Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Bernadette Wilson founded a waste management company and is active in conservative politics.
2026 race
Wilson is a Republican candidate for governor of Alaska in the November 3, 2026, election, an open race because incumbent Mike Dunleavy is term-limited.
She advanced from the nonpartisan top-four primary held on August 18, 2026, to the general election, decided by ranked-choice voting, which also includes fellow Republicans Taylor and Bronson and Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins.
During the campaign she alone among the candidates promised to leave the race if she trailed another Republican, and she later asked her supporters to rank her alone.
She has called for paying full Permanent Fund dividends under the statutory formula, opposed data center construction on environmental grounds, and argued that bipartisan coalitions in the state legislature had produced poor results.