Former State Sen. and 2026 gubernatorial hopeful Tom Begich kicked off a statewide listening tour on the Kenai Peninsula last weekend. Begich is the only Democratic candidate who’s filed his intent to run for the state’s highest office. He joined a crowded field of Republicans also vying to replace the term-limited Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Begich’s visit to the peninsula started in Homer and ended in Soldotna. He says he picked the Kenai Peninsula to start his tour partly due to nostalgia – he says it’s a place that “feels like home.”
“A lot of people ignore the Kenai Peninsula, but it's a growing part of our state,” he said. “It's a significant one of our boroughs, and it's part of the population base of the state, and people should be paying attention to the Kenai.”
There are a few industries Begich views as synonymous with the peninsula – fishing and energy especially. Something he says distinguishes him from other candidates running for governor is his interest in renewable energy. He points to Homer Electric Association’s Bradley Lake hydroelectric dam as a project that stabilizes energy supplies while reducing dependence on oil and gas.
“I think that that makes the Kenai one of those areas you want to look at for examples of how we can make alternatives and renewables work for the state and lower overall energy costs,” he said.
Begich has familiar reservations about the prospects of the long-sought Alaska LNG Project. If it’s built, the $44 billion project would move natural gas from the North Slope to Nikiski to be liquefied and shipped overseas. It came under new ownership this year, and has netted several nonbinding agreements amid political momentum.
But Begich says he’s worried about putting all of the state’s eggs in the LNG pipeline basket. He says he would encourage the state to be a part of the project if it moves forward. But he doesn’t see that happening soon.
“If the gasline happens, great, let's, the state’ll take a role in helping move it forward,” he said. “But if none of these grants or materials materialize, it's really, in many ways, something of a pipe dream.”
Begich has several concrete proposals when it comes to education. He wants to see universal, voluntary pre-K programs to ensure students start kindergarten “ready to learn.” That’s in addition to a strong reading program – Begich co-sponsored the landmark Alaska Reads Act legislation signed into law in 2022 alongside Dunleavy.
And he says Alaska needs to do a better job of keeping educators in-state.
“That means having a defined benefit option so that they can choose to actually have a retirement here,” he said. “That means the ability to pay into Social Security, which they do not have today, and that means incentivizing them to stay in rural Alaska by ensuring that the state is doing its part to help provide teacher housing.”
He supports increasing the base amount of money school districts get per student, and disagrees with claims the state doesn’t have enough money to fulfill its constitutional obligation to public schools.
Begich estimates the state could access $500 million in new revenue through initiatives like a corporate income tax on internet companies and the sale of carbon credits for undeveloped forest land. He says the Permanent Fund dividend formula needs to be rewritten in a way that allows it to grow with the fund, but doesn’t bankrupt the state.
Begich doesn’t support a statewide sales tax, which he called regressive, but says if one lands on his desk he’d exempt food and clothing, as well as people making less than $50,000 per year. He supports increasing Alaska’s gas tax, which hasn’t changed in more than 50 years.
Begich has a lot of ideas, but says the purpose of his listening tour is, well, to listen. And across meetings in Homer, Soldotna and Kenai he says one topic came up a lot: lack of affordable housing.
“I heard it in all three of the conversations, separately, at home, or spontaneously, people were saying housing is unaffordable,” he said. “Young people don't want to stay here because they can't actually own a home. And that, to me, may be the crisis of our time.”
He says people suggested expanding property tax exemptions for young homeowners and restricting the proportion of housing used for short-term rentals.
Alaska’s gubernatorial election is next November.
