Due to the 2010 censusredistricting,Bill Thomas,a state representative since 2004,was redrawn into a slightly altered district. Kreiss-Tomkins's hometown of Sitka fell into the 34th district,and no other Democratic candidates filed to run in the primary,so he decided to run for the seat.[7] Kreiss-Tomkins dropped out of Yale University after three years to run.[8]
The race was very close,and Kreiss-Tomkins won with 50.12% of the vote. After a recount that decreased his margin of victory from 34 votes to 32,the race was called on December 3.[9][10]
2014 election
Kreiss-Tomkins,campaigning for reelection in October 2014 during the Alaska Day Parade.
In the 2014 midterm elections,Kreiss-Tomkins was reelected with 60% of the vote (3,393 votes to 2,288).[11] His opponent was Petersburg Republican Steven Samuelson,who had lost twice before to Peggy Wilson of Wrangell in primaries. Kreiss-Tomkins was elected in a slightly altered district (renumbered House District 35) that now included Petersburg and the northern end of Prince of Wales Island but no longer covered Haines or Metlakatla.[12]
Committees
For the 30th legislature,Kreiss-Tomkins was a member of the following committees:[13]
House State Affairs (chair)
House Community &Regional Affairs
House Fisheries
House Judiciary
Legislation
Kreiss-Tomkins introduced House Bill 216,making 20 Alaska Native languages official state languages. The bill was passed into law in April 2014.[14]
Kreiss-Tomkins spent the most money of any candidate during the primary campaign and reported the largest number of individual Alaskan contributors, but raised most of his money from donors outside Alaska, including employees of Anthropic and others tied to the artificial intelligence industry.[15][16][17]
Kreiss-Tomkins placed first in the nonpartisan primary with 22.5% of the vote, ahead of fellow Democrat Tom Begich with 20.8%. Begich subsequently withdrew from the election and endorsed Kreiss-Tomkins.[18]
Personal life
As a freshman at Sitka High School in 2003, Kreiss-Tomkins attracted national attention as a major online organizer for Howard Dean's presidential campaign.[19]
He is a long-distance runner, winning the Alpine Adventure Race in 2009[20] and placing second in the Coyote Two Moon ultramarathon in 2010.[21] While attending Yale, Kreiss-Tomkins was organizer for Harriers of the Night, a running club whose members met weekly at midnight to run from the Yale Women's Table to East Rock and back.
He is also a mountaineer and in 2009 he climbed the highest volcano in the world, Argentina's Ojos del Salado, to conclusively measure its height against a neighboring peak in Chile.[22][23]
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