JKT on Alaska’s Gas Line, AI, Open Government, and Life After the Primary

The Northern Ledger

Host John Quick interviews JKT, a primary election winner in Alaska, regarding his unexpected rise from 5% polling to first place. The discu

Key takeaways

• JKT achieved primary victory through a grassroots campaign covering all 19 Alaska boroughs.
• Proposed a 'blended cabinet' consisting of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to prioritize competence over party labels.

Main topics

• Primary election victory
• Blended cabinet concept

Notable quotes

There's no Republican or Democratic way to pick up the garbage.

Conclusion

The episode highlights a pragmatic, results-oriented approach to Alask

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Well, JKT, thanks so much for joining me again. I think you're on a couple months ago. And man, I think when you're on a couple months ago, you were pulling at 5%, something like that. And then you came in and kicked everybody's ass. Tell me how that felt. Speaker 2 (0:17) Well, yeah, it's been a little bit of an adventure since we last connected. I mean, we worked really hard. I mean, I wanted to take a real sort of grassroots retail. politics approach to the campaign. I mean, Alaska is a small state. And so, you know, we were at Salmon Fest till 1am flyering. We got to all 19 boroughs in the state and, you know, went down the Yukon River and just anything like, yeah, just full scent. And So a lot of people are responsible for the outcome, but really grateful that we got the numbers we did in the primary. Speaker 1 (0:54) What did it feel like that night of when you saw, holy crap, I'm like, I'm not just like top four. I'm the top person. What did that feel like? Speaker 1 (1:07) I mean, it felt Speaker 2 (1:09) gratifying and exciting and I was very grateful. I mean, it didn't feel like a total surprise. I mean, we obviously, I think every candidate maybe has to have this, but there was some self-belief like, yeah, we can do this. Like I'm getting in and I'm running to win and anything less than winning is like not what I'm interested in. And that was my mindset the entire campaign. And even though, you know, I think... We were behind in the polling. I mean, I think we were definitely seeing positive trends the entire campaign. So we felt confident we were building this thing that we were on track that we could get there. And, you know, not 100 % confident we'd get the outcome, but definitely knew it was in the realm of possibility. So we felt really gratifying to see it all come together. Speaker 1 (1:59) One of the things, I saw a recent clip of one of your interviews and in the interview, You kind of talked about, I think, almost committed to having like a third Republican, a third independent, a third Democrat in your cabinet. Talk to me about that. I think you're the only candidate out there that's saying those types of things. And, you know, it's, I think, important for folks to kind of hear where you're at with that, because I think it's a cool concept. Speaker 2 (2:29) Yeah, I mean, I want to have a blended cabinet. And there's a great quote from the former mayor of New York City. I think he's a Republican, actually. Well, I mean, this kind of speaks to the point. I don't even know what party he is, which is the point. Fiorello LaGuardia, whose, you know, his quote is like, there's no Republican or Democratic way to pick up the garbage. And it's just like, you want things to work and like be functional and solve problems. And a lot of that. like politics shouldn't really enter. And so having a cabinet of really high integrity Alaskans who are pragmatic and are problem solvers and just like want to get after it and make things better, like that's the mindset I've got. And that's the mission. And, you know, there's some really great Alaskans who I really respect who are Republicans. There's some independents out there, you know, there's Democrats out there. And so having a cabinet that kind of reflects Alaska is what I want. And I mean, I'll even say there's a couple of ministers in Dunleavy's cabinet who I have a lot of respect for, Jen Winkleman at Corrections. I worked really closely with her. I think she's an exemplary public servant. John Crowther at DNR. I worked with John for many years. He's a highly competent leader. And so, you know, I want party and politics to be as secondary as possible to like competence and like fixing things and making them better. Speaker 1 (3:55) What do you think you're going to do day one with the gas line? Not the S-Corp stuff. I don't really care about that stuff. But this has been a project since probably before I was born. And it seems like it's maybe on the 10-yard line or give or take a couple yards. What practically... Like, what's your stance on it? And what do you think you're going to do in the first year with the gas line outside of the tax