State reference

How does government work in Alaska?

Alaska’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

Boroughs

Local

Seat in the US House

Clerk of the House

In effect since: 1956 source

What may surprise you here

Alaska has no secretary of state. The lieutenant governor performs those duties and is the state’s chief election official. source
Alaska has no independent school districts. Every school system is run by a borough, a city or the state. source

Legislature

Name: Legislature source
Senate: seats: 20 source
Senate: term in years: 4 source
House of Representatives: seats: 40 source
House of Representatives: term in years: 2 source
Term limits: None source

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: Two consecutive terms source
Next regular election: 2030 source
Lieutenant governor: joint ticket source
Attorney general: appointed by governor source
Secretary of state: no such office source

Courts

Highest court: Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Court of Appeals source
Main trial court: Superior Court source
How high-court judges reach the bench: merit selection with retention source

Local government

Called: borough source
How many: 30 source
Cities and towns: Alaska has 149 municipal governments and no township governments, as of the 2022 Census of Governments. source
Schools: All 55 of Alaska’s school systems are run by a borough, a city or the state, and the Census Bureau counts no independent school districts there (2022). source

Elections

Chief election official: Lieutenant Governor source
Who runs elections locally: Election supervisor source
Primary type: top-four source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: yes, laws only (indirect initiative; no constitutional initiative) source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: Mike Dunleavy Republican, in office since December 3, 2018. source

US senators for Alaska
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
Lisa Murkowski	Republican	Class 3	January 7, 2003	January 3, 2029
Dan Sullivan	Republican	Class 2	January 6, 2015	January 3, 2027

Members of the House for Alaska
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
At large	Nicholas J. Begich III	Republican	January 3, 2025

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 2