Among Alaska’s 16 candidates for governor is a ‘pissed off’ single mother of five
- Alaska Beacon
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
By James Brooks
Alaska Beacon
The first independent candidate in Alaska’s 2026 gubernatorial election is a single mother of five who says she’s frustrated with the condition of Alaska’s fisheries, its economy and the Permanent Fund dividend.
Jessica Faircloth filed her letter of intent in January, making her the 15th person to sign up for this year’s gubernatorial race. A 16th candidate announced his candidacy this week.
She’s from Kasilof, a rural community on the Kenai Peninsula.
Faircloth hasn’t held public office before, but she decided to run after one of her oldest children surprised her with the happy news that she’ll be a grandmother soon.
“I was overjoyed,” she said, “but then I started thinking. My kids are the fourth generation of my family to live in (our) house, and they didn’t get to grow up in the same Alaska I did.”
She recalls digging for clams, always having moose and caribou in the freezer — and then, there were the king salmon.
“We caught so many kings when I was a kid, we turned them loose if they were too small, or they didn’t fight hard enough, or we caught them too early in the day, or they were a little pink,” she said.
“I realized three of my five children have caught a king salmon, and only one of them was over 50 pounds, and they don’t remember digging clams,” she said.
As she was contemplating the future her first grandchild might experience, she said: “It’s like a light bulb went on, and I started to see that Alaska is not being managed for Alaskans.”
The Permanent Fund dividend needs to be guaranteed in the Alaska Constitution, she said.
Faircloth noted that some oil and gas companies have been able to use writeoffs and exemptions to reduce their taxes to zero.
“If you look at our oil and gas, the tax structure allows zero tax years … and our Legislature hasn’t done anything to fix them,” she said.
Fisheries are big in her mind, too.
“The whole West Coast doesn’t have any salmon. I don’t have any king salmon. I love them more than anything in the world,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s the PFD, our state budgeting — none of it, none of it, is being managed to benefit Alaskans. It’s benefiting outside corporate interests, mainly, and I am absolutely morally and ethically appalled and pissed off,” Faircloth said.
Faircloth was one of more than 19,000 Alaskans registered as members of the Alaskan Independence Party when it dissolved last year. Now, she’s registered as “undeclared” and campaigning independently of any party.
“I’m one of those people that doesn’t just sit back and complain … that’s the mentality I grew up with. You either do something or you stop complaining,” she said.
Faircloth’s policy positions don’t fit into the standard Alaska political boxes.
She supports a constitutional dividend, something Republicans in the Alaska Legislature tend to champion. She also wants to see more support for public school teachers, a position typically held by legislative Democrats.
“There’s no pension. There’s no benefits. It’s underfunded,” she said of the state’s public school system.
“I just — I’m watching my teacher friends, especially some of the younger ones, and they are so discouraged,” Faircloth said.
She’s a fan of the “Stop Alaskan Trawler Bycatch” Facebook page and supports anti-trawl appointees to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and other fishery regulators.
“I understand that the governor actually has very little power (on fisheries), but the power that the governor does have is who they appoint as commissioners and on boards, and that is where the strength of Alaskan government comes from,” she said.
Eight years ago, she voted for current Gov. Mike Dunleavy, but she’s soured on him.
“I really believed, you know, that he was going to be able to get the dividend in the Constitution. And I just expected great things from him. And after eight years, I’m kind of let down,” she said.
Dunleavy is term-limited and unable to run for a third term, a fact that has encouraged a large number of candidates to enter the race.
So far, there are three Democrats, 12 Republicans and Faircloth.
The deadline to register with the Alaska Division of Elections is 5 p.m. June 1.
The four candidates who receive the most votes in the August primary election will advance to the November general election.
“I’ve been a broke-ass single mom with a backbone and the ability to budget, and that is what our state needs right now,” she said. “Somebody to walk in there and say, ‘OK, listen, you’re not doing your job, and we’re all in this together. So I need everyone to step up and to do what they’re supposed to.’ I just think that Alaska should be managed for Alaskans first. And that’s not being done.”
• 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.
