Democrats Capture 30 Governorships as Alaska Falls for First Time Since 1998

A 37-year-old Democrat wins Alaska outright — no ranked-choice runoff needed — as the party flips eight governor's seats and takes unified control of Congress in Trump's midterms.

Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a 37-year-old former state legislator widely known as JKT, defeated three Republican opponents — including a Trump-endorsed candidate — to become Alaska's first Democratic governor since 1998. The Associated Press called the race ten days after the November 3 midterms. He cleared 50% of first-choice votes outright, bypassing Alaska's ranked-choice runoff entirely.

Kreiss-Tomkins ran on economic anxiety. His platform centered on affordability, full funding for public education, requiring all oil and gas producers to pay corporate income taxes, and a temporary moratorium on datacenter construction until state regulations are established. He hammered outgoing Republican governor Mike Dunleavy's eight-year record, calling Alaska "broken" and pointing to the deterioration of the state ferry system — the critical transportation link for roadless communities in southeast Alaska. Despite sharp criticism of the incumbent administration, Kreiss-Tomkins pledged bipartisan governance, promising a cabinet of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. "Alaskans are hungry for change," he said. "We've been running the same campaign since we launched in February, and I don't take anyone's vote for granted." The Alaska flip is one piece of a national wave. Democrats have now captured governorships in Alaska, Kansas, Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas — bringing their total to 30, a majority they haven't held since 2010. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa became the first Democrat elected governor in 35 years and the state's first Hispanic governor. In Kansas, Democratic state senator Cindy Holscher narrowly beat Trump-backed Republican Ty Masterson. The pattern across these races is consistent: Trump-endorsed candidates lost, and Democratic challengers succeeded by tying opponents to the president while signaling willingness to cooperate on specific issues. Holscher in Kansas repeatedly highlighted Masterson's ties to Trump while pledging pragmatic bipartisanship — a formula that appears to have traveled. Beyond governors' mansions, Democrats flipped eight US Senate seats, gained more than two dozen House seats, and now hold strong congressional majorities for the second half of Trump's presidency. In Alaska's Senate race, Democrat Mary Peltola leads Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan and the contest is characterized as "leans Democratic" by MS Now. The throughline is Trump's unpopularity. Most Republican lawmakers stayed loyal to a president whose immigration crackdown, tariffs, war with Iran, and signature domestic bill polled badly. The midterm results represent the electoral cost of that loyalty — not just in swing states but in deep-red strongholds where Republican governance had delivered visible deterioration in public services.