Alaska Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower to resign Monday amid lieutenant governor campaign

Under state law, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who held Shower’s seat before his 2018 election, will name a replacement

Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, speaks Friday, April 12, 2024, on Senate Bill 187, the capital budget. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

By James Brooks

Alaska Beacon

Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, will resign from the Alaska Senate on Monday, according to a resignation letter submitted to Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak.

The resignation was expected. Shower was named the lieutenant governor candidate for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson in September, and he said he would resign from his seat early.

Shower did not immediately respond to a phone call and text messages seeking comment on Thursday afternoon.

Under Alaska law and Republican Party rules, party officials in Shower’s district will nominate possible replacements to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who will select the replacement. 

It’s a process Dunleavy will be familiar with: Before being elected governor in 2018, Dunleavy served in the Senate and resigned early to focus on his election. Then-Gov. Bill Walker nominated Mike Shower to fill Dunleavy’s seat and Shower went on to win the next election in his own right.

Shower’s possible replacements must be Republicans, because Shower is a Republican, and otherwise meet the Alaska Constitution’s requirements for office.

The governor’s selection must be confirmed by the Senate’s other Republicans before being seated. That includes the other five Republicans in the Senate’s six-person minority caucus, as well as the five Republicans in the bipartisan Senate majority caucus.

Confirmation isn’t guaranteed: In 2018, Republican senators rejected Walker’s first choice to replace Dunleavy. Walker’s second choice withdrew his name from consideration. 

In 2019, Republicans rejected Dunleavy’s first choice to replace Anchorage Republican Sen. Chris Birch, who died in office.

Each of Alaska’s state senate districts consists of two House districts. Reps. George Rauscher, R-Sutton, and Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, respectively represent each of the House districts within Shower’s Senate district, and both men said they will be putting their names forward for consideration.

Rauscher had already announced his intention to seek Shower’s seat in the 2026 election.

It was not immediately clear on Thursday if additional candidates would be proposed for consideration by party officials.

If either Rauscher or McCabe are chosen, it would set off a domino effect: Dunleavy would then be able to select a new House representative to replace the person who moved to the Senate.

Sen. Robert Myers, R-North Pole, said he believes Shower has been talking to Dunleavy about possible options.

“I think the expectation at this point is Rep. Rauscher, but I don’t want to weigh in any further than that,” Myers said of his preference.

Myers said the resignation makes sense. 

“Honestly, it makes some relationships a little bit awkward if you’re still in the Legislature while running for a statewide seat like that. It could have potentially complicated next year’s session a little bit,” he said. “I wish him well on what he embarks on for the future, whether that’s politically or personally.”

While the Senate minority caucus will now need to pick a new leader, Myers said he doesn’t expect the next legislative year will have other significant changes because there’s someone new in Shower’s seat.

“The (senate) majority has already laid out what their priorities are,” he said. “I don’t see votes changing, numbers changing, majority-minority votes on major bills, or anything like that.”

At least one more Senate resignation is expected soon. Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, is running for governor and has said she will resign in time for a replacement to be selected before the legislative session begins in January.

“I typically put in about 40 hours of work, even during the interim, 40 hours or more. And so, juggling that along with the governor electoral campaign is tricky, but there’s certain things I want to finish up and make sure I’m leaving things in good order as I pass out of the district,” she said.

At the same time, she wants to leave time for Dunleavy to pick both her replacement and a replacement for a House member if he selects either Reps. Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, or DeLena Johnson, R-Palmer, to replace her.

Tilton has already filed to run for Senate in 2026. 

Hughes said that regardless of the replacement, she doesn’t think the Senate will change significantly. She also said that she’s going to stay out of the discussion of who will replace Shower as Senate Minority Leader.

“That’s up to that group to decide,” she said. “I’m not going to be one of them. I’m not going to meddle and try to tell them who should or should not be Senate Minority Leader.”

• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.