Incoming Alaska House majority coalition names House speaker, leadership positions

One day after the Alaska Senate’s bipartisan coalition announced key leadership positions, the incoming majority coalition in the Alaska House announced its leadership including that Anchorage independent Calvin Schrage will be the new House speaker.

The new House majority coalition of the 35th Alaska State Legislature is forming with independent, Democratic and Republican members. While many votes are still being counted,  preliminary election results published Wednesday show independent and Democratic candidates are leading in 23 races for the House’s 40 seats. 

That will produce a larger majority coalition than in the last Legislature, where a 21-member majority held a thin lead over the 19-member Republican-led minority. 

The majority coalition sets the agenda for the House, assigns key committee assignments and decides what legislation will be considered.

Schrage, 35, showed a significant lead ahead of his opponent in House District 12 with 66.5% of the vote on Wednesday, heading for re-election to a fourth term to the House, where he has served since 2022. He served as House minority leader from 2023 to 2024, and as co-chair of the House Finance Committee from 2025 to 2026.

Schrage is set to succeed outgoing House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, who is in the race for the Senate seat representing Western Alaska to the Aleutian Islands. 

In an interview on Thursday, Shrage said the “door is still open” for members to join the majority coalition. But he said they have formed quickly after Election Day to begin moving ahead with a bipartisan agenda with members “ready and willing to work across the aisle to move the state forward after a decade of fairly difficult times, austere budgets, outmigration, and, in my view, a really declining sense of hope and optimism about the future of our state.” 

Schrage said the majority coalition’s priorities will include reviving the public pension system, improving predictable and stable education funding, and energy policy — priorities echoed by the incoming bipartisan Senate majority coalition on Wednesday. 

“(There’s) a big interest in addressing the fiscal instability in our state, and also in addressing the high cost of energy, which we’re all expecting to rise in the years to come, and needs to be addressed by the Legislature,” he said. “So, really, in our view, these are kitchen table issues that are front and center for Alaskans thinking about their future here in the state.”

Alaska state oil revenues have surged due to the U.S. war on Iran, but Schrage cautioned that high energy prices have also hurt communities and the state, including the school system. He said he expects the incoming Legislature and governor will also have to address unforeseen expenses from the last year as well, in a supplemental budget.

“I would not be surprised to see significant supplementals emerge through the budgeting process as the new governor steps into his role and discovers fiscal challenges within departments that are inherited from the Dunleavy administration,” he said. 

Schrage said the coalition has not formally met with the Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, who received 49.1% of the vote in a four way race as of Wednesday. 

Final election results are scheduled to be certified on Nov. 25.

The majority coalition also named Anchorage Republican Chuck Kopp for another term as House majority leader. He has served in the House 2017, and ran unopposed in this election for a fourth term. Kopp previously served as majority speaker from 2025 to 2026.

Sitka independent Rep. Rebecca Himschoot was named as House Rules chair. She has served in the House since 2023, where she co-chaired the House Education Committee from 2025 to 2026. She led her race with 55.6% of the vote on Wednesday. 

Democrats Rep. Neal Foster of Nome, Rep. Sara Hannan of Juneau and Rep. Ashley Carrick of Fairbanks were named as co-chairs of the House Finance Committee, which is charged with drafting the state’s operating and capital budgets.

Foster has served as co-chair of the Finance Committee since 2018, and has served in the House since 2009, representing the Bering Strait region to the Lower Yukon River. He led his race for re-election with 48.5% of the vote. 

Hannan ran unopposed this year, and is on track to serve a fifth term in the House representing Juneau, where she has served since 2020. 

Carrick led her race with 59.3% of the vote, heading for a third term in the House representing West Fairbanks, where she has served since 2023. 

Schrage said his goal as speaker is to foster a collaborative environment in the House to work across party lines, to tackle the major challenges facing Alaska.   

“I think Alaskans sometimes forget how unique it is in our country to have bipartisan coalitions in the Legislature, and I am incredibly proud that we are once again picking up that mantle of bipartisanship, and that there will be bipartisan coalitions — truly bipartisan coalitions — in both the House and the Senate,” he said. “I think it is a unique thing across our country and is a model for how things can be done better.”