Dave Bronson has picked a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and financial advisor to join him in his bid for Governor.
Bronson, a Republican and the former mayor of Anchorage, announced Joshua Church as his choice for lieutenant governor Wednesday at a car dealership in Fairbanks.
Bronson said they are ideologically aligned and that geography played a role in the selection.
“I have a blind spot a little bit, and it’s called the Interior,” he said. “And I knew right away that if I was gonna do a good job as a governor, I’d have to have a running mate that understood everything that was going on up here because all the mining, all the gasline stuff, it’s all gonna be supported through this city and this borough.”
Bronson also said he made the pick because of Church’s background in finance.
Church lives in Fairbanks and works in wealth management and financial planning. He’s served on a handful of local committees and commissions and is currently a member of the City of Fairbanks Finance Committee.
In a speech Wednesday, Church pointed to numerous things he sees as problems for the state, including high energy costs and a budget crisis.
The lieutenant governor in Alaska is tasked with administering state election laws, and Church says he’d want to pursue election reforms if they take office.
“If we can’t all be confident that we have safe, secure and accurate elections, then none of the rest of this will matter,” he said.
Bronson is one of 14 candidates currently in the 2026 governor’s race. He served a single term as Anchorage mayor before losing to current mayor Suzanne LaFrance in 2024. Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed him manager of Ted Stevens International Airport last year, a post he resigned after eight months.