Claman's exit narrows the Democratic field in Alaska's wide-open governor race

Anchorage state Sen. Matt Claman dropped out of the 2026 governor's race just before Saturday's 5 p.m. withdrawal deadline, leaving two Democrats in a race where 17 governor and lieutenant governor tickets remain certified for the August primary.

Claman, who ran with Sarah Skeel, said in a Saturday statement that he was confident the issues he campaigned on — public safety, health, and education — would be "addressed and carried forward by other candidates," and that he would return his focus to the Senate. Skeel called the campaign "an inspiring experience."

His exit leaves former state Senate Minority Leader Tom Begich, who has led the field in public polling, and former state representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins of Sitka, known as "JKT," as the two Democrats still running. Former Gov. Bill Walker, a nonpartisan, is also competing for left-of-center and independent voters.

Alaska's primary functions as a gate: only the top four of 17 tickets advance to the November general election, regardless of party, which is what makes vote-splitting decisive. The Republican vote is currently divided among more than a dozen candidates. The Democratic vote, with Claman out, now concentrates behind fewer — chiefly Begich and Kreiss-Tomkins — and consolidation tends to help candidates clear a top-four threshold rather than hurt it. The more a large Republican field splits its support while Democrats unify, the more of those four slots could go to Democratic-aligned candidates, an outcome the system can produce even in a state that leans Republican.

The same Saturday deadline brought another change: Republican former state senator Lesil McGuire's ticket was certified after she named Sara Rasmussen as her lieutenant governor candidate, replacing Elizabeth Rexford.