Alaska Democratic Party
Chairperson	Mike Wenstrup
House Leader	Calvin Schrage (Independent, Minority Caucus)
Senate Leader	N/A (Bipartisan Coalition)
Headquarters	PO Box 240207, Anchorage, Alaska 99524
Membership(2024)	73,963[1]
National affiliation	Democratic Party
Colors	Blue
Seats in theU.S. Senate	0 / 2
Seats in theU.S. House of Representatives	0 / 1
Statewide Executive Offices	0 / 2
Seats in theState Senate	9 / 20[a]
Seats in theState House of Representatives	14 / 40[b]
Election symbol
Website
www.alaskademocrats.org
Politics of Alaska Elections

TheAlaska Democratic Party is the affiliate of theDemocratic Party inAlaska, headquartered inAnchorage.

It is one of two major parties in Alaska, alongside theAlaska Republican Party. The Democratic Party holds theAlaska Senate in a coalition government.^[a][2] As of 2020, there are over 75,000 registered members of the Alaska Democratic Party.^[3]

In 1949, the Young Democrats of Alaska was established as a group.^[4] Except in U.S. presidential elections, the Alaska Democratic Party was very successful in the early days of statehood and the late territory days (pre-1959), featuring such characters as territorial governor and later national senatorErnest Gruening. Gruening was one of only two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized an expansion of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.Bob Bartlett, also a Democrat, and erstwhile secretary of the territory, was the first senator from Alaska, and remained a senator until his death in 1968.William A. Egan, also of the Alaska Democratic Party, was elected the first governor of the State of Alaska. Until the election of governor Bill Walker, he was the only governor of Alaska of either party to have been born in Alaska. In theU.S. House meanwhile, DemocratRalph J. Rivers was the state's first representative from statehood until 1967.

In the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King,Ted Kennedy, representing Senator Robert Kennedy (of New York), in the presence of Senator Gruening, gave a historic speech on the island-community ofSitka, Alaska.^[5][6] DemocratMike Gravel was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1968 and served for two terms until his defeat in the Democratic primary in 1980 (Republicans ultimately picked up the seat in the general). By the end of 1973, Gravel was the only Alaska Democrat remaining in federal office, as the state'sHouse seat and other Senate seat had switched hands to Republicans. After Gravel left office, Democrats would not hold any seats in Alaska's congressional delegation again for almost three decades.

On October 16, 1972, Alaska's incumbent Democratic congressmanNick Begich went missing in a plane crash along withHouse Majority LeaderHale Boggs en route toJuneau fromAnchorage. In spite of this, three weeks later, Begichwon re-election to his seat. However, he was later declared dead on December 29 of that year after an intensive search effort.^[7] Neither Begich's body nor the plane he flew on were ever found.

In aspecial election held shortly thereafter in 1973, RepublicanDon Young (who had previously lost to the late Begich) won election to the seat and held it until his death while in office in 2022. In thespecial election held after Young's death, DemocratMary Peltola won Alaska's at-large congressional seat, flipping the seat to Democrats for the first time in almost 50 years.^[8] Peltola would beelected a full term in November of that year.

The most recent Democrat to serve asGovernor of Alaska wasTony Knowles, who served from 1994 to 2002, while the most recent Democrat to hold statewide executive office in Alaska wasByron Mallott, who served as Lieutenant Governor underindependent governorBill Walker from 2014 until his resignation in 2018 after a scandal.^[9]

DemocratBarack Obama won the2008 Democratic caucuses in Alaska by a margin of more than three to one over Hillary Clinton, a higher percentage than any state except Idaho. He then received 37.89 percent of the total statewide vote in thegeneral election, losing the state to RepublicanJohn McCain, who had selected then-Alaska GovernorSarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate. In the same election year, DemocratMark Begich narrowly wonelection to the U.S. Senate over longtime Republican incumbentTed Stevens. Begichlost re-election in 2014,^[10] the same year that Democratic-endorsed independentBill Walkerdefeated incumbent RepublicanSean Parnell for Governor.^[11]

In2012, President Obama lost the state to RepublicanMitt Romney but increased his percentage of the statewide vote to 40.81%. This was later used as evidence in a high-profile New York Times article detailing the complexity of Alaska politics and the difficulty in predicting the electability of Democrats in the state.^[12] In2016, Republican presidential candidateDonald Trump carried the state by around fifteen percentage points overHillary Clinton. No Democrat has carried Alaska in presidential elections since1964 whenLyndon B. Johnson had his landslide victory overBarry Goldwater.

Following the2022 Alaska Senate elections, nine Democrats joined with eight Republicans to form a majority caucus and split several senate posts between them.^[13]

The leadership of the Alaska Democratic Party consists of the following individuals:^[14]

• Chair - Eric Croft^[15]
• Vice Chair - Jessica Cook
• Secretary - Katherine Pfeiffer
• Treasurer - Monica Southworth
• National Committeewoman - Brenda Knapp
• National Committeeman -Charles Degnan

The Alaska Democratic Party performs many functions, all with the aim of helping Democrats to win elected office within the state.

These functions include:^[3]

• The organization and recruitment of citizens to go door to door for the party and promote the party issues and candidates.
• The coordination of statewide campaigns for the general election every two years.
• Working to get articles into newspapers, letters to the editors written, and callers on talk radio stations.
• Operating the official Alaska Democratic Party website.
• Sending out email announcements to Democrats regarding party activities.
• Operating a state Voter File.

• None

• None

Alaska Democratic Party gubernatorial election results

Election	Gubernatorial ticket	Votes	Vote %	Result
1958	William A. Egan/Hugh Wade	29,189	59.61%	WonY
1962	William A. Egan/Hugh Wade	29,627	52.27%	WonY
1966	William A. Egan/Hugh Wade	32,065	48.37%	LostN
1970	William A. Egan/Red Boucher	42,309	52.38%	WonY
1974	William A. Egan/Red Boucher	45,553	47.37%	LostN
1978	Chancy Croft/Katie Hurley	25,656	20.22%	LostN
1982	Bill Sheffield/Steve McAlpine	89,918	46.12%	WonY
1986	Steve Cowper/Steve McAlpine	84,943	47.31%	WonY
1990	Tony Knowles/Willie Hensley	60,201	30.91%	LostN
1994	Tony Knowles/Fran Ulmer	87,693	41.08%	WonY
1998	Tony Knowles/Fran Ulmer	112,879	51.27%	WonY
2002	Fran Ulmer/Ernie Hall	94,216	40.70%	LostN
2006	Tony Knowles/Ethan Berkowitz	97,238	40.97%	LostN
2010	Ethan Berkowitz/Diane E. Benson	96,519	37.67%	LostN
2014	EndorsedBill Walker/Byron Mallott (Independents)	N/A	N/A	Did not run
2018	Mark Begich/Debra Call	125,739	44.41%	LostN
2022	Les Gara/Jessica Cook	63,851	24.21%	LostN

• Political party strength in Alaska
• List of state parties of the Democratic Party (United States)
• 2020 Alaska Democratic primary

• Official website

• Alaska Democratic Party
• Democratic Party (United States) by state
• Political parties in Alaska

• CS1: unfit URL
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia