Alaska gubernatorial candidate Tom Begich, an Anchorage Democrat and former state senator, announced his running mate Wednesday at the Noel Wien Library in Fairbanks. He picked Julia Hnilicka to join him on the ticket.
Begich said during a speech that he sought someone who’d do more than check a box or “fill some political role.”
“When I started thinking about who I wanted standing next to me as lieutenant governor, and I’ve been thinking about it for some time, I wanted to be sure it was somebody who would lead Alaska as a partner with me,” he said.
Hnilcka, who was raised in Nenana, worked as the Alaska state director for U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development during the Biden administration. She ran unsuccessfully for Alaska House in 2020 as a Democrat.
The pair’s speeches covered priorities like making Alaska more affordable, investing in education and responding to the needs of communities in all corners of the state.
Alaska lieutenant governors are tasked with supervising the state’s Division of Elections. And in a brief interview after the event, Hnilicka said she wants to ensure the votes of people living in rural Alaska are counted.
"We really need to make sure that our rural communities are empowered to be part of our voice of Alaska, and to make sure that they are helping make those decisions about our public officials,” she said.
She criticized Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of an election reform bill the Legislature passed earlier this year. Dunleavy said it contained changes the elections division warned would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible” to implement ahead of this year’s elections, and a legislative override vote failed.
Hnilicka also said she was “disturbed” by the state releasing confidential voter data to the federal government, which is the subject of a lawsuit civil rights advocates filed in April. It names current Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom, who’s also a candidate for governor, as one of the defendants.
Begich is one of three Democrats in the Republican-dominated field vying for the Alaska governor’s office. Dunleavy, the incumbent, is term-limited and cannot run. Candidates have until Monday to officially file for the race.