Dunleavy, after cruising to reelection, is sworn in for historic second term

Mike Dunleavy kicked off his second term as Alaska’s governor on Monday with a swearing-in ceremony and a pledge to help Alaska take advantage of its global position in a time of rapid change.

“Alaska’s in an interesting position on the globe. And what’s happening internationally is going to put Alaska even more so on the globe,” said Dunleavy, a Republican, in a brief speech after taking the oath of office in a ceremony held at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines sports arena. 

The Arctic is warming, “and we can see that ourselves,” and that will make Alaska even more important internationally, he said.

“Alaska’s position as a logistics hub with our international airport is only going to grow. It’s going to make Alaska a more important position on the globe for shipment. Our resources, which are second to none, are going to also help catapult Alaska into fulfilling its age-old promise of being a resource supplier for not just the United States but for the world,” he said.

To achieve the state’s motto of “North to the Future” will take a long-term approach to problems, Dunleavy said.

“We’ve got to invest in ourselves, we have to invest in our people, we have to invest in our kids,” he said.

Dunleavy is the first Alaska governor to be re-elected since Democrat Tony Knowles won the 1998 race. He used his speech to call for compromise and collaboration, and he pledged to use that approach himself.

“I’m going to work with everybody and anybody,” he said, listing people across the partisan aisle, legislators, local government officials, Native corporations and Native tribes, “all the entities in the state of Alaska that make this a great state.”

Also sworn in on Monday was Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, a former state legislator who served as Dunleavy’s corrections commissioner before joining the gubernatorial ticket earlier this year. Dahlstrom succeeds Kevin Meyer, who did not run for reelection.

“To my fellow Alaskans, I promise that over the next four years I will serve you to the best of my ability and I will dedicate myself to making an Alaska where our grandchildren can grow up and thrive,” Dahlstrom said after taking the oath of office.

Aside from marking the first time since 1998 that an Alaska governor was reelected, the Dunleavy-Dahlstrom victory is historic in other ways. Dahlstrom noted that she is the first Republican woman elected as lieutenant governor, and Rose Dunleavy, who is from the Inupiat village of Noorvik, is the first Alaska first lady from north of the Arctic Circle, her husband noted. Dunleavy planned to hold his first inauguration in Noorvik four years ago, but the actual swearing in ceremony in 2018 was in Kotzebue after his flight was unable to land in Noorvik due to the weather conditions.

Dunleavy, Dahlstrom and others who spoke at this year’s ceremony made references to the series of emergencies that the state has faced over the last four years, including the COVID-19 pandemic, but also several natural disasters like wildfires, floods and storms.

“There’s been some moments in the last four years that I’m sure that some people were saying to themselves, ‘What’s next? Locusts? volcanoes?’” Dunleavy joked.

Still, Alaska has come out “intact,” with among the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the country and other accomplishments, he said.

“There may be some that count this great state out, but this is truly ‘North to the Future,’ and that’s what this is about. That’s what the next four years are going to be,” he said.

Though he was reelected handily, Dunleavy suffered some rocky political times during his first term. After directing a series of deep budget cuts that slashed services at institutions like the University of Alaska and the state ferry system, he was the subject of a recall campaign that appeared to be on its way to the ballot – until petition signature-gathering was interrupted and ultimately ended by the pandemic.

Since then, the state’s finances have recovered, in large part because of a jump in oil prices resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Dunleavy’s political standing recovered, too. He won this year’s election, the first under the state’s new ranked-choice system, with 50.29% of the first-choice votes, eliminating the need to tabulate second choices.