ABout Andi 

It's been an honor to represent Juneau these past six years in the House of Representatives and a privilege to have the opportunity to also represent beautiful and welcoming Gustavus, Haines, Klukwan, and Skagway, in new District 3. I have dedicated the last 21 years to strengthening my community and state through public service. I am deeply committed to continuing that work because Alaskans deserve a protected Permanent Fund, a sustainable dividend, a strong economy, excellent education and a fiscal plan. District 3 deserves a problem solver who truly listens and has proven success working across the aisle.

As a resident of beautiful Southeast for 38 years, I understand the vital need for reliable ferries. As a 15-year local school board member, I’ve seen up close what families, teachers, school communities and public choice options need to succeed. As a former non-partisan citizen grassroots advocate for great schools across Alaska, I am familiar with other educational communities. As a Mom to three wonderful adults (plus two sons-in-law), and grandmother to three, I want all families to thrive in safe, healthy, affordable communities. As a wife to a former small engineering business owner, Mike, I understand a strong stable economy is essential to helping Alaska grow. I also understand that public employees deserve a guaranteed retirement or Alaska will continue to struggle with worsening labor shortages in essential services, such as education and public safety.

In 2018, after years of testifying to the Legislature about improving education, I decided I wanted to be directly part of the decision-making process. With a lot of energetic volunteer help (and knocking on thousands of doors), I was elected.

I have served on twelve legislative committees and sub-committees (focused mainly on education, transportation, and workforce development). I am experienced in working in a bi-partisan way to achieve significant accomplishments. I am proud of my measures this last legislature that assured $5.2 million to support the Alaska Reads Act (so kids can read by the end of 3rd grade), expanded the Alaska Performance Scholarship to help more youth afford and access technical school or college as a pipeline to fill our workforce jobs, broadened revitalization of Native languages through changes to the Alaska Native Language Preservation & Advisory Council, and increased harbor safety. I am also pleased to have worked across the aisle to support a dividend of $1,360 + $295 in energy relief for a total of $1,655 for Alaskans in October 2024. I was part of bi-partisan plan to inflation-proof the Permanent Fund by $1 billion and achieve a balanced budget without drawing from savings.

I also strongly supported funding to tackle long overdue school and university maintenance. However, the Legislature fell one vote short of securing a much-needed permanent increase in per-student K-12 funding. Instead, a temporary adjustment to the Base Student Allocation was approved. Indeed, there is still work to do.  

During my six years, I have worked for a better Alaska by:

  • Protecting the Permanent Fund by staying within the so-called “5 percent of market value draw” (which is the safe amount of earnings we can spend without hurting the fund’s growth) voting to put billions into protected Permanent Fund savings;

  • Blocking attempts to eliminate ferries and while increasing investment in maintenance and operations, improving regular service (by focusing on hiring and training staff ), getting new mainliners designed and built, and establishing the independent Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board to work toward a more reliable, sustainable, and affordable Marine Highway System.

  • Strengthening public safety by updating sexual assault laws, tightening sex offenders’ registration requirements, toughening penalties for distributors of fentanyl and methamphetamines, requiring schools to have Naloxone (the opioid reversal drug) on site, doubling to four the number of investigators dedicated to cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, requiring cultural training for Troopers, and criminalizing inducement into sex trafficking;

  • Boosting the fishing Industry by cutting interest rates in half (from 10.5% to 5.25%) and increasing maximum amounts to $400,000 for the next three years on loans through the Commercial Fishing Revolving Loan Fund.

  • Enhancing energy investments for more affordable, renewable, infrastructure upgrades and operations;

  • Stopping significant cuts to and improving valued services and programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), support for food banks, child care assistance, senior benefits (renewed for ten years), adult and youth public assistance, housing assistance through Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC), paid family care giving for a loved one with a disability through Medicaid, and telehealth access;

  • Fighting for kids by negotiating at least temporary funding to the K- 12 Base Student Allocation which benefits all public school choice options by the largest ever overall increase of $175 million dollars;

  • Funding some of the highest dividends ever while contributing to savings to continue to grow the Permanent Fund; and

  • Helping families with increased wages for home-based personal care attendants for seniors and people with development disabilities, investments in senior day services, and tax credit incentives for business investments in childcare.