Zac Johnson: Former Marine, Pro-Gun, Pro-Education, and Running for Alaska Lt. Governor

The Northern Ledger

Zac Johnson discusses his path from growing up in an off-grid Alaska cabin to serving in the Marine Corps and entering local politics through community council work. He explains why he

Key takeaways

• Johnson says his campaign went from low single-digit polling in spring to becoming a top vote-getter after executing a disciplined plan.
• He describes growing up in a cabin near Turnagain Arm with no utilities, which shaped his view of Alaska's frontier identity and community bonds.

Main topics

• Alaska lieutenant governor race
• personal background and Marine Corps service

Notable quotes

I'm glad I'm hard to pinhole. I don't pinhole myself.

Conclusion

The episode offers a candid profile of Johnson as an independent-minded

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:01) Zach, welcome to the show. I'm super excited to hear this. It'll be fun to kind of chat with you and get to know you a little bit. How's your day going so far? It's going great. Yeah. Thanks for having me, John. Well, it's kind of crazy. You guys have a whirlwind kind of a story. I think earlier in the summer, maybe May or something like that, I've seen this bar graph where it's like polling at 5 % or 8%. And you guys came out as the top vote getter. What was it like that night for you? Speaker 2 (0:28) It's amazing. You know, I mean, campaigns are just a ton of effort over weeks or months that all build up to this one singular moment. Right. And that's where you find out ultimately whether or not it all paid off. And, you know, we as you pointed out this spring, like our poll numbers were very low. Jonathan's name recognition in Alaska was, you know, and also in the low single digits. But we had a plan. Right. And then we we knew what it was going to take to to. put ourselves in contention. And we went and we just relentlessly worked a plan. And then so we went into that night, you know, not with certainty, but some confidence that we expected to do well. And it's just that it was a lot of hard work by a pretty amazing team of people. But we knew from the beginning that we had a real, real shot at this. Speaker 1 (1:15) What's the, what's it like having the, you know, we see two different strategies, the, you had the Democrats. Or in your case, you're an independent. You had people kind of drop out of the race in order so maybe one of their candidates could win. And then we see the Republican strategy of like every man and woman for themselves. Like, tell me a little bit about that as your team looks at that. I'm sure you guys have put a lot of thought and effort into how and what you're doing. Give us a little peek behind the curtain of how that strategy is playing out. Speaker 2 (1:50) Yeah. Well, I mean, there are only only certain things within our span of control. Right. So what our opponents are doing in the general election, like is is entirely up to them. Like that's their prerogative, how they want to manage that. As far as, you know, between Jonathan and the other Democrat, you know, in the primary, Tom Biggish, like very early on, there was a conversation they had about, you know, what were their their shared goals, you know. Speaker 2 (2:16) how closely aligned they felt, you know, on a lot of the key issues and sort of like what would make sense for one of them to ultimately be successful. Right. And those sort of conversations have been happening forever. I mean, a lot of people bring it up in the context of ranked choice voting, but really, you know, it's the sort of coordination that campaigns have had going back many years and then will continue on in the foreseeable future. So, you know, we knew that in this case, there was another campaign who, again, what they were hoping to achieve was pretty closely aligned with with our platform. And so. It just made sense. And it was, you know, the selfless thing to do. And, you know, had the results been different, Speaker 1 (2:50) we would have made the same decision. Yeah, it's kind of it's just it's two wildly different strategies. It's crazy. It's fun to watch them play out. Let let's go back. Take me back in the day. I think I read or heard you grew up in a log cabin or a cabin that your parents built on Turnagin Arm that didn't have like electricity, running water, those kinds of things. What was it like growing up like that? And how did that kind of shape your thoughts and ideas of Alaska? Speaker 2 (3:18) Yeah, you know, we we. My parents, they came to Alaska together in the 70s. You know, they were looking for adventure, you know, excited about the idea of being, you know, on the frontier. And so, you know, they built a parcel land and they built the cabin on it. And they lived in it full time for about a decade. They were really committed to that lifestyle. And yeah, there was, you know, there was a pump in the kitchen, but no connection to any utilities, you know, propane lights, no phone back in the day, all that. So it was pretty rugged. But, you know, I mean, a lot of people like that's what that that sort of experience is what makes them want to live in Alaska, you know. And with that, too, they just had a really wonderful sense of community from kind of like the shared experience and hardship sometimes with their neighbors. So it's pretty special, you know. And yeah, when I was born, they were still living in that cabin full time. We lived there full time just for the first few years of my life. And then when my parents decided to have a second kid, my mom was like, I'm not going through another pregnancy or Speaker 1 (4:17) I got to hike out to an outhouse in the middle of the Speaker 2 (4:19) night, you know, in the dark. So they moved to Anchorage at that point. And then as a family, you know, we left Alaska when I was about five years old. But, you know, we kept the cabin, right? So it always has been a part of our lives. And it's still a place where I love to go spend time on the weekends. You know, I mean, it's a wonderful thing, you know, as much as I love the amenities of living in the city, just to be able to get away from it and be somewhere quiet and, you know, feel closer to nature and like what feels like a very authentic Speaker 1 (4:47) version of Alaska. That's awesome. So years later, I believe you enlisted or you went into the Marines. Talk to me a little bit about that. That's a kind of like a really hardcore act of service. What was your? What led you and spurred you on to doing something like that? Speaker 2 (5:05) Yeah, hardcore. Nice pun there, John. Speaker 2 (5:09) You know, I like a lot of high schoolers. I was kind of struggling through my adolescence, you know, and didn't really have a clear sense of what I wanted to do or, you know, frankly, a lot of I was self-aware enough to know that I was really lacking in self-discipline and confidence. And I was not excited at the time about going to college. But I also wanted to go find like a real challenge for myself. You know, I mean, I felt this need to kind of prove that I can really handle myself, you know, in. in a very extreme environment, I guess I'll say. You know, my dad had served in the Marine Corps as a reservist, so I was familiar with the Corps. You know, I mean, he'd always kind of talked up the institution. And so for me, it just felt like, you know, the right fit after high school. And I mean, I'm so glad I did. I think if I just kind of tried to fumble my way into adulthood and maybe college, you know, I mean, I was not a strong student. I don't know what the results would have been, right? And the Marine Speaker 1 (6:03) Corps Speaker 2 (6:03) really, you know, Put me on track. And I think every success I've enjoyed in life in the 20 years since I left the Marine Corps, I fully credit to that experience, you know, and the discipline and the drive that came from having been a Marine. It was, yeah, absolutely a game changer for me. And I Speaker 1 (6:22) always will be very, Speaker 2 (6:23) very proud Speaker 1 (6:24) to wear that title. That's awesome. So you probably traveled all around the world. You could have probably landed or lived anywhere you wanted to after being in the Marine Corps. What made you come back to Alaska? Speaker 2 (6:36) I mean, after I got out of the Marines, you know, I served for four years and I again found myself kind of feeling a little, you know, unfocused and without a lot of direction or purpose. I worked a couple of different odd jobs. You know, I lived with my family on the East Coast for a while and then I was in California and just didn't really have much of a sense of direction. So my thought was I would come up to Alaska with a buddy of mine I was living with from the Marine Corps. And if I was, we'd stay for a month or two. We didn't really have anything else going on. We're in our, you know, early mid 20s. And we had this cabin where we could stay. And so we came up, thought it was just going to be for a little, you know, short duration of time. But, you know, when I was up here, like something just clicked. And I was like, man, there's no way I can go back to the lower 48. You know, and that was 20 years ago. And, you know, so glad I did. I just, you know, I fell in love with Alaska and just, you know, as it happens when you fall in love, you realize like, this is the person or the place Speaker