Alaska Legislature convenes session with aligned bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate

JUNEAU — The Alaska House and Senate will be led by ideologically aligned caucuses for the first time since 2016, after lawmakers elected their leaders for the legislative session that began Tuesday.

The Senate reelected Kodiak Republican Sen. Gary Stevens to serve as president of the Senate and leader of a bipartisan majority. Meanwhile, the Alaska House swung from a Republican-dominated majority to a bipartisan majority with the election of Dillingham independent Rep. Bryce Edgmon as speaker in a 21-19 vote.

It was the first time since 2017 that the House and Senate both organized their majorities on the first day of the session, allowing legislative work to begin without a battle over control of either chamber.

Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom convened the 34th Alaska Legislature into session Tuesday shortly after 1 p.m. Wearing boutonnieres and surrounded by friends and family, 40 state representatives and 10 senators were sworn in, including 11 freshmen, in what was largely a ceremonial and uneventful day.

“This is quite refreshing,” said Edgmon. He said that the narrow majority in the House might suggest there would be “a session full of contention and maybe obstructionism” but that he was confident lawmakers would find broad agreement on the budget and legislative priorities, including increasing education funding, which he said was the top priority for many members of his caucus.

Dahlstrom, a former state legislator, encouraged lawmakers to be respectful and to work together. She also celebrated that for the first time in state history, the Alaska House will have a majority of women.

“So there’s history being made already on Day One,” she said.

Stevens will serve as leader of the Senate for an unprecedented fourth term. Amid interruptions from his excited infant granddaughter, Stevens told the Senate that “Alaskans have a great expectation of all of us to get along, to work across party lines, to accomplish important and wise public policy.”

This will be Edgmon’s third term as leader of a closely divided House. Shortly after Edgmon was elected speaker, he led a standing ovation for former Speaker Cathy Tilton, a Republican of Wasilla, who spent her term as speaker navigating near-constant disagreements and discord within her caucus. Edgmon said he would try to “treat everyone as equally and as fairly as possible.”

Both the House and Senate on Tuesday formalized committee assignments but did not take up any other legislative work on the first day of the session. Most committee assignments had been announced in November.

The House and Senate leaders are expected to work closely on their stated priorities, including boosting education funding, reforming the public pension system and addressing Southcentral Alaska’s forecast natural gas shortage. But the majority coalitions, which are dominated by Democrats, are also expected to be at odds with Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has repeatedly vetoed bipartisan legislation during his six-year tenure as governor.

Legislative leaders admitted Tuesday that they could be forced this year to again try to override Dunleavy’s vetoes — something they have never succeeded in doing — but they hoped instead to find common ground with him to avoid vetoes altogether.

“The goal is to work with the governor as much as we can,” said Stevens.

Both Stevens and Edgmon said they had not spoken with Dunleavy in recent days, and hoped to meet with him when he arrived in Juneau to deliver the State of the State address, which is scheduled on Jan. 28. Dunleavy was not in Juneau during the first day of the session, having spent the preceding evening in Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

“There’s some things we’re not going to find common ground on, but there are some things we can,” said Edgmon.