Tanana Chiefs Conference: Rural Alaska Candidate Forum - State Candidates

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for logging in to our second virtual candidate forum. Today we have some really special guests joining us. We have candidates from House District 36 joining us first to do, answer some questions, and we also have some very special leaders from our region that will be helping us to kick things off. So I'm going to go through My name is Joy Huntington.

I'm the Government Affairs Director at Tanana Chiefs Conference. We are the host of today's event, but we really wanted to welcome everyone to attend across our region, across the state, from rural Alaska, or anyone that cares about the issues of rural Alaska. And so we're really happy that you're here, and we're going to go from 12 to 2 today, the first hour being House District 36. And the second hour being our gubernatorial candidates running for governor. And with that, I'm going to invite our Chief Chair of Tanana Chiefs Conference to the podium, and I'll also invite our First Chief of Eagle, Karma Olvey, to the podium, but we'll have our Chief of TCC kick us off with some comments for you today.

Thank you, Joy, and welcome to everyone that is joining online.

I'm Sharon Hildebrand. I'm from Nulato, where I was raised by my grandparents. I live here in Fairbanks, and before we start, I just want to recognize that our Chief, Karma Alvey, had created this space and this idea for us to go forward in a virtual manner so that all our tribes and our rural communities can participate in knowing who our candidates are that are running for office. So first off, I just want to commend her and give her a round of applause for doing that. It's so important.

We did hear from the tribes and they wanted to be able to hear from all the candidates, and TCC does not endorse any candidates by any means, but we will talk to them. And we'll open the doors and we'll invite them to discuss important issues. Just for a disclosure notice, we did notify and inform all candidates about the virtual candidate forum, and we appreciate those that have responded and have come today to share their, um, reasons why they are joining this, uh, race. This year and why they are running. Kaninà Chiefs Conference is a tribal consortium made up of 42 members, including 39 villages and 37 federally recognized tribes.

Our region covers an area of 235,000 square miles in interior Alaska, which is equal to about 37% of the entire state and just slightly smaller than the state of Texas. We are organized as an Alaska Native Nonprofit Corporation. We work toward meeting the health, self-determination, and enhancing regional Native unity. We work toward meeting the health and social service needs of tribal members and beneficiaries throughout our region. Our programs and services range from direct healthcare services to tribal development services, the management of natural resources, public safety, community planning, and transportation.

Our goals The goal is to give the candidates time to introduce themselves and to answer questions that have been prioritized by our tribal leaders through a survey. They will also be invited to give closing comments. We will also share information on TCC's position on Ballot Measure 2.

First off, I want to share that— I want to share that Chewitzin is or Ts'ukwitsan. I understand there's some ways to say it in different dialects, so I want to recognize that also. It is a word that was shared with us from Chief Peter John of Minto, the late Chief Peter John, and he shared with us that we need to do things in a good way and to hear each other, to see each other, and to respect one another. Tudwe, today we're gathering in that spirit of inclusion and listening to each other with patience and respect. We have invited these candidates to join us in our house virtually.

Let's honor them and thank them for their willingness to put their names on the ballot this year. Most importantly, we ask every single tribal member over 18 years of age to vote We will not tell you how to vote. We will only ask that you show up to the polls. Show up to your polls and vote your values of who you want represented in office. Masiit.

Back to you, Joy. Thank you so much, Chief, for providing welcome comments today and just for your leadership and, you know, the direction you've given to make sure that our tribes in the villages and our leaders in the communities and our residents are able to participate in the important events that we're putting together and to be engaged. So that direction was very clear, and that's really what kind of pushed for this event to come together. So thank you for that. And at this time, I would like to invite our Chief Olvie of Eagle, the Village of Eagle, to provide her welcome comments as well.

Thank you, Joy. Good afternoon. My name is Chief Karma Alvey. I'm from the Native Village of Eagle. Eagle is located on the US-Canadian border where the Yukon enters Alaska.

We are located on the Taylor Highway, which is closed from October 15th to April 15th and only accessible by plane in the winter months. We are Hawn Athabascan with a tribal enrollment of about 200 people, and our people have lived on these lands hunting and fishing and gathering for thousands of years. Living our lives immersed in our culture and traditions is what really brings our people pride and happiness, and it's important for us to be able to teach our young people these ways of life, to care for our elders, and to provide a safe community for our people. On behalf of Eagle Village, I would like to thank the candidates and the people watching online from the rural communities in Alaska. I would like to stress just how important this year's election is to our tribes and rural communities and how important it is for us to be asking questions and interacting with candidates.

We need to understand their views on issues facing our people and our priorities. Every day in our villages, we feel the impact of state and federal policies and decisions. State and federal leaders make decisions that directly impact our access to public safety, quality education for our children, food security, the management of Fish and Game, the suicide rates of our youth, healthcare, water and sewer, and other basic services essential to our health and well-being. Elected officials have the power to address the cost of living, high fuel prices, freight prices, food prices, electric prices, and getting materials to our villages. We need to be able to work with our elected officials to find solutions together.

It's up to the tribes and rural residents to serve on boards and commissions and communicate with our elected officials on issues that matter to us. They work for all of us as Alaskan residents. I would strongly encourage tribal leaders and members of community to reach out to our fellow village residents to inform them on the issues we are facing and how these candidates are going to help us solve some of these problems. As a leader, I'm very concerned to how some of our elders and vulnerable residents are going to afford the cost of heating oil and food this winter. Please vote on November 3rd.

I challenge you all to vote and to bring people with you to the polls. Thank you again for joining us today.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Karma, Chief Alvey. And I understand that there's a big screen up in Eagle and tribal members and community members are gathering. And so the chief asked if it's okay for her to go out and join join the people and make a fun gathering out of it. So I think that's a wonderful idea, and we appreciate you for being here.

And it was when we were having a sub-regional meeting in Eagle— such a beautiful community. If people haven't been there yet, definitely you should, you should absolutely go. We had a really nice time there, and during her comments, Chief Olby mentioned that it'd be great to have Get Out the Native Vote event that's virtual, and I had been kind of thinking of the same thing, and so that really solidified it for me, and having you be a part of this makes me really happy. So thank you, Chief, and thank you for having everyone also watching and participating in Eagle. Thank you, Joy.

Okay, and two hours, so we'll have the governor candidates after this, so thank you and If, uh, yeah, we'll, we'll, um, keep in touch with you, and thanks for being a part of this. Thank you.

Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and share a couple of announcements before we get started with our first round of questions and hearing from the candidates. Um, number one is that we do have a helpline for anyone that may be having issues logging in or you're having audio challenges and things like that. Some things we might not be able to fix for you, but if you hear of anyone in your community that's having issues, here is a phone number that they can call: 907-328-7878. 328-7878. And that's also for our candidates.

If you get kicked off or anything and you're having issues, please Go ahead and give our IT department a call. I want to share that we are not going to have live questions during this event given the tight timeframe and the fact that we are timing the answers and we wanted to have two different races. It would— we'd need a lot more time to be able to have questions from participants. But if you would like to give us comments, the organizers, and maybe give us suggestions for next time time, or let us know what you liked or what worked well or didn't work well. There's a link that you can follow on the social media event that was posted, the social media announcements, also our event calendar on the website.

There's a link there to give us some feedback, and those emails come directly to myself and our Chief Communications Officer as well. So we'd love to hear from you on how, how you thought this event went. And how we can make it better in the future. And as far as the questions we're asking today, we have put these questions together with support from the, the people that we have on the ground in Washington, D.C. that are working on our issues and priorities on a regular basis. And really, there's a lot of crossover between, you know, our issues, our priorities really don't change from working with the state to working with the federal government.

It's just different agencies different levels of the government that, that we are talking with. So they developed the questions with us. And then we sent out a survey to our tribes, to our tribal leaders, asking them to prioritize which questions were most important, and we got responses from the tribal leaders, and that's how we established the questions that we'll be asking today. So I wanted to share that the answers will be timed. And yeah, we, we really wanted to just bring people together, and this event is recorded.

And so our goal is that even if we don't have— if people can't join us today, we can share this recording with our tribes, and we can also share it via social media as well and on our website. So if people can still watch this, and we have 26 days until the election. I'm sure our candidates are very excited about that, and I'll give some more information a little bit later. But for now, and I guess I should just share that I'm from Manly Hot Springs, my grandparents are from Tanana and Rampart, and I was also raised in Stevens Village, and I live here in Fairbanks and am really, really excited to be a part of the TCC team as of this June. So That's a little bit more about me as the moderator for today, and I have lots of support making this event possible, including my timekeeper who's in the office with me, Olivia.

And so I really appreciate everyone for, for helping out. So at this time, I've mentioned that we're going to have House District 36 go first, and then we'll have a little time in between before the governor candidates jump on, and we'll have introductions, we'll have 3 of the most important questions, which the candidates will have a minute and a half to answer those, and we will have also some 1-minute, 2 1-minute questions, and then 2 minutes of closing comments. So at this time, I'd like to invite our 2 candidates for House District 36 for their cameras to be turned on. And as many of you know, you might be thinking, why House House District 36 only. It's the only non-statewide race that we're highlighting in our candidate forum series, and it's because the majority of our villages are in House District 36.

So you may hear more about that from, from our candidates as well, but this is a very important race in our region, and we really wanted to bring the candidates in, and they were both very excited to join us, and so I appreciate how quickly they responded and confirmed. So at this time, I'm going to go by the order starting out of how the names are listed on the Division of Elections website, and then we're going to go back and forth. So each of you will have a turn going first, and that's kind of how we're going to go back and forth. First, I wanted to welcome our current incumbent, Representative Becky Schwanke, who is— she'll share more about her background, and also Crystal Jones, who is also running for House District 36. So I just wanted to welcome you both, and for our 2 minutes of opening comments, I'm going to have Crystal go first, and these are the signs.

So 30 seconds left, caution means 10 seconds left, and stop means stop. So we're going to go ahead and rip in for opening comments. Or for introductions, you're both of your cameras will be on, but when you're answering questions, it'll just be me and you, me and whoever is answering on the, on the camera for everyone to see. So with that, we're going to get the timer up for 2 minutes and have Crystal begin with your introduction, please.

All right, um, first, thank you all for hosting this event, and for everyone watching, thank you for showing up. I think that politics is really fun. I love to vote. I love to do the research and just get a voice in our future. So thank you all for that.

Um, I'm Crystal Jones. I grew up on Kodiak Island, and for the past 10 years I've lived here in District 36 in Nalchina, which is in between Palmer and Glenallen. And I entered this election because I think that every Alaskan deserves somebody in their corner. Right now we're dealing with rising grocery prices, gas and diesel, heating costs, and an unreliable Permanent Fund dividend. And so I think that the legislature needs to do— enact some positive changes so that we have a manageable cost of living.

I would also like to see us invest in strong schools and have access to affordable healthcare, mental healthcare, and housing. I have a lot of experience that have set me up well to be a legislator. I have a degree in business, a degree in philosophy, a master's in anthropology, and I'm halfway through another master's in counseling psychology. And I also have traveled quite extensively, which I think gives me a unique perspective to solve, to solve problems that we have. So as a legislator, I will bring honesty, but as well as that, I have never worked in politics before, so I bring in fresh eyes that I think will give us unique ideas, perspectives, and insights to solve our problems.

I think that Alaska is the most gorgeous place, and I'd like to make it the best place as well. Didn't even get to put my stop sign up. Thank you, Crystal. And at this time, I'd like to turn it over to Rebecca Schwanke. Yeah, thank you, Joy.

Thank you, Chief Chair Hildebrand and Chief Olver. I really appreciate the opportunity. I know we talked about it briefly, but we have the largest house district in the entire state, and this is such a great way for us to be able to talk to people all over the state. So my name is Becky Schwanke. I was born and raised in Alaska.

I spent the first half of my life in the Tok area and quite a few of the TCC villages growing up. Spent the second half of my life after I graduated from UAF with a natural resource and wildlife biology master's here in the Copper River Basin. And so I'm kind of in the Ahtna region now and I have such, such a strong feeling of place that I feel like we are on the precipice. Going to Juneau meant bringing a background and a viewpoint from rural Alaska that is not common in Juneau. I've discovered that I'm only one of two trappers in the entire legislature, which is really crazy.

Probably one of about 5 or 6 hunters. In the legislature, and it puts us at a serious disadvantage when we're trying to describe our history and just where we come from and how hard life is. So my background is everything I can think of outdoors. That's, it's kind of the viewpoint that I bring to every single decision that I make when I'm down in Juneau. And so every single topic that comes to us, I look at through the lens of people that I represent.

So we have 40 voting precincts. We have villages that don't have voting precincts. So everything that we do in Juneau is representative of all of you. And I appreciate the opportunity today. I didn't even get to use it.

Sorry. It's okay. No, you guys are doing great. Thank you so much. So we're just going to keep it rolling here.

And the first question is actually just going to be for Becky, and we'll go ahead and turn Crystal's camera off for a moment here. And I'd like— and this is a minute and a half, Becky— and the first question is, what specific actions will you take to reduce the cost of living in rural Alaska? Yeah, thank you for that, Joy. You know, the most timely action that I think that we can take right now is to assist villages in establishing and upgrading our bulk bulk fuel storage opportunities. Bulk fuel means stocking up when prices dip, so we do this by helping find grant funds.

We get these projects on our CIP list through our legislative office, and then we can direct capital funds at the end of the year if available. So to do this, I helped support the bulk fuel loan program cap increase last year. Another avenue supporting our village projects on the renewable energy fund list— last year I worked hard to ensure the $3 million Alakaket solar and battery project the $1.2 million Healy geothermal project. Just like small in-stream hydro down here in Chitina, these projects go a long way to reducing our local energy costs. I also really am supportive of the AK LNG line.

While we don't directly benefit in most of our communities, we have a law from 2013 that directs 20% of our natural gas state revenue directly into a rural energy infrastructure fund. We also benefit from higher PCE rates when the cost of urban energy goes down. Also, increased ability to support state heating assistance is also something that we can afford when our state revenue is up. Finally, I pledge to continue working with the Denali Commission, specifically encouraging long-term maintenance funds to be built into every new rural energy project. Villages like Hughes might have a nice solar array, but if the output is dropped to 10% of its capacity, we need to ensure that the original project funder stays engaged and helps it get— helps us get back online.

So there are a lot we can do. Thank you so much, and we'll turn Becky's camera off and pull up Crystal, please, to answer the same question. So I'll read it again. What specific actions will you take to reduce the cost of living in rural Alaska? Uh, thank you.

Yeah, so I mentioned that I grew up on Kodiak and that now I live in Nalchina, and so I really have experienced the incredibly high cost of living in rural areas. Uh, the nearest grocery store to me is an hour away, but the affordable one is an hour and a half. And so we really do have to be thoughtful about what we're spending our money on. Energy prices are the big one because that really drives a lot of other costs. We need to invest in local renewables as much as possible so that we are diversifying where our energy sources are coming from.

Biomass heating is— investing in that is a doable thing in areas that have trees and forests. Another important one is a solar diesel hybrid system where— and battery storage so that we are lowering costs that way and just being more efficient. Again, bulk fuel infrastructure is important. We don't want to waste those big dollars on flying in fuel. Expanding the PCE program to include businesses will help keep grocery costs down and then supporting local food and resource independence as well.

Oh, I didn't even have to use that one. Thank you, Crystal. So we're going to turn your camera off and actually, sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm already getting mixed up here. So Crystal, back on actually, since we're going to go take turns with who gets to go first, you'll just be going right into the next question, which is, which is really good. So the next question is, What actions will you take to protect subsistence ways of life in Alaska?

And you'll have a minute and a half for that as well. Thank you so much. I think it's really important that we do have voices in the decision-making process, so we really need to make sure that District 36, that tribal villages have people on the seats of the Board of Fish and Game so that they are in on making decisions about harvest allocations, season timing, and bycatch. So we really— bycatch is important to address that. Hopefully banning— we need to ban trawling in-state waters and hopefully even beyond the 3-mile mark, but also make sure that we're setting limits on bycatch.

And I think that once we— when we do have a voice at the table, we can make sure that we are giving priority to rural Alaskans on that subsistence. So if people, if we are needing to limit fishing, it needs to be the boats, not the people that are fishing to feed their families. Subsistence is really important. I know I grew up in a family that struggled a lot, and if it weren't for fish, we wouldn't have been able to eat every night.

Okay, thank you, Crystal. And if we can get Becky's camera turned back on, and we're going to ask the same question. You have a minute and a half. What actions will you take to protect subsistence ways of life in Alaska? Thank you for this.

So as a rural federally qualified hunter, trapper, and fisherman, this is actually one of my most important priorities. Subsistence to me doesn't mean just putting dry meat, smoked fish in the pantry. It's the actions of getting outdoors, These are 100% key to staying connected with the land and water and having a positive outlook on life. To me, improving salmon returns is one of my key goals, so I co-sponsored Cronk's anti-trawl bill in the House to benefit our upper river villages, and I regularly engage with trawlers and our commercial folks, happy to always push back on their sustainability claims. As biologists, I have no problem pointing out their impacts on our returning kings and chums, both in size and number, Last year I sponsored a bill to ensure that we put all consumptive use of our fisheries over commercial fishing.

That is a commitment that I will continue to push. Having been a Fish and Game biologist here in the Copper River, I still fight every single day, not just to ensure that our continued right to hunt and fish is there, but more importantly right now to ensure our state and our federal agencies are actually doing everything that they can to improve our resources. This is something that our state constitution requires. If we want more moose and caribou, we have to reduce predation, and often cases to do this. I will always support wolf trapping as well as aerial wolf control if needed.

Right now, the state approves these programs. The federal government does not. I will always continue to fight every single day to change this.

Awesome. Thank you, Becky. And we're actually going to keep you on to start the next question, to kick the next question off. It's related to the, the one you just answered. How will you ensure rural Alaska Native voices are included in fish and wildlife management decisions?

And you have a minute and a half for this question as well. Super. Excellent question. So having worked in the field most of my professional life, I'll say that I really think it's very important that we have every single voice, including Alaska Natives, at the table. More importantly, it's actually important to have effective and respected voices in the process.

So here in the Copper River Valley, about 10 years ago, we tried to address this. We added actually 5 to 6 seats on our local advisory committee for individual villages. Ever since, we've actually had much better effective Native voices at the table. An example is just 2 weeks ago, Fish and Game came to our local AC and proposed reopening the Nelchina caribou hunt, even though the herd is still far below the objective. Our local Native leadership was at the table, from Ahtna to the Intertribal Resource Commission to cultural specialists, and their voices were essential.

Their input was critical. We were on the same page, and their professional measured comments actually won out in our AC overwhelmingly. Voted with our Alaska Native voices at the table. On the fisheries front, commercial fishing interests are strong in Juneau, and I don't have to expand on that. Our Fisheries Chair actually played a really strong role in overturning our Board of Fish Chairwoman Merrick Carlson-Bendort's excellent board decisions restricting Area M commercial fishing this last year.

That was really unfortunate. I actually publicly spoke out against her full audit request. We have so many opportunities to bring people to the table and help them refine their voice so that they can be truly effective in the process. Thank you, Becky. And we're going to go ahead and turn off your camera.

You'll get a little break for a second before we go into our 1-minute answers. And the last minute and a half question is the same, same question for Crystal, and I'll read it again. How will you ensure ensure rural Alaska Native voices are included in fish and wildlife management decisions? A minute and a half. Thank you.

I mentioned before that I have a master's in anthropology, and that really taught me the importance of local control. We really do know our homes best, and so we need to have voices that are speaking up for our homes. The Board of Fish and Game, we need to ensure that we have representation on there and co-management, maybe having meetings in villages so that even urban voices can understand and experience what the needs are in our rural areas. I think it's important that the nominees for the board are questioned for their appreciation and understanding of traditional practices and knowledge We really— we want to make sure that we have people on there that are respectful and thoughtful and care because we do have a lot of urban voices and what is needed in Anchorage is very different than what is needed in Galena. I do think that we should treat tribal knowledge as a government entity and not just have public comment sections when it comes to projects.

Hey, thank you. So if you'll just stay on, we are going to go into the second round of questions. And we decided to do this second round as only a minute as a response, which I know is very short. And these are really important issues. And so I know it's tough to answer them for both of our candidates in such a short time.

And I think just to keep keep us timely and keep the time even, but we're going to go ahead and jump into the, to the next questions. You'll have 1 minute each for these, and if you want to give us feedback on any of this as a candidate, please do. This is our first time doing virtual candidate forums, so we're learning a lot too, and would really love to hear your, both of your feedback as well as we continue to do these and improve as we go. So this first question will be for Crystal, and this is, how will you address Alaska's suicide crisis, especially among youth?

I would love to see more support in schools and community spaces where we have professionals or people who are trained in mental health so that we can have a support system that people can look forward to or look at. Um, the last one is expanding telehealth because it would be nice if telehealth and telemental mental health so that we have those resources for people who need them.

Okay, thank you, Crystal, and we're going to turn your camera off and bring Becky back up to, to answer the same question: How will you address Alaska's suicide crisis, especially among youth? And you have only 1 minute for this. Yeah, this is such an incredible problem. You know, I'm going to always come back to getting youth outdoors and reconnected to the land. To me, that is our number one surefire way to address mental health problems across our rural youth.

I actually fully support Chief Terry Hildebrand and her push to get behavioral health financial support in the way of getting fuel for boats. We need outdoor cultural activities in our schools. We need to get back to a place where every child feels that they have value and, and worth. So I'm going to continue to work with our schools to bring more cultural activities and place-based education back into the classroom. We have to bring elders in the classroom.

Our kids are the future. They need guidance. I'm all about getting kids off of technology, getting them off smartphones, off the computers, back outdoors, pick berries, cut firewood, set whitefish nets, catch muskrats. I'll take a kid hunting or trapping any day of the week. So that's, that's my commitment.

Okay, thank you, Becky. And we're going to leave you on camera and go right into the next question. So this is the last 1-minute question, and this is: What actions will you What actions will you take to reduce salmon bycatch and its impact on Alaska's fisheries? Yeah, what a great— sorry, what a great question. One of the most important things that we can do on the state side really is to well vet our Board of Fish candidates, ask them the hard questions, and only vote for those candidates that understand this issue and can help, at least on the state side.

We touched on this a bit, but I pledge to work with the next governor, whoever it is, to appoint the right people to the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council. We just can't have any more commercial or trawling ties on that, on that council. So we do need to push for Alaskan water changes. So out to 3 miles, trawling is simply not in the best interest of Alaskans. I think we've all heard that.

We should have no bottom trawling, and we definitely have to have stricter guidelines if we can't ban it outright. So there's a lot we can do. Engage in the process, ask the hard questions and encourage everybody to get involved.

Thank you, Becky, and we're gonna bring Crystal up, and we will come back to you for 2-minute closing comments.

So Crystal, same question: What actions will you take to reduce salmon bycatch and its impact on Alaska's fisheries? And you have 1 minute to answer this. Thank you. Thank you so much. I am all for banning trawling in state waters and setting bycatch limits outside of that area.

In a perfect world for me, I would ban all trawling, not just for the bycatch issue, but also for the environmental effects, both bottom and mid-water trawling, because they've done studies and mid-water trawling hits the bottom majority of— most to a majority of the And so, it's a bit of a misnomer. The other thing we need to do is pressure the governor to make sure they're nominating candidates who represent rural, interior, and tribal subsistence and interests. I think that in the past, there has been what I would say corruption by the people who stand to benefit having a seat at the table. Cool. I didn't even have to do it, but I did anyways.

Thank you. So we're gonna go into candidate closing comments at this time as we wrap up our House District 36 forum. Thank you for turning Becky's camera on as well. And so we're gonna have Crystal start since you finished the last one. And yeah, basically 2 minutes on the clock to give closing comments.

Yeah, again, I just want to say thank you all so much for being here. As a new candidate, it's been— I've had to be creative in order to get my voice out and let people know who I am and why I'm running. So I really do appreciate this opportunity.

I love this state and I really hate waste, and so I would love to see our legislature be more efficient. I think that right now we have a lot of parties blocking each other just for the sake of party loyalty, and that's the main reason I decided to run nonpartisan. I'd love to see us have a more diverse state revenue so we can be a really successful state, and and work on managing the cost of living. I know I mentioned that before, but I think that that's something we're all really struggling with right now. I would love to see working Alaskans growing and thriving.

I would also like to see an honest legislature that works together for results. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. And we will turn it over to Becky to wrap up with her closing comments as well. You have 2 minutes on the clock, but definitely you don't have to use them all if you don't want to. Yeah, thank you, Joy. Thank you for this.

Wow, this went by way too fast. So I'm just gonna throw this out that we need to do this again. You know, there's, there's so many issues that you deal with when you're a legislator. Things that I never even considered have come across my desk. So spending 6 years on the school board before I ran for House, really gave me a solid understanding of what our districts need, our school districts.

So in this district we have 9, we may have condensed to 8, oh, Tanana, but we, we have so many different school districts. And I, I just want to say that that is one place where I want to talk more with villages because we definitely have to do things differently. And I am not okay with Juneau deciding how individual school districts operate. Our rural districts are different. They They need to look at different curriculum, use different curriculum.

I'm very excited about the legislation that we actually passed last year that'll help cover fuel and electricity costs. So that is going to be absolutely huge. On, you know, there's so many fronts that we need to talk about. Transportation. I spent quite a bit of time talking with some of our different villages on the road system about how we tend to get left out of the STIP process.

So we have a lot of work to do on that front. I spent a lot of time working with our Department of Health Commissioner on how we can actually get more rural health transformation dollars out into our villages. I really was disappointed, I'm just going to say, with the rural health transformation program grants here that were announced last year. I feel like our rural, specifically our EMS program, was not represented. We got zero dollars.

So I really felt good about pushing back on that and hearing that EMS is actually a priority for year 2. So we have so many things that we need work on. I think the most important thing for me to say to all of you right now is thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being involved.

Thank you both very much. And before you go, I have one special request for you. And I was driving my youngest daughter to school the other day, and she was saying that the— she's 15— and she said, Mom, all the ads are so negative. I don't even really want to vote. I don't really want to participate in this.

It's like so ugly, and we know that that sometimes is unavoidable. And our Chief Chair, as we were getting started today, was talking about our core value of Chewitsan for our Tanana Chiefs Conference region, and that really means respect for each other, kindness, working together even if we disagree, you know, finding that common ground and and treating each other as we would like to be treated. And that's really what we're, you know, what we're hoping to bring just to the election cycle as well and how we put our events together. So I'm going to ask both of you to do something a little different with us, which is to say something complimentary or nice about your opponent. And I'm not giving you any warning, so I'll share a few little details on voting while you guys kind of have a second to think about it.

It. But just maybe let me know when you're ready, and if it takes, takes a minute just to kind of think about what you'd like to share. And we're going to do this with, with any races that we're really— we're hosting a forum on. I think it's a good way to kind of bring that humanity back to it, because a lot of us, most of us want the same things, and we just maybe have a different approach. But that doesn't make some people bad and some people good.

I think we just, we want to bring that, you know, we're all in this together and these are challenges that we all face. And so, we just want to bring that back into the conversation. But I wanted to just share a little bit that people can go to the TANF and Achieves Conference website for more information. We have tons of resources there. It's tananachieves.org/elections.

Elections-2026, and you can get information there on who's on the ballots, answers to questions that were asked to all of the candidates, information on Ballot Measure 2, how to find your polling place. There's tons of information there, as well as the Division of Elections website, of course. So there's lots of resources for people. The campaigns all have websites, contact info if people have specific questions. And I mentioned this before, but the election is 26 days away, so we're in that final month countdown.

And election— or campaigns take a ton of work. I've been involved in a few, and I just want to say that, you know, I'm really proud of all the work that you guys are putting in. And, you know, it's tough and it's tough on every level. So I know we're kind of getting close to the end of it. And there's actually 16 days until people can vote early in our cities or our larger communities.

And so that— sorry, two different things, two different things. So 16 days is the deadline for people to apply for an absentee by mail ballot. Sorry, I was getting those, getting those mixed up. The absentee by mail ballot, you can actually get that by going to, on a browser, internet browser, go to absenteeballotapplication.alaska.gov, and it's all like together, absenteeballotapplication.alaska.gov.

To apply either online for them to send you a mail-in ballot, and you can also get the paper application. Also, there's two options, and that website pulls it right up, and you have 16 days to apply for that. And so you can mail, you know, fill in your ballot and not have to be in a polling place depending on, you know, what's happening on Election Day. So I wanted to share that And we will also have early voting in the urban cities as I was sharing as well. So I definitely encourage people to vote early if possible, and I really would love to see the turnout in our region as well as here in Fairbanks.

Okay, with that, I'm going to come back to our candidates and we'll start with Becky. Becky, can you share something nice, please? I absolutely can. I, you know, I'm going to say, Crystal, this is, this is awesome that you jumped in. I'm really glad that you actually did, and it's daring.

So I think being a younger candidate, never having run for any sort of council or board, or, you know, serving in that capacity, I think it's really brave, and I think that you're you have done a really good job in thinking about the variety of topics that come at us and, and the recognition that we need to make some changes on all fronts, you know, as far as fiscal responsibility and then prioritizing the things that are really important to our rural district. So yeah, I just want to thank you for jumping in.

Thank you, Becky, and I'll turn it over to Crystal.

Uh, yeah, thank you so much. That is very sweet of you. Um, I love this question, and I am glad you got to give us a chance to speak on it because I did want to say, uh, when I first signed up to run, I was so scared. I was like, Becky's gonna come to my house and she's gonna yell at me. And she never did that.

She has been nothing but incredibly kind and friendly every time I have met her. And so thank you for making this feel like a very safe, uh, opportunity. So yeah, I was, I was worried. And having talk to other candidates, they, they do have issues with the people they're running against starting rumors and just being rude. And, and we haven't had that at all.

And I think that we've really supported each other in, in both of our running. So thank you. And also thanks for saying I was brave, because I do have to tell myself I am brave and can do hard things a couple times a day.

Well, thank you both for doing that, and I feel like you have set the bar very high, and I, I'm really glad to hear that, you know, as you work through this campaign, you know, you've, you've been, you know, kind towards each other as much as, as much as possible. This is not an easy position to be in, so thank you both for joining us and wish you both the best of luck and hang in there. You're almost to the end and we're going to wrap up this, this section of our candidate forum and move into our gubernatorial candidates and they're all online right now, so Thank you both and have a great day, and we will hope to see you again at some point in the future. Thank you all very much.

OK, so we are going to move over to our governor candidates, and I'm so glad that I see everybody is online. Thank you for jumping on with us. I've already given, given some announcements at the beginning, but I'll just repeat a few for our candidates.

Before we get cameras on and start doing introductions. All 3 of your— we have 3 of the 4 remaining gubernatorial candidates on with us today. You'll hear from them very soon. Really excited that they're able to join us. And for the, the candidates that are on, I just want to share a couple of housekeeping items.

Even though your camera will be turned off and on depending on if you're answering a question or not, your audio is always on. And so hot mic warning, everyone's audio is on unless you mute yourself. I see that several of you, you're all, you've all muted yourselves. And so, but just so you know, when you're up kind of in the box presenting, even when you're not, we can still hear your audio. So just want to give you that heads up.

And also I think you all have the helpline, but if you have any technical issues, we have support for you, 907-328-7878. And so if for any reason you, you have issues turning your, your mic on or anything like that, please reach out and let us know so we can help you. And the questions for today have been prioritized by our tribal leaders. I just wanted to share that they participated in a survey and gave us direct direct input on which questions they wanted us to ask today. And we will not have a live segment where people are able to ask questions in a chat box or turn their cameras on as participants.

Just for time purposes, we are going to ask the questions that we have vetted with our tribes. And this is being recorded, and so our plan is to share this as well with all of our tribes in the interior and with our villages, as well as via social media and so, and on our website. So this is something that even for people that may not be joining us today, we have 39 people watching as participants. So thank you all for joining and being here as well. And yeah, we, we will get into it here and I just wanted to share a few of those, a few of those important items.

And I think we can, the way that we're going to go by order is that everyone is going to get a turn going first, and I'm going off of the order that the names appear on the Division of Elections website. So that's how we'll start, and I believe that's alphabetical. But on the last round, when we're doing closing comments, I'll be drawing names from this really beautiful birch bark basket that I borrowed from one of my coworkers so that we can still have it be randomized. TANF and Achieves Conference does not endorse candidates, but we do— we can endorse and have official positions on ballot measures. But this is a neutral, open space.

We really just want to have the conversation, be able to ask the questions, and give every candidate the opportunity to share your ideas and to think about, you know, how we would all problem solve some of these challenges together. And everybody was invited. I was very careful about making sure the phone calls, the emails happened at the same time so that you all heard, heard about this. And there was kind of that equal, fair approach. And that's really very important to us and very important to me that everyone is welcome, and that's really how we do our business at TCC and in our region with our tribes.

And that's an important value for us, is Chewitsan, and just treating others with respect and courtesy. And that's really what our goal is for today. So with that, I've been talking a lot. I know we want to hear and see our candidates. Let's get all 3 gubernatorial candidates Candidates, cameras on, and we will start our round of 2-minute introductions.

We have our IT team behind the scenes. I think we may be having some technical issues with one of our candidates.

Let's see. Hold tight, everybody. We have even more people watching now, so that's good. We have 41 people watching.

Okay, so why don't we go ahead and have We can go ahead and actually, we are starting just a few minutes early, so I did tell the candidates 1 o'clock would be when we would officially kick off the governor's portion.

So we will, I guess, I guess just to, since we have our governor candidates on and one of them is is just finishing up a meeting and will be jumping in here momentarily. I will just also introduce myself. My name is Joy Huntington, and I am the Government Affairs Director with Tanana Chiefs Conference. I'm Koyukon Athabascan from Manly Hot Springs, and my grandparents were from Tanana and Rampart, and I also grew up in Stevens Village, which is 90 miles northwest of Fairbanks, Fairbanks on the north bank of the Yukon River, and I have lived in Fairbanks for a very long time now and really excited to come work with TCC and work with our Chief Chair Sharon Hildebrand, who did give opening comments when we were getting started at the beginning of this event, as well as our Chief of the Village of Eagle, Karma Olvey. And so We had some great, some great comments to get us kicked off, and I think everyone is ready now.

So thanks for the opportunity to introduce myself and, and to say welcome to our awesome candidates today. Great to see you guys. Everybody's camera looks good. So we're going to start and this is This is the only time, and then at the end when all your cameras will be on at the same time. And if you were on as I was wrapping up House District 36, you might have heard me ask them to say something nice about their opponents.

And so, you know, we have a very important core value at TCC, and I've mentioned it before, I have a little magnet on my desk that, that talks about what Chewitsin means, and it's really about respecting each other and, you know, giving each other that, that courtesy. And I know that that's really difficult to do in campaigns, and I, and I understand that 100%, but today with us, I'm going to— of course, we have our questions, we'll give you your intros, here. We'll get started in a second, but at the end, if you would be so kind as to think of something positive to share about one of your fellow opponents, that would be awesome. And I know that's a little bit, a little bit out of the blue and probably not the norm, but I just thought it would be a nice way to bring a little bit of positivity and you know, we're on a bigger picture scale. We're all in this together, right?

And that's something that I personally feel very strongly, and we're just really honored to have you all here. And so with that, thank you so much to you and your staff for making the time today. As we go into 2-minute introductions, again, I'm going to go by order of the way that the names were on the Division of Elections website. And so we're going to start with Jonathan Christ-Tumpkins. Uh, if you can please give a 2-minute intro.

And this is the 30 seconds left. That one's pretty self-explanatory. This is 10 seconds left. And then of course everybody recognizes what this means. Um, and I have a timekeeper helping me, uh, in my office, so I'm really grateful for her.

So with that, I'm going to ask Jonathan Price-Thompkins to kick us off with a 2-minute introduction. Thanks, Joy, and I'll respond to the other part of your prompt, which I think is great, with why I respect Dave and Treg. So I'll just say, I mean, I think both Dave and Treg have— I have a lot of admiration for their commitment to their family and their wives. And that's just very apparent that they're family people. And Treg and I haven't talked about this, but I've got a couple of rental properties in Sitka.

Treg is about 100x where I am, but a lot of admiration for bootstrapping, buying properties and turning them around and building what's clearly a very successful incredible business. And I've seen Inlet Towers from afar in Anchorage, so a lot of respect for that. And with Dave, I think a lot of love for Alaska. That's very clear. I think a deeply kind person, and I think was mayor in a challenging time, but found a lot of common ground in a tough political environment.

And I'm Jonathan. I'm from down in Sitka. I was a legislator for 10 years and born and raised in Sitka. I represented all the villages in Southeast Alaska, and so I worked a lot on Native and tribal issues and subsistence-related issues in that time, a little bit more of a coastal maritime kind of flavor. So the interior is— I've spent less time far away from the ocean, but I think there's some parallels, and I'm I'm running for governor because I want to restore sort of a collaborative relationship between the governor and the legislature and solve some big problems for Alaska.

I've been concerned about the last 8 years with the current governor and just a lot of sort of gnashing of heads and vetoes and sort of a struggle to find common ground. I feel like education in Alaska subsistence, cost of living, just a lot of things are kind of going the wrong direction and want to turn that around and work with other people across party lines, you know, D, I, or R, to do that. And that's what motivated me to run for governor.

Okay, thank you, Jonathan, for your response. And you went right into the compliments. I was going to give you guys till the very end, but you were excited about that first. Sorry,. I missed that part.

No, no, it's okay, it's okay. It was actually really nice. And so, um, Treg and Dave, uh, if you want to do that now, that's, that's fine. If you want to wait till the end, that's okay. We'll only time you for your intro though.

So like, if you do that, we'll time you. So just, just to kind of make sure, because I want you to have 2 minutes to introduce yourself and not count your compliments, which I'm asking for, um, as a part of your time. So So just let me know when you want to do that and we won't, we won't time that part.

Okay. And sorry, the next person to go is going to be— I was just writing on it. So Dave, you are up next. So please introduce yourself. We'll have 2 minutes.

Well, thank you to TCC and Joy, thank you very much. This is a great opportunity. I'm going to follow Jonathan. Jonathan's lead here on this. I am going to pay— excuse my cough— pay a compliment to both these fine gentlemen.

I've gotten to know them pretty well. In fact, last week down in Ketchikan, Craig and I and some other people spent a couple days in someone's residence. We got to spend some time together and I got to know Craig well. Certainly on the campaign trail these last 7 or 8 months, I run into Jonathan all the time. Time.

He's a very fine young man, very articulate, very intelligent. We disagree politically, but that's politics. I don't even agree with myself sometimes. So very good guys, long public service, both of them. I appreciate that.

And they paid that price, and I appreciate that. So now to the introduction, I guess. So you can start my my 2 minutes, I suppose. My name is Dave Bronson. I grew up in Northern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior.

I thought I would grow up and do nothing but hunting and flying and fishing. That's all I was ever interested in my life. But I went to the University of Wisconsin, got an economics degree, and then went into the Air Force and became a military pilot flying mostly B-1 aircraft. And then got on with the airlines, with Northwest Airlines, who brought me up here here. And by the way, I should mention the most important thing.

While I was in the Air Force, I met my wife in Spokane. Uh, we got married, uh, many years ago, back in 1985. The poor girl's been with me 41 years. A real struggle there. Uh, we have 2 kids in Alaska.

Uh, but again, uh, I, I came up with the airlines, Northwest Airlines, flying 747s, and then finished my military degree or term with 24 years with the, in the Air Force with the Alaska Air National Guard, fantastic organization, retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. I was a pilot and a maintenance officer in the Alaska Air National Guard. And then when COVID hit, I wound up leaving the airlines early. I was a Delta Airlines pilot at the time based in Seattle, mostly international flying, and I decided to run for for mayor of Anchorage at that time in '20, and I won that race in 2021. We led the city out of the COVID shutdowns, and we're real proud of that.

Got some real work done on some major projects, the Don Young Port of Alaska, got that back on track. And even though it was a real fight with the assembly at times, I would say about 70% of the times we got the work done, get the work done. We agreed, so it wasn't completely contentious, but the environment was very difficult because of the COVID and all the animosities that float around there. But we're, we're proud of our time there. I built a good team, and there's the stop sign.

So as a politician, I'm talking too much. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dave. And Jonathan, I want to check back in. Did you get your time to feel— do you feel like you had your time to introduce.

Yeah, I'm,. I'm. Good. Thank you. Okay, just wanted to make sure.

I know that was a little bit unclear when I was giving the instructions. So, um, great. Well, I want to invite Treg to introduce himself, and we'll put 2 minutes up on the clock for you. I'm going to start with, uh, just complimenting the other 2 candidates real quick. You know, I'll start with JKT.

Um, my hat's off to JKT. Did the— what everybody thought would be— was the impossible when beat Tom Begich. I think most people thought Tom Begich was a shoo-in there, so he climbed that ladder and he got it done for his campaign. He also is— he's everywhere in Alaska right now, so he's doing his homework. He's talking to the businesses, he's talking to communities.

So good job doing that, Jonathan. And I know what it takes to run a campaign and to do a campaign, and it is taxing. It is, you know, and it takes a lot effort, and a lot of times it's a thankless job. So thank you to both of you for being in there. And Dave, I want to just compliment, uh, uh, you know, Dave, uh, had an almost impossible, uh, a job as the, as the mayor of Anchorage.

And, and also what I know of Dave and what I've learned of Dave, I really appreciate, uh, he, he is, uh, always willing to put Alaska first and, and not his, his personal self. And And that takes a lot of courage and that takes a lot of integrity to do. So thank you, Dave, for your willingness to do that.

Thank you, Treg. And are you going to go ahead with your intro now? Sure, I'll do that. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you, Tanachis, for this opportunity. You know, I had the privilege of doing the annual partners boat trip back in, what, 2024? We went to Eagle, Tetlin, Northway, and Tanacross. And I really learned a lot there. That was really eye-opening.

At the time, I was serving as the Attorney General for the State of Alaska. I served as the state's Attorney General for 4 and a half years, the third longest serving AG in state history. And so, thank you for the opportunity to visit those communities, hear Native voices, hear tribal voices, and understand the issues that are facing your communities and your people. I'll also say, I should Also, yeah, my, my wife is the most supportive person I know. She's been there throughout my career.

She's with me on this campaign trail. She's loving my life. We've been married 27 years, and together we're raising our 6 children as 4th generation Alaskans. And so a lot of what I'm doing on this campaign trail, and the reason I'm in this race, is because of those, those kids. And Alaska has been really great to Jodi and I, provided us opportunities.

Opportunity, and I want my kids to have those same opportunities. You know, our next governor has to be a proven fighter, and he also has to be able to work across the party lines and get along with people that disagree with them. And I'm a proven fighter. You know, as the attorney general, we helped— we had rural prosecutor units, we had special units specializing in sexual assault, which we have the highest rates in the nation. We brought crime down to 40-year lows, sexual assaults down— wow, 30 seconds— sexual assaults down 26%.

So I know how to fight on behalf of Alaska. Alaska. But I also know how to work across the aisle. I was unanimously elected to chair the Attorney General Alliance, which is a bipartisan group. So Democrats and Republicans all voted unanimously for me to chair that group.

And together we worked together on the things that we agreed on, and we got a lot done. We tackled Big Pharma for the opioid epidemic, got $100 million for addiction recovery. We went after data privacy issues and parental controls on media platforms. So thank you. Appreciate the time to be with you today.

Thank you so much, guys, and I know it's, it's tough being timed. If anyone timed me, it'd be physically painful, so I will also try to keep my comments brief so everyone hears as much from you as possible. And again, we are just really grateful and, you know, glad that you're able to, to join us. And you really, given that you have less than a month month until Election Day, 26 days, right? And the fact that you're spending an hour with us really to speak directly to our tribal leaders and the residents of our villages is incredible.

And so this is a great start to us, you know, working together in the future with, with all of you in whatever capacities that looks like. I would just say that, and really glad to, glad to have you here. So, we're going to go right into the questions, and I did send them out about a week ago. I know that some may not have seen those, and so hopefully you were able to take a look at them. And these are the issues that I'm sure you've heard come up across rural Alaska and especially in our communities, and so it shouldn't be brand new topics, anything that's kind of coming out of left field, but something that rural Alaskans are facing every day.

They're here listening and watching. We have 51 people watching. This was shared by Tlingit and Haida Central Council in Southeast, and there could be people from around the state, but really our primary target audiences is our tribes and our villages. For our first round of questions, you're going to have a minute and a half and we're going to start with Dave. And so at this time, we're only going to have the candidate that's answering questions have their camera on, so hopefully people don't get dizzy that are watching with the cameras going kind of off and on.

I'll stay on the whole time. And this first question, Dave, you have a minute and a half. What specific actions will you take to reduce the cost of living in rural Alaska? And go ahead, and I'll be letting you know when time is getting, getting short. Well, certainly the cost of energy, cost of food, anything that's got to be brought in, therefore the cost of transportation has got to be dealt with.

There's, there's some big things that we can do along the river areas. We can do a nice road from, say, Fairbanks to Galena, Galena up to Caltech. Those, those things can be done. And that drives down transportation costs because everything's tied to transportation. To include the diesel fuel we need to create the electricity that's so essential and to transport in bulk food during the wintertime.

Those kinds of solutions I think are very accomplishable. The other thing is, is coming from a conservative candidate, my job is to make sure that we bring in every federal dollar that we can, whether it's through increased SNAP benefits in times of shortages Working, say, with Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy on the LIHEAP program, the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program, to help with that. There's a lot of things we can do. The big thing, though, and it'll be a common thread I think you'll hear from me today, is I'm really hesitant to have someone from the— not from the rural communities, but someone from a city coming in and telling the rural communities, the village communities, how to do their thing. The big thing is, is sit down with them and find their solutions and then make sure we can affect their solutions.

Okay, thank you, Dave. And next we're going to have Treg's camera turned on to answer the same question. So Treg, the question was, what specific actions will you take to reduce the cost of living in rural Alaska? Yeah, you know, the big, the big one that comes to mind right now for everybody, and this is not just rural Alaska, this is all over Alaska, is the energy costs. And of course, the price of energy dictates the cost of every other good and service in Alaska, and particularly high costs in rural Alaska is killing rural Alaska.

And so, you know, we've got some great programs that we need to continue. The PCE program obviously is a big, is a big help in the rural communities, But the PCE costs are tied to the cost of energy along the rail belt, and the cost of energy along the rail belt continues to increase. So we've got to get that under control, you know, and I think we've got to look at alternative energy options as well, whether it be hydro, solar. I mean, they've got a good project with solar out in Willow and a few other areas. I think AEA has done a really good job.

Alaska Energy Authority has really done a good job supporting rural Alaska. They have some great programs. They have some tech expertise that they provided to the villages. And they also have emergency response when power goes out in those villages. And then the grants and loans where they can partner with tribes and communities to bring down the cost of energy in those areas.

I think the other part is, and Dave mentioned this, is we've got to build the infrastructure so that more communities have access to the 3 Rs: road, rail, and river. And if we can do that, we can drive down costs of goods in those areas, And then my last part is permitting and regulatory reform. Every cost of every service and good you have in the state has an extra amount added based upon the amount of regulatory and permitting hurdles that had to go through. And so we got to, we got to ease that cost on Alaskans. Okay.

Thank you, Tregg. And we're going to have Jonathan's camera turned on at this time. And I'll be asking the same question for you, Jonathan. What specific actions will you take to reduce the cost of living in rural Alaska? You have 1.5 minutes.

Go ahead when you're ready. It's a crushing cost of living right now, especially with gas and diesel and heating fuel prices where they are. And it's heartbreaking because so many communities, they've got a summer or a fall barge fuel shipment, and so they're now locked in at this price because of the nature of fuel barges for the next year. So a couple of things. One, I strongly protect PCE, Power Cost Equalization, which helps make energy and electricity affordable in rural communities.

And I would guard that with my life as governor, and any attempt to raid the billion-dollar PCE endowment, I would veto that. And there's been, you know, great legislative leaders Lyman Hoffman and Bethel, other rural legislators who have helped build that and, and protect it. But I think it requires constant vigilance, and I would be committed to protecting PCE as governor. As a big supporter of the Renewable Energy Fund, which helped build non-diesel energy sources in rural Alaska, I'm an all the above hydro— or all the above energy person, including hydro, wind, solar, natural gas, whatever pencils, and I would continue to support Renewable Energy Fund investment to help communities get off diesel and ultimately lower the cost of living in rural Alaska.

Okay, thank you, Jonathan. So we're gonna pull Treg back up. He'll be going first on this next question. So, Treg, the question is, what actions will you take to protect protect subsistence ways of life in Alaska? And you'll have a minute and a half for this one as well.

And I think your camera might be off.

There you go.

Yeah, no, this is definitely a priority for the state. It's what makes— one of the things that makes Alaska so unique. It's what is maintaining our culture and our heritage. And so this is the subsistence way of life is is a must for us to protect. Right now, you know, obviously as the Attorney General, I was involved in a lot of litigation with the federal government over some of these issues, especially upon the Kuskokwim River.

Those— the two managers of assistance fishing game is not working. It doesn't work at all. The federal management of federal users picks winners and losers, and everybody else upriver doesn't get their fish, doesn't get the fish. And And also, the federal management system doesn't acknowledge the reality that a lot of rural community people have kids and are going to school in urban areas. And so they can't go back and help their mother and father or their grandfather live the subsistence lifestyle in those areas because it's limited to people that actually live out there.

And so I would love to see a constitutional amendment so that the state can manage for the rural priorities. And I also think that one of the key aspects of preserving this lifestyle is that we have to make sure that state managers are utilizing indigenous knowledge and management techniques and that we are talking and communicating to make this, to build abundance within wildlife and the fish stock so that there's plenty for our families to subsist. Okay, thank you, Treg. And if we can get Jonathan's camera back on, it's his turn to answer the question first. And this next question is— sorry, yes, no, no, no, I'm so sorry, Treg just answered that question.

He was the first one. So Jonathan, you'll be answering the same question. So what actions will you take to protect subsistence ways of life? And this is, this is for Jonathan, sorry. I just got confused if he was answering the same question, so sorry about that.

So same question on protecting subsistence ways of life. No, all good. Um, strongly support subsistence. Um, I, I think the Katie John decision is, is incredibly important, and respecting that precedent is incredibly important. Um, I think that, that rural preference is, is important, and And that those in rural Alaska who have a way of life and the sort of subsistence economy where there's not as much of a cash economy, but in order to literally feed your family, having access to Fish and Game resources is critical.

And I think the state must respect that and protect that. And there's been some litigation between the state of Alaska and the federal government that I undermine subsistence that really concerns me. I would not pursue or continue that litigation if I were governor, and I would want to try to restore a more functional working relationship between the feds and the state of Alaska when it comes to Fish and Game management, and, and make sure that rural communities and tribes have a seat at the table and a voice and fisheries management and game management. Those would be my commitments as governor to support subsistence. Okay, thank you, Jonathan.

And Dave will be answering this question now. So if we can pull Dave up. And same question, what actions will you take to protect subsistence ways of life in Alaska? Well, certainly again, the notion that I just mentioned, which was we don't want city folks coming out to rural Alaska and telling them how to do things.

Things. Folks, and just like we don't want— city folks don't want rural people telling them how to run their cities. And I never did get any of that when I was mayor. But there's issues that we can do, certainly, or things we can do like town halls with the federal government, with the local communities and state officials, because it's going to have to be a shared workload to get to these solutions. But again, there's There's things that we can do, like continue with the qualified federal user hunting on federal lands, which basically gives an early season opportunity for hunting.

That's important. Certainly trawling in the open ocean is an issue because we don't have fish in the river and we see the cultural failure upriver that's happening because I think we're on year 7 of no fishing and the villages, the villages are supposed to be empty in the summertime because everyone's supposed to be in fish camp because we understand fish camp is where the kids learn to swim, run nets, run boats, learn from their parents, maintain a smokehouse. And that, that whole cultural thing is being lost because we don't have enough fish. Those are the things that we've got to, we've got to focus on, but certainly we've got to let the local folks make those decisions. Okay,.

Thank you, Dave. So we're actually going to have— this is what I said last time, but I was jumping the gun a little bit. This is Jonathan's turn to answer first, and this question is related to the one that we just asked as well. So if we can get Jonathan's camera on. This question is, how will you ensure rural Alaska Native voices are included in Fish and Wildlife wildlife management decisions?

And you'll have a minute and a half for this one as well. Number 1, make sure that rural and Native and tribal voices are on the boards and commissions that make the decisions. And I have a lot of respect for Stosh Hoffman, who's been on the Board of Game for a long time. I saw him, oh gosh, earlier this, yeah, earlier this week in Dathl. And I feel like he's been a really important voice on the Board of Game, and I want to make sure that that rural perspective, that subsistence perspective, is fairly represented on the Board of Game.

And same goes for the Board of Fish and also the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which I think for a long time has been kind of the sleeper body in the state of Alaska. Most people, you know, didn't even know what it is, but it is just as important as the Board of Game and the Board of Fish. And making sure that there's a rural and Native perspective on the North Pacific Council is another priority for me. I also just more generally want to make sure the administration more broadly looks like Alaska and has, you know, rural, urban, Native, non-native, all of those perspectives represented. Represented fairly in the administration.

Okay, thank you. So the next person to answer this same question will be Dave.

And the question, I don't know if you guys need me to keep repeating it, but no, you good? Okay. Well, certainly hearing subsistence rural voices on our keyboard, on our keyboards, board game, board of fish, NPFMC, NPFMC, the governor nominates 6 of the 11, Secretary of Commerce then appoints one of those nominees on each of the seats, and we have far too much lower 48 commercial representation there, and the subsistence and even the sport fishing users don't have enough voice on that whatsoever, so that's just it, appoint the right people to the boards, you'll get better advice as the executive. The other thing is fully fund Fish and Game budget, not just, uh, with Pittman Roberts money, Dingle Johnson money. I think we need to drive a lot of the cost of management down to the non-resident, um, hunters and fishermen that come up here and help them pay the bills to, uh, for research, for management and things like that.

And again, drive the cost, spread the costs out over a greater group of people. And, and I'll just say it, especially for the folks that are not from Alaska but who are always in vacation mode when they're here, and they're willing to pay that if they want to fish and hunt in Alaska and help them subsidize us. So thank you.

Okay, awesome. Thank you, Tregg. And that actually concludes our first round of questions. And so the next round of questions is— wait, Trey, sorry, this is the first time there's been 3 candidates. On Tuesday, I had 1, and so I'm so sorry.

Thank you for flagging. That. Imagine what it's like for us with 4 candidates in the race. So yeah, it gets confusing. Yep.

Okay, sorry about that. So you have a minute and a half to answer the same question How will you ensure rural Alaska Native voices are included in Fish and Wildlife management decisions? Yeah, no, and I think the other two kind of said this. In order to have— we need to have rural and Alaska Native voices on our deciding bodies when it comes to Fish and Game, and so that's a priority. You need the balance on those bodies to make informed decisions for all users of that resource, whether it be fish or game.

And the other thing is, I think that we underutilize tribal consultation when issues arise, when you see problems or work, we should definitely be communicating with the tribal organizations that live in those areas that utilize those resources more than anybody else. And then I've already said it in my last answer, but utilize indigenous knowledge in the management plans. And the other part, I would love to see more rural Alaskans, Native Alaskans work at the Department of Fish and Game. And so So I would love to see us create sort of training and educational opportunities in rural Alaska to help facilitate these individuals to manage where they live. And I think that would be ideal.

I think it would be— give us a better awareness of what was going on on the ground. And I'd love to see some of those educational and training opportunities arise in all of the villages across Alaska to help young people, A, become gainfully employed, and then also participate in the management of those, of those resources that are so important to their own communities.

Thank you, Treg. Sorry for almost leaving you out. Okay, so now that concludes our first round of questions, and those were the top 3 that came back from our survey with our tribes. And thanks, guys, for having no problem staying within the time frame. Really appreciate that.

For this next round, these questions are just going to be 1-minute answers, and I know that's really tough to do, and so thank you for, you know, for accommodating that. These are all big issues, and we know it's not easy to, you know, roll out a plan in such a short window of time, but I think it's great to, you know, have to say the most important things and to keep us kind of moving through the questions. So we're gonna jump right into it. And for the first person in this round is going to actually be Dave. And so Dave, the first question is, how will you address Alaska's suicide crisis, especially among youth?

And you'll have one minute for this. That's, yeah, a short amount of time. Oh, solve the suicide issue in a minute. No, it's, We know that the numbers are, our youth commit suicide at about a 40%, well, 6 times the national average and 47% in the bush, higher than in the urban areas. And so that's gotta be stopped.

But we also know this about suicide ideation is that when these kids consider suicide, it's very temporal. They do it in moment, Nearly half of them do it in less than— make that decision in less than 30 minutes. So what makes the difference? Availability to firearms, that's a problem. The other issue, more systemic, is that kids commit suicide because they're without hope.

So we've got to deal with those multiple things. So availability to firearms in the homes, that's a challenge. The other thing is we need caring adults as close as possible to these kids at all times. And so if you deal with it that way, and certainly there's drug and alcohol issues that are involved everywhere across the state, and that's, that's got to be dealt with as well. Okay, thank you, Dave, for that answer.

And the next person to go is Tregg.

And thank. You,. Tregg, same question, and you'll have a minute for this one. Well, one, we've got to improve educational outcomes. Comes all over Alaska.

Kids that feel like they're failing, that they're no good, that they're not smart. I mean, that plays into this. Imagine a kid that can't read and, and what that is like moving through society. Next, we got to improve education or economic opportunities. We've seen what happens with, like, around the Red Dog Mine, where there's economic opportunities, those rates decline significantly.

We've got to unleash the Alaska Mental Health Trust. They're tasked with a comprehensive system of mental health throughout Alaska. Alaska. And right now that isn't what they're focused on, and they have the lands and the means to do it. And so we need to put them to work with telemedicine apps, whatever it is, for, for these individuals to get help before it's too late.

And then we need to do everything we can to prevent drugs from entering Alaska. I think we do a lot on the back end and dealing with the, the drug crisis that we have, but when these drugs flow into our communities and these kids find themselves it, it's, it's a, it's a very hard thing to overcome, so we got to prevent that from happening. Okay, thank you, Craig. And Jonathan, you'll be answering this question as well: How will you address Alaska's suicide crisis, especially among youth? And you have 1 minute for this, this answer.

And I, a lot of what Craig and Dave said resonates with me. I think in particular, sort of losing hope, and to me that especially looks like losing a connection to your identity, your way of life, your culture, your language, and I've been really active on Alaska Native language issues, and I mean, I think it's just one of the greatest tragedies that Native languages were systematically, you know, disconnected from Native people, often through boarding schools and other means. And, you know, that fortunately is in history, but we should be taking proactive ways to support Native language and support Native culture, have it taught in schools, support organizations like TCC that are doing that work.

Okay, thank you guys all for answering that question. We're going to move into the last The last question in this whole forum, I know we wanted to just get the most important ones out in front of you, and so Treg is actually going to go first on answering this question. And this question is also related to our subsistence way of life, and this question is, what actions will you take to reduce salmon bycatch and its impact on Alaska's fisheries? And you also have 1 minute for this response. Quick response.

So, you know, my policy is Alaska fish belong to Alaskans first, and it's those Alaskan users that we've got to focus on and concentrate our efforts on. I've kept my promise not to take money from the trawling industry because it's such a lightning rod issue, and I don't want people to think that I'm any way influenced influence when I'm the governor and making decisions on this issue. The other thing is we can't have one user group of a resource, our fisheries for example, that benefit at the detriment of every other user, you know, and so that's sort of my 30,000-foot level, but I think, you know, industry has every motive right now to solve this problem because of the public pressure on them right now, because if Chinook are listed as endangered, declared under the Endangered Species Act, then we lose control. We lose control of those commercial fisheries, we lose control of our fish management, and at that point it's too late, and it's too late for all of our users. And so I'd love to partner with industry in solving these issues and getting the fish back up the Kuskokwim and Yukon and the other rivers.

Thank you, Tregg. And our next person to respond will be Jonathan.

And same question, what actions will you take to reduce salmon bycatch and its impact on Alaska's fisheries? In 1. Minute. It's mostly about the North Pacific Council, and as a legislator, I went to council meetings, I authored sign-on letters, including sign-on letters the TCC joined on Chinook and chum and halibut bycatch limits and lowering them and reducing bycatch that Alaska is suffering through in both the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. I care a lot about habitat damage too from bottom trawl gear, and that's been an issue I've really advocated on.

I'm actually heading to the council meeting in 21 minutes after this forum.

It's a point of engagement that has been— we something I really put a lot of energy into as a legislator, and I want to appoint people in the North Pacific Council who are going to lead on bycatch reduction, making Alaskans, making sure Alaskans and not Seattle corporate interests benefit from our fisheries resources. Okay, thank you, Jonathan, and thanks for giving us a time frame of when we need to wrap up. Just kidding, we are, we're going to wrap up within that time frame for sure. So our last person to answer that question will be Dave. If you could please turn his camera back on.

Same question, what actions will you take to reduce salmon bycatch and its impact on Alaska fisheries? And you have 1 minute.

Well, certainly, I'll echo what both, what Treg and Jonathan did say. I too haven't taken any money from the trawling industry because this is such a, again, a problematic issue. We've got to get to more. It's more fish. If we had plenty of fish, we wouldn't be fighting about this.

If we had fish in the river, if our cultures were being sustained, if we were running fish wheels, we wouldn't have these conversations. And something is wrong because we've seen what's happened the last 20 or 25 years just with the king salmon fishery. And the threat is crystal clear. And Craig just talked about it. If the federal government comes in and declares king salmon fishing— kings Chinook salmon as an endangered species, we got a big problem.

And so there's other things we can do, like the limited entry permits. 60% Of them come from Washington and Oregon. We need to bring those permits home. Those need to go to Alaskans. But does that solve the upriver problems?

Not really.

Okay, thank you, Dave. Thank you, all of you, for participating kind of the, the lightning round basically of the questions. And at this time we're actually going to go into the closing comments and we're actually going to do 2 minutes for this as well, especially since we just had you do some pretty complex issues in a very short window. So if we can get everybody's cameras back on, please. And for the closing comments, we're going to bust out our birch bark basket because I figured this would be a good way.

Everyone kind of had a chance to go first in the questions, and I had a hard time figuring that part out, so I was like, I'll just make this really— do you want my timekeeper? She's a lawyer. She's good at these things. I can have her actually draw it. There's only 3 names in here.

This is a fair process, guys, right? So Dave, your name, your name was pulled first, so you have 2 minutes on the clock for closing comments. OK, and thank you most of all, Joy. Thank you for TCC for hosting it. These issues, the hunting and the fishing issues, are quite frankly why I came to Alaska.

My motto has always been hunt, fish, fly, trap, and then grow old, get fat, and die. And people ask me all the time, why do you get into politics? Why did you do this to yourself? Because, you know, I don't need the job. I'm comfortably retired.

And, but I love this state more than anything. And I want my kids, and my first grandkid is due February 10th. I want him, Henry, to have the same opportunities I have. And right now, those opportunities to hunt and fish and trap are dwindling and things aren't being managed well. They just aren't.

I'm not blaming it on this administration. This failure has been going on decades, if not generationally, and quite frankly, we just don't have the accurate data, we don't have the right decision makers, and we're ignoring traditional means of replenishing or building our stocks, like fish seeding and mist incubators. Those traditional methodologies have, are proven successful, and we ignore them. We even punish those methodologies. So we need to fight for our fish, we need to fight for our game, and my hope is, is that, you know, folks will choose me to do that, but if not, I hope whoever gets this job will move forward and focus on these issues because I'm not able to hunt and fish and fly as much as I want because the game is not there, the fish is not there like it used to be just 35 years ago when I got here.

So I remember, I remember I remember first coming here and people were routinely catching 60, 70, 80-pound kings, and we don't, we don't do that anymore, and I'm not going to blame it on one office, one person, certainly we need to pick a DNR commissioner who has the heart of the people, or the interest of the people in mind, because we need more fish, you need more fish, we need more fish on the road system, and certainly more moose, because I'm a 16B guy. That's where I hunt. And boy, we're running out of moose really fast. So thank you very much. I'm Dave Bronson.

Thank you, Dave, for going first. And we have 2 more names.

Olivia is drawing it out. We need some music or something.

OK, Tregg, your name was pulled. 2 Minutes on the clock, and go ahead when you're ready. Thank you, Joy. No, thank you to the Tanana Chiefs Conference for this opportunity. This is really important.

I love the use of technology to get the voice out to rural Alaska. We can utilize technology in so many great ways to help further the interests of rural Alaska. There's some really cool technology I'd love to talk— these goggles that you can learn trades, you can learn plumbing, electrical, HVAC, in fact, using these AI goggles, and that there's 100% pass rate if you make it through those AI goggle courses as far as getting your certificate and your ability to move forward. But all kinds of opportunities for rural Alaska. But I'm really running because of our future for our children and our, and our grandchildren.

I just had my first grandchild here on Easter, so she— Charlotte's about a little over 6 months old now. But I want them to have the opportunities, right? I'm running I'm running for governor because I want to make the changes that is going to be necessary for Alaska to reach its full potential and to give our kids, not just kids along the rail belt, but all of the kids in Alaska to be able to build their lives here and have opportunity. You look, Alaska is blessed by God with vast resources and there is no reason why we can't unleash these resources to the benefit of all Alaskans. And there's no reason that Alaska can't be first, number one in education, can't be number one in economic opportunity, can't be one in quality of life.

I mean, look at the beauty. I'm just looking out my window, beautiful fall day trees. I'm looking at the Cook Inlet, amazing place that we live, and it could be an amazing place of opportunity as well. And so that's why I'm running, I'm running for governor. Um, you know, there's, there's issues that— there's hurdles that we have, and we've got to solve some problems, but our future is bright.

The future for Alaska and its rightful place— we've got the stars aligned right now with things happening all over the world with a need for Alaska energy, for a lead for Alaska's critical elements and critical minerals, which by the way are vastly located in rural Alaska. So when we build the infrastructure to unleash those, we're also building infrastructure for our Alaska communities.

Okay, thank you, Tregg, and congratulations on the grandbabies, guys. And there's one name in here, so I don't think we need to pull it, but I will. This is Jonathan. So go ahead, Jonathan, you have 2 minutes on the clock and just start when you're ready. Yeah, well, thanks so much to CCC for hosting this.

I'm running for governor to be a voice for rural Alaska, a voice for Native Alaska. I've worked on rural and Native issues all 10 years. When I was in the legislature, I represented a district that was rural that included most of the Southeast Alaska Native population and the villages Native languages. So these issues are near and dear to me, and I have a record I'm really proud of working on these issues, including sponsoring and passing the legislation that made Alaska's Native languages official languages of the state of Alaska, passing a bill that made it easier for elders who are fluent in their native language to get licensed to teach in Alaska K-12 classrooms, and sort of other advocacy and effort to support native language and culture. I strongly support subsistence and more broadly, I just want to turn the page on the last 8 years.

I'm running to sort of be a change candidate. I feel like the Dunleavy era has not been the best for Alaska and that we're going in the wrong direction, and I want to be that positive change, to be the contrast from the last 8 years and sort of restore civility, collaboration, cooperation in Juneau. Instead of breaking records for vetoing bills, let's break records for for like getting things done and passing laws and solving problems. And I want to build an administration that looks like Alaska, both in terms of diversity, Native leaders, Native voices, rural leaders, but also, you know, works across party lines and has Rs and Is and Ds. As long as they're service-minded and want to solve problems, I'm excited to work together.

So that's why I'm running for governor. And would be grateful for any support from those listening.

Awesome. Well, you guys definitely got the timing all down, so thank you for, you know, just being as concise as possible, and I think we moved through a lot of really important issues in a pretty short window of time, and I know you do these back to back, so just, I hope you give yourselves a big pat on the back for doing great today, being here, joining us, connecting with our tribes, connecting with our organization. Of course, we are also the healthcare provider across, you know, 40 villages in the interior, including here in Fairbanks. We also serve veterans in all of our health facilities, and in many communities, we're the only healthcare provider. And so if there's a visitor— we have some EPA officials out in one of our villages today, you know, I told them if If you need a stitch, you're going to get it from a tribal health care provider.

And so, you know, we also know that we are here to also be a part of the solution. And I just want to offer, you know, having worked in our villages and grown up in our villages, we are very smart, very strong and creative problem solvers. And we really do want to work, work with the incoming governor on these complex issues. And so we're not here What are you going to do? Just, you know, putting that on just you, you know, what can we do as well?

And I think that's really important to acknowledge that, that we're here to roll up our sleeves, whether it's— and we do work very closely with the state, whether there's a— we just had the Tok Fire. I'm sure you're aware of that. TCC has an MOU with the Alaska Division of Military and Veterans Affairs, their Office of Emergency Response. Disaster response, so that because we often can mobilize before the state declares a disaster. If there's evacuation needed, if people need housing, things like that, and then we get reimbursed from the state because we can mobilize pretty quickly for our villages.

And that's just one example of the ways, you know, public safety. We have a very strong partnership with, with our Troopers and, you know, that's very important. As you know, we only have, I believe, 16 VPSOs in 40 villages, and so, you know, that's, that's a lot of ground for them to cover. So we are also here and we want to, you know, be a part of working with the administration, and we're looking forward to the coming years. Each of you have, I think, made me excited as an Alaska for the future.

And you know, that's a good, that's a really good thing. And I just want to thank you for giving each other compliments too. You guys jumped right in. You didn't even, I didn't even need to bend anyone's arm. And you clearly have, you know, respect for each other.

And I don't think it serves anyone for us to tear each other down. I think, you know, I like to rally behind people that are, you know, supportive of fellow Alaskans and willing to lend a hand if they see someone broke down on the side of the road and things like that. And at the end of the day, we all do look out for each other. So appreciate your time. And I think we will end a little bit early.

Maybe I see Representative Schwanke and Crystal Jones are still on. If you guys would like to turn your cameras on, we can have the whole, like, everyone on stage at once. And if any of our chiefs that are still logged in want to turn their cameras on, we can definitely have some closing comments here. I see, oh, Crystal's in her car, but she's still on our TCC stage. And I am, let me see, we also have our chief chair.

Oh, okay, I'm going to turn mine off because we are limited with how many people we can have. So I'd like to actually at this time ask our Chief Chair Sharon Hildebrand to make closing comments, as well as our First Chief of the Village of Eagle, Karma Olvey. But I'll turn it over to Sharon first.

Yeah, good afternoon. I just want to say that we appreciate each of you for taking the time to meet with us and all the candidates. Candidates for meeting with our tribal membership and everyone in the communities. Like Joy said, we provide services, critical care to not only to tribal membership but people that are living in the communities. And so, one of the things that we're working on right now is trying to get to the finish line in providing a healthcare clinic in Neenah, which could provide critical care the whole hub of those members that live in that region.

And so, I just want to thank you, and these are some of the things that we're working towards, and I appreciate each of you for knowing the stats on the issues that impact our people. That's so important, and it shows that you truly do care about the issues that not only impact our tribal membership but also the whole across the state of Alaska. And one of our values is Chewitsan, of course, and we appreciate you displaying that, and that's to hear us, to hear me, to see me, and to respect one another. And I thank each of you for doing that. Also, I want to recognize our Chief, Karma Alve, for bringing this idea to our rural communities so that we can have an opportunity for our tribal leadership to hear the candidates that are running for office, and so important to have this space for each of you to present to our tribal membership.

So, merci.

Karma, your line is muted, Chief.

Okay, thank you so much everyone for, um, I just really want to commend TCC for getting this together for the villages. They put together an election guide and then also a candidate forum after one of our sub-regional meetings, and we talked about how much we need this. We hear all the time there's town halls and stuff in urban areas, but we don't really get to hear from the candidates. And this actually just really put it easy for us together to give out to our people, to let them come into the tribal hall and hear all these issues. As you all know, and it's really nice to hear that you all are— these are priorities for you as well.

It is very hard lately to live out here, and I'm very concerned for our elders and vulnerable people, even just retired people, and how they're going to make ends meet this winter.

We— Eagle has done a lot of work in starting business and bulk fuel and stuff, and that is the way to go. I know it's harder for some other areas. Curious to do that. But I just want to thank you all. Thanks for all your great comments to each other, and I hope we can do this again and it grows.

So good luck to you all in the race, and yeah, hopefully we'll get to meet you if you're in office and you can collaborate more with the villages in.

Thank you so much, Chief Karma and Chief Sharon. I just have one final question for the candidates. Give me a thumbs up if you'd be willing to participate in something like this with TCC again in the future.

Okay, I see lots of thumbs up. I'm sure Jonathan is raising— okay, there he goes. Okay, well, that, that's great to hear. Again, if you have any feedback as a candidate and how we can we can improve these in the future. I want you guys to just know that we're here to welcome you and we don't endorse anybody.

You know, we all have to work together on these issues and we just want to make sure our tribal members have, you know, have that access to be able to talk to you, to be able to present their questions. And TCC has taken— Sharon is holding up— we have taken a position on the No On 2 campaign. We can endorse ballot measures, and so we understand that, you know, everyone has different opinions on this, including in our region. And so we still respect everyone's ability to vote how they feel is important for them. But as an organization, our executive board did pass a resolution to oppose Ballot Measure 2, and so that's something that we feel strongly about.

And we have seen more, more minorities and more women running for office and getting elected through open primaries and ranked choice voting, as is the track record in other cities that have adopted this as well. And we're really glad to, you know, several candidates here have mentioned that they did not, you know, chose not to accept money from from the trawling industry. And that was a decision that you made. But that's very known because of the campaign finance transparency that we can really dig into where are these funds coming from. And, you know, as you mentioned, it's important to know who is contributing, especially when it comes to, you know, And also, we understand it costs a lot of money to run campaigns, and we've seen that as well.

And so that's understandable, but we do have a position and we are supporting the No Wan Tu campaign. So thank you, Chief Chair, for getting that on the forefront here as we wrap up. And guys, it's 1:59. We are doing awesome on time. So pat on the back to all of you and wish you safe travel.

In all that you're doing, safety for your families. And we know they go through a lot during campaigns too. And for all the people that care about you and support you, you know, I just hope that everyone is well taken care of and everything in the next, the coming weeks, and wish you the best of luck. And we'll see you, we'll see you again soon, I'm sure.

Everybody have a great day.