Alaska history shows a ‘Unity Ticket’ is just a Democrat duo in disguise

By SUZANNE DOWNING

April 9, 2026 – Alaska politics has seen this movie before: An in-name-only Republican at the top of a ticket for governor. A Democrat-turned-nonpartisan as the running mate. A campaign built around a “cross-party coalition” aimed at pulling just enough Republicans, Democrats, labor, Alaska Native voters, and undeclared voters to slip into the top tier.

It’s the Murkowski playbook all over again: Stay in the mushy middle.

In 2014, it was Bill Walker and Byron Mallott who fooled the voters.

Today, it’s shaping up as Click Bishop and Greta Schuerch. Will it work again?

Bishop, a Republican from Fairbanks, selected Schuerch , an Alaska Native leader from the Interior with a background that includes Democrat Party membership (and once as a Democrat candidate for Alaska House) as his running mate for lieutenant governor. The structure is unmistakable. It’s the same “unity” model that produced the Walker administration a decade ago. Mallot became a nonpartisan to create the Unity ticket. Schuerch became a nonpartisan for the same purpose.

Republicans who were in the state a dozen years ago remember how that arrangement worked out. Walker, who had Republican roots but ran as an independent, aligned with Mallott, a Democrat who became nonpartisan to join the ticket. The campaign framed itself as a broad coalition. In practice, it governed as a leftist administration that relied heavily on Democratic support, vetoed half of all Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividend,  and very nearly sold the Alaska Gasline project to the Chinese government.

Now Republicans are being asked to consider another version of the same formula.

The core issue is simple: the lieutenant governor is one heartbeat away from the governorship. If Bishop were elected and something happened to him, God forbid, Schuerch, the Democrat-nonpartisan, would immediately become governor.

That puts the Alaska Republican Party in a difficult and unavoidable position. Is Bishop truly a Republican candidate if his running mate is not? And can the party credibly support or express neutrality toward a ticket where the succession plan leads to a non-Republican governor?

This isn’t theoretical for the Republican Party, including the Republican Governors Association and the Republican National Committee. The lieutenant governor becomes governor. Period.

Voters are not just choosing a gubernatorial candidate. They are effectively choosing a governing partnership and, quite possibly, the next governor. And in this case, the partnership mirrors a model that previously sidelined Republicans.

This is also the strategic logic behind the “unity ticket.” It’s designed to assemble a coalition: Alaska Native voters, organized labor, Democrats, undeclared voters, and a slice of pro-abortion, anti-development Republicans. Add ranked-choice voting to the mix, and the math becomes even more compelling. You don’t need majority support early. You just need enough to make the final four  … And with 19 candidates currently declared, that threshold could be surprisingly low. Even if 10 survive through the June 1 deadline for formal filing with the Division of Elections, the pie gets carved up.

But that strategic advantage comes with a political cost, particularly for Republicans. If the Alaska GOP treats Bishop as a standard Republican candidate, it risks implicitly endorsing a succession scenario where a non-Republican becomes governor. If it opposes or distances itself, it risks fracturing its own base.

There isn’t an easy answer. This is why some Republicans are already discussing whether the issue needs to be addressed at the district level, through a formal party process.

Local Republican districts typically vet and endorse candidates, and they also have the authority to determine whether a candidate aligns with party principles. That process may now may become necessary, because this isn’t just about Click Bishop. It’s about what it means to run as a Republican. And he has shown his cards.

If the party label can be paired with any non-Republican running mate under a “unity” banner, then the label itself loses meaning. Imagine if Donald Trump had picked Kamala Harris as his running mate.

That’s the same rodeo Alaska saw in 2014, which resulted in a governor very nearly destroyed the state so he could profit in his side hustle: The Alaska gasline.

History doesn’t always repeat itself, but in Alaska politics, it often rhymes. The Alaska Republican Party needs to step up and make sure the Bishop-Schuerch ticket gets the boot.

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.

Click Bishop names Greta Schuerch his running mate