in a district representing most of the population of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Two Democratic members of the Alaska House of Representatives, also from the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, were defeated in the same election. Green served a total of fourteen years in the Senate and was its president in her final two years in office.
Mary Sattler Peltola is an American politician and former tribal judge serving as the U.S. representative from Alaska's at-large congressional district since September 2022. She previously served as a judge on the Orutsararmiut Native Council's tribal court, executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Bethel city councillor and member of the Alaska House of Representatives.
The 2010 Alaska gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 2010. Former Governor Sarah Palin did not run, having resigned in July 2009. Incumbent Governor Sean Parnell, who as lieutenant governor succeeded Palin following her resignation, announced that he would seek a full term.
Daniel Scott Sullivan is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator from Alaska since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Sullivan previously served as the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources from 2010 to 2013, and as the Alaska Attorney General from 2009 to 2010.
Joseph Wayne Miller is an American attorney and politician. He is best known as the runner-up in both the 2010 United States Senate election in Alaska and the following 2016 election. A member of the Republican Party, he faced Lisa Murkowski in both races, and has aligned himself with the Libertarian Party and Constitution Party.
The Fifth Alaska State Legislature served from January 23, 1967, to January 26, 1969.
Jane Arliss Sturgulewski was an American businesswoman and Republican politician from the U.S. state of Alaska. In a political career in which she started appearing in the spotlight in 1975, she represented Anchorage in the Alaska Senate from 1979 to 1993. Twice during off-years in re-election to her four-year Senate term, she won the Republican nomination for governor of Alaska against mostly conservative opposition in blanket primaries. The second time, in 1990, she came out in third place behind Walter Hickel and runner up Tony Knowles, which was the second of three times in Alaska's history a major-party nominee placed third. She won a 2000 Anchorage Athena award.
Catherine Andrea Giessel, is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Alaska, who has served as a member of the Alaska Senate since 2023 and from 2011 to 2021. From 2013 to 2021, Giessel represented District N in the Alaska Senate, including Northeast Anchorage, Anchorage Hillside and the Turnagain Arm communities of Bird, Girdwood, Indian, and Anchorage, all within the Municipality of Anchorage. First elected in 2010 while identifying with Tea Party values, she has also served as the vice-chair of the state Republican Party and had a career in nursing. Following redistricting, she was elected to a different senate seat in 2012. Giessel serves as chair of the Resources Committee and is a member of the Senate Majority Caucus. After Senate President Pete Kelly was unseated in 2018, Giessel was elected president of the Alaska Senate, a post she held until 2021. Giessel returned to the Alaska Senate in 2023, representing the newly configured District E after defeating incumbent Republican Roger Holland. She will serve as Senate majority leader in the 33rd Legislature, overseeing a coalition caucus of eight Republicans and nine Democrats.
The 2022 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 8, 2022. Incumbent three-term Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski won reelection to a fourth term, defeating fellow Republican Kelly Tshibaka and Democrat Patricia Chesbro.
The 2022 Alaska gubernatorial election was held on Tuesday November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Alaska. Incumbent Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy won re-election to a second term, becoming the first Republican governor to be re-elected to a second term since Jay Hammond in 1978 and the first governor, regardless of political affiliation, to be re-elected to a second term since Tony Knowles in 1998.
The November 2022 United States House of Representatives election in Alaska was held on Tuesday November 8, to elect a member of the United States House of Representatives to represent the state of Alaska. Democratic incumbent Mary Peltola won reelection to a full term in office, defeating Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III and Libertarian Chris Bye in the runoff count.
The 2022 Alaska's at-large congressional district special election was held on August 16, 2022. Democrat Mary Peltola won the open seat, thereby becoming the first of her party to win a U.S. House election in Alaska since 1972. Peltola, who is a Yup'ik woman, is the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, and the first woman elected to represent Alaska in the House. She defeated Republican former governor Sarah Palin in the state's first ranked-choice general election.
