Former Sen. John Coghill said he filed to run in the race to fill the remainder of the late Congressman Don Young’s term, which ends in January, as initially reported by the Associated Press. During his time in the legislature, he represented the North Pole and Fairbanks. Most recently, Coghill participated in a debate over whether there should be a constitutional convention.
Coghill appeared on KSRM’s “The Talk of the Kenai” on Tuesday announcing his intention to run:
“Before the voting system that I fought against that got in called the ranked choice voting, I probably wouldn’t have thought much about this. Here’s the thing, Don passed away opening up that seat in a ranked choice voting system. You get four choices and every one of them should be a conservative in my view, and at the very least, an Alaskan who wants to fight for Alaska, and an American who wants to fight for America. I got to thinking about it, I’m a praying man. In my prayers, when I thought about doing it, I get scared. When I thought about not doing it, I couldn’t get comfortable. If I could, should I? If I didn’t, could I look at myself in the mirror and say I let it pass by and I didn’t even try?”
Issues Coghill says he’d fight for includes state’s rights, right to life, constitutional integrity, and standing up for the promises made to Alaska at statehood, which he elaborates on:
“You know, in our statehood compact, the resource was to belong to the state because the tax base wasn’t going to be enough. They said they would revert if we went the other way. They went the other way! They took it away from us. I think we have a good case to make, and I would like to see that reopened. There’s a lot of things under the statehood act and ANILCA. Then we had ANCSA that came out of it. When you look at Alaska, you have to look through those things, but we’re one of the few states that had a specific law on the national interest lands in Alaska. That law should be honored.”
There will be a special primary to fill that spot that will be held on Saturday, June 11, 2022. The special election will be held on Tuesday, August 16, 2022. Click here for more election information.
Click here to listen to his interview from Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.
NOTE: Image courtesy of the Senator John Coghill social media page.