Six Republicans in the state Senate have announced that they’re planning to form a minority caucus. That would be enough to guarantee conservatives seats on legislative committees and expand the staff they’re able to hire.
The minority is calling itself the “Senate Republican Caucus” and will be led by Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla. It’ll be the first time since 2022 that the Senate has a recognized minority — the three senators not in the majority over the past two years were short of the five-member threshold to guarantee committee appointments. Shower was a member of the smaller group, and he said in an interview that he’s glad to have some more support.
“We were effectively silenced. No resources, no press. Now, we have all of that,” he said. “Now, we’re going to have two members on [the Senate] Finance [Committee]. We’re going to have two members on [the] Resources [Committee]. We’re going to have members in every other committee, so the voice will come back on the conservative side of things, with the Republican priorities and the Republican messaging.”
In a news release, Shower said he hoped to “empower the private sector to drive growth, streamline government to better serve Alaskans, and deliver a budget that is both balanced and sustainable.”
Shower said the minority also plans to push for election reforms that would tighten the state’s voter rolls and seek to speed up vote counting, including by shortening or eliminating the window for absentee ballots to arrive after Election Day. Shower also said he’s skeptical of returning public workers to a defined benefit pension plan, a key issue for the majorities in both the state House and Senate, but he said he’s open to other ways of bolstering the state’s retirement system, like expanding health benefits.
Because the Democrat-heavy House majority sits at the bare minimum of 21 and Gov. Mike Dunleavy has typically been aligned with conservatives, Shower said he’s optimistic they’ll be able to pull the Legislature to the right.
The six-member all-Republican minority leaves a total of 14 in the majority caucus: five Republicans and nine Democrats.
The expansion of the minority comes after two prior Republican members of the bipartisan majority caucus lost their seats following this year’s election. David Wilson lost to Sen.-elect Rob Yundt in Wasilla, and Sen.-elect Mike Cronk won a seat representing a large portion of the Interior after incumbent Click Bishop declined to seek reelection.
The minority also brought over a Republican who had previously caucused with the bipartisan majority, Anchorage Sen. James Kaufman. Shower said he’s glad to have a majority of the chamber’s 11 Republicans caucusing in a single bloc.
“We are happy to be where we are compared to where we were,” Shower said. “We are ready to get to work, and we are hopeful that we will find some paths forward that won’t just be a food fight between the bodies, or between the minorities and majorities, and we look forward to working with them, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed so we can find some good things that can be done.”
Shower said the minority-caucus senators plan to hold a retreat before the session begins in January to work out committee assignments and legislative priorities.