Monday is the filing deadline for candidates looking to run in Alaska’s elections, spurring a dash for gubernatorial hopefuls and congressional candidates to file all necessary paperwork to appear on the Aug. 18 primary ballot.

With a U.S. Senate seat, the U.S. House seat, the governor’s mansion and 50 legislative seats up for grabs, candidates have until 5 p.m. Monday to formally enter the races.

Governor’s race

Former Alaska Gov. Bill Walker formally entered the governor’s race on Monday after teasing a run late last week.

In doing so, Walker became one of more than a dozen candidates to officially enter the race, with more expected by the filing deadline. Walker is the only former governor in the race, with current Gov. Mike Dunleavy termed out from seeking reelection.

Walker, a Republican-turned-independent, served as governor between 2014 and 2018. He filed to run with Randy Hoffbeck, his former revenue commissioner, as his pick for lieutenant governor.

The two filed the paperwork in the Anchorage Division of Elections office shortly after 1 p.m., accompanied only by Walker’s wife, Donna.

After a weekend of contemplation, Walker said the two decided that they just couldn’t remain on the sidelines, despite getting phone calls from other candidates urging them not to run.

“We feel strongly about the hard stuff,” he said. “The stuff that typically doesn’t roll off your tongue during an election season, not the feel-good stuff.”

Walker and Hoffbeck say they plan to focus their campaign on the need for a long-term fiscal plan to balance the state’s annual budgets — the same topic they worked on when Walker last sat in the governor’s seat a decade ago. Included in that is the need to bring in more revenue from Alaska’s resource industry, said Walker.

In a last-minute development, current Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom announced Monday that she would drop out of the governor’s race. Dahlstrom was an early addition to an eventual slate of 20 candidates to indicate plans to run in the open governor’s race. Dahlstrom previously ran in — and dropped out of — the 2024 U.S. House race.

“After careful consideration, I have decided to step away from what has become a very crowded field of candidates in the race to be Alaska’s next governor,” Dahlstrom, a Republican, said in a statement.

Dahlstrom is the first gubernatorial candidate to end her campaign as the filing deadline approaches. She had not named a running mate, a necessary step for candidates seeking the office, and one that others in the race had described as a challenge amid a crowded field.

Democratic candidate for governor Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins was the latest to identify his running mate Monday morning, selecting Anchorage Assembly member Zac Johnson.

The two filed their paperwork at the Anchorage Division of Elections office Monday morning.

Kreiss-Tomkins, a former state lawmaker from Sitka, said he picked Johnson, an Anchorage assembly member, within the last couple weeks. The two first met in 2013, when Kreiss-Tomkins attended Johnson’s graduation from the state trooper academy in Sitka.

Johnson plans to continue serving on the Anchorage Assembly while campaigning.

Even as candidates in recent days have rushed to pick their lieutenant governor, Kreiss-Tomkins said that conversations are ongoing about consolidation in the governor’s race, given the volume of candidates, which as of Monday included tickets headlined by 10 Republicans, two Democrats and two independents

Several other candidates are expected to file throughout the day.

“Those conversations are definitely happening, you know, inbound, outbound, not just me — I think across the field and across party lines too. Yeah, so I think there’s a lot of potential for that to play out in the coming weeks," said Kreiss-Tomkins.

Once the filing deadline has passed, candidates will have until June 27 to drop out of the race or swap out a running mate.

“In a certain sense I think this is like act one, and act two is really much of June,” said Kreiss-Tomkins.

In a late entry, former Anchorage legislator Lesil McGuire announced Monday that she is running for governor with longtime legislative staffer Elizabeth Rexford as her lieutenant governor candidate.

McGuire served in the Alaska House and Senate as a Republican between 2001 and 2017, including in both bipartisan and all-GOP majorities.

Asked Monday, McGuire initially said she planned to run for governor as a Republican. But as she filled out the required paperwork, she said she changed her mind and would run as undeclared.

“We have gone back and forth more times than I can count,” McGuire said as she filled out the forms.

“I’ve been struggling with it for a year because I’m sick of the Republicans,” she added. “But I was one when I was 18, so it’s this complicated thing.”

Among all the candidates, McGuire and Rexford are the only two-women ticket in the governor’s race.

McGuire said some people advised her against choosing a woman as a running mate.

“They just said, ‘I don’t think Alaska is ready for it.’ To which I said, ‘That doesn’t make any sense.’ If there can be two men on the ticket, why can’t there be two women?” she said.

Former Attorney General Treg Taylor filed his paperwork midday Monday in Anchorage with new running mate Candice English.

English, 70, owns an oil and gas support business. Evan Lee, Taylor’s campaign manager, declined to allow English to be interviewed.

Congressional races

In the U.S. Senate race, 14 candidates had filed the paperwork to appear on the ballot, including Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan and a challenger by the same name who entered the race Friday. Mary Peltola, a Democratic former U.S. House member, is seen as the most high-profile challenger to incumbent Sullivan.

In the U.S. House race, nine candidates indicated plans to appear on the ballot as of Monday morning. That list includes Republican incumbent Rep. Nick Begich and two challengers who have been campaigning for months: Democratic pastor Matt Schultz and independent fisherman and educator Bill Hill.

The list of candidates for U.S. House also includes incarcerated felon Eric Hafner, who last appeared on Alaska’s ballot in 2024. Hafner, who has never been to Alaska, has twice filed to run in Alaska from behind bars, scrambling campaign strategy and spurring an Alaska Supreme Court case. Eric’s mother, Carol Hafner, who also doesn’t live in Alaska, has filed to run for U.S. Senate. Both are registered Democrats and perennial candidates.

Legislative races

Fifty of Alaska’s 60 legislative seats will also be up for election in November, including half of all Senate seats and all 40 House seats. Two high-profile Senate members are retiring — Senate President Gary Stevens and Senate Finance Committee Co-Chair Lyman Hoffman — spurring competitive races to replace them. House Speaker Bryce Edgmon is among the candidates looking to succeed Hoffman, who has served in the Legislature for nearly 40 years.

Under Alaska’s election system, all candidates will appear on a single, nonpartisan primary ballot in August. The top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the November general election.

Last minute switch-up in Interior Senate district

It wasn’t clear if Senate District Q — covering a part of Interior Alaska that includes North Pole, Fox and Eielson Air Force Base — would have an incumbent or not until the final day of the filing period for the November election.

Sen. Robert Myers earlier this year filed a letter of intent to run for another four-year term, but did not complete his paperwork or make any public statements about his intention to retire. He also did not respond to questions about his plans in the days leading up to Monday’s filing deadline.

Then on Monday morning, Rep. Frank Tomaszewski, a two-term Republican, filed to run for Senate District Q shortly before Myers announced his retirement and endorsed Tomaszewski in a prepared statement.

“At this point in time, I need to take a step back from Juneau and focus on my wife and kids for the next season in my life,” Myers said in the statement shared by the Senate minority. “The district will be in good hands for the next four years with Rep. Frank Tomaszewski stepping into the Senate seat.”

As of late Monday morning, Tomaszewski was running unopposed.

Tomaszewski’s wife, Harmony Tomaszewski, in turn joined the race for his seat in the House on Monday morning.

Harmony Tomaszewski, also a registered Republican, is the owner and operator of an electrical contracting company. She ran an unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the Golden Valley Electric Association board in 2024. She also served as chair of her husband’s most recent campaign for the state House seat.

Harmony Tomaszewski is running against independent Joy Beth Cottle, a captain at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ fire department, for the House District 34 seat. Cottle is again entering the race after running unsuccessfully against Frank Tomaszewski for the seat two years ago.

Neither Tomaszewski immediately responded to requests for comment Monday morning.

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(Daily News reporter Iris Samuels reported from Anchorage, and Mari Kanagy reported from Juneau.)

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