Listen to Your Heart: Senator Lyman Hoffman on 40 Years Serving Rural Alaska

Thank you, Mr. President.

I always call him Gary.

But I'm up here because the support of my family— Lillian, my daughter Trina, my son Douglas, my son-in-law Hugh Short, One of my youngest niece is here as well. And it's a privilege to be joined by Senator Murkowski. I've always looked up to you, tried to hold your feet to the fire on energy as much as I could. And Governor-elect, thank you for being here as well.

But rural Alaska is there. Alaska wouldn't be here without rural Alaska.

We are one Alaska, and that is the message I try to make each and every day when I'm in the legislature. We have some of the highest costs. When you're paying $12 a gallon for a gallon of milk, $20 a gallon for heating fuel, and you have some of the lowest incomes in the state of Alaska. It's difficult. It's more difficult today than ever to make ends meet.

But we are a family, we are strong, and we will survive and go forward. But a message that I want to make, we had a brief conversation with Senator Murkowski when was the first time we embarked upon a bipartisan organization.

That is not looking at the far right, of the Republican Party or the far left of the Democratic Party, but the middle. Bringing those Alaskans together in a bipartisan organization. And I remember it well. The year was 2000. Senator Wielekowski was first elected along with Donnie Olson and many others.

We met in Senator John Caudrey's office. And we worked things out. We elected Lida Green as our Senate president. And I had the honor then of becoming a co-chairman of Senate Finance.

We did not concentrate on one side or on the other. We concentrate on the Alaskan agenda. And all too often, At the national level, that does not happen and has not happened for a long, long time. Maybe after the last election, they might get the message. Alaskans, Americans aren't interested in partisanship.

They want an agenda that will represent them, whether they're Republican, whether they're Democratic, whether they're Hispanic, whether they're colored people, whether they're from Middle America, whether they're from north, north such as Alaska. They want to be addressed, and those issues need to be and dressed for their concerns.

But it's been 40 years, long enough. If I had to do it all over again, I'd do it again. It's surprising to me that that I'm honored along with my other two colleagues. Whittier! Yeah, well, you know, it wasn't difficult to step aside because I know Alaska is still in a strong, strong place.

We've had a change of the guard, and I think that maybe the agenda will come focused on the national scene as Alaska has on bipartisanship. But in, let's see, I was in 1968, in the fall of 1968, I entered college as a freshman, and I went to my advisor and sat down with him, and he said, "Where are you from?" I said, "I'm from rural Alaska." And he looked at me and said, "Well, I have bad news for you. You have less than 1% of a chance." to graduate from college. I got up and walked out.

And what this says to me, don't listen to what other people say about you. Listen to your heart, and you can go forward.

And you If you listen to your heart, you can accomplish amazing things. But with that, you need to understand it's the people, the people that you represent are the ones that are looking to you to make the right decisions for them. With that, I really appreciate Commonwealth North's acknowledgement. I'm leaving the Senate in good hands.

Senator-elect Edgeman is surely to succeed me and surely follow me in on the Senate Finance Committee and continue to represent rural areas of the state. Again, I acknowledge the grand support of my family, which none of this could have ever happened without their support. They've given up so much for me to follow my dreams. Thank you very much.