Alaska State Senate District M

Alaska State Senate District M

Incumbent

Shelley Hughes

Assumed office: January 17, 2023

Alaska State Senate District M is represented by Shelley Hughes (R).

As of the 2020 Census, Alaska state senators represented an average of 36,804 residents. After the 2010 Census, each member represented 36,076 residents.

About the office

Members of the Alaska State Senate serve four-year terms and are not subject to term limits.^[1] Half of the senate is up for re-election every two years. All seats are up for election after redistricting occurs. Up until 1992, members of the Senate and House were elected to both single-member and multi-member districts. Since then, all Alaska legislators have been elected into single-member districts.^[2] Alaska legislators assume office on the third Tuesday of January following their election.^[3][4]

Qualifications

See also: State legislature candidate requirements by state

Article II, Section 2 of the Alaska Constitution states: "A member of the legislature shall be a qualified voter who has been a resident of Alaska for at least three years and of the district from which elected for at least one year, immediately preceding his filing for office. A senator shall be at least twenty-five years of age and a representative at least twenty-one years of age."^[5]

Salaries

See also: Comparison of state legislative salaries

Vacancies

See also: How vacancies are filled in state legislatures

If there is a vacancy in the Alaska State Legislature, the governor is responsible for selecting a replacement. The governor must select the replacement within 30 days after the vacancy happens. Nevertheless, if the predecessor's term is set to expire or if a special election is scheduled to fill a vacancy in the state Senate before the legislature reconvenes, the governor is not authorized to appoint someone to fill the vacancy.^[7]

See sources: Alaska Stat. §15.40.320

District map

Redistricting

2020-2022

See also: Redistricting in Alaska after the 2020 census

Alaska completed its state legislative redistricting on May 24, 2022, when the Alaska Redistricting Board adopted a new map of state Senate districts at the direction of the state supreme court. In its ruling, the Alaska Supreme Court upheld a May 16, 2022, decision by the Third District of Alaska's Superior Court that determined that the mapping of state House districts to Senate ones was unconstitutional and ordered the Alaska Redistricting Board to adopt another proposed plan for pairing the districts. Click here to read more about litigation surrounding Alaska's legislative boundaries. These maps took effect for Alaska's 2022 legislative elections.

Alaska had initially enacted legislative district boundaries on November 10, 2021, following a 3-2 vote by the Alaska Redistricting Board. The three Republican-appointed board members voted in favor of the map and the two nonpartisan board members voted against it.^[8] On March 25, 2022, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that one state House and one state Senate district did not comply with the state constitution and required they be redrawn.^[9] The Alaska Redistricting Board adopted new legislative district boundaries to comply with the state supreme court's ruling on April 13, 2022.^[10]

How does redistricting in Alaska work? Because Alaska has only one congressional district, congressional redistricting is not necessary. A non-politician commission draws state legislative district lines. In place since 1998, Alaska's redistricting commission comprises five members. Two commissioners are appointed by the governor, one by the state Senate majority leader, one by the state House majority leader, and one by the chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court. State law mandates that commissioners "be chosen without regard to party affiliation." One commissioner must be selected from each of the state's judicial districts.^[11]

The Alaska Constitution requires that state legislative districts be contiguous and compact. Furthermore, every state legislative district must contain a "relatively integrated socio-economic area." Each state legislative district is served by one state senator and two state representatives.^[11]

Elections

2022

See also: Alaska State Senate elections, 2022

General election

General election for Alaska State Senate District M

The ranked-choice voting election was won by Shelley Hughes in round 1 .

		Candidate	%	Total Votes	Transfer	Round eliminated
		Shelley Hughes	75.8	11,257	0	Won (1)
		Jim Cooper	24.0	3,561	0	1
		Undeclared Write-insUndeclared write-in candidates may advance past the first round in some ranked-choice elections. If the official source reports write-in votes by candidate name, Ballotpedia displays them alongside the ballot-qualified candidates. However, if write-in votes are reported without a name, they will instead be included in the total write-in votes figure in Round 1. Please consult the official elections source for more details about unnamed write-in candidate vote totals past Round 1.	0.2	32	0

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 14,850
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Alaska State Senate District M

Incumbent Shelley Hughes and Jim Cooper advanced from the primary for Alaska State Senate District M on August 16, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Shelley Hughes (R)	75.7	7,707
✔		Jim Cooper (D)	24.3	2,479

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 10,186
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2020

See also: Alaska state legislative special elections, 2020

A special election for Alaska State Senate District M was called for November 3, 2020. A primary election took place on August 18, 2020. The candidate filing deadline was June 1, 2020.

The special election was called after Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) appointed Josh Revak (R) on September 27, 2019.^[12] Revak succeeded former Sen. Chris Birch (R) following his death on August 8, 2019.^[13]

General election

Special general election for Alaska State Senate District M

Incumbent Josh Revak defeated Andy Holleman in the special general election for Alaska State Senate District M on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Josh Revak (R)	57.6	10,410
		Andy Holleman (Independent)	42.1	7,607
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	56

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 18,073
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Anita Thorne (D)

Republican primary election

Special Republican primary for Alaska State Senate District M

Incumbent Josh Revak defeated Ray Metcalfe and Harold Borbridge in the special Republican primary for Alaska State Senate District M on August 18, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Josh Revak	66.3	2,499
		Ray Metcalfe	24.2	911
		Harold Borbridge	9.6	362

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 3,772
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Alaska Democratic and Independence parties primary election

Special Alaska Democratic and Independence parties primary for Alaska State Senate District M

Anita Thorne defeated Nicholas Willie in the special Alaska Democratic and Independence parties primary for Alaska State Senate District M on August 18, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Anita Thorne	87.5	2,732
		Nicholas Willie	12.5	389

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 3,121
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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2018

General election

General election for Alaska State Senate District M

Chris Birch defeated Janice Park in the general election for Alaska State Senate District M on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Chris Birch (R)	58.5	8,665
		Janice Park (D)	41.2	6,110
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	43

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 14,818
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Alaska State Senate District M

Chris Birch defeated Bekah Halat in the Republican primary for Alaska State Senate District M on August 21, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Chris Birch	77.9	3,144
		Bekah Halat	22.1	892

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 4,036
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Alaska Democratic, Libertarian, and Independence parties primary election

Alaska Democratic, Libertarian, and Independence parties primary for Alaska State Senate District M

Janice Park advanced from the Alaska Democratic, Libertarian, and Independence parties primary for Alaska State Senate District M on August 21, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Janice Park	100.0	1,738

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,738
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

2014

See also: Alaska State Senate elections, 2014

Elections for the Alaska State Senate took place in 2014. A primary election took place on August 19, 2014. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was June 2, 2014. Felix E. Rivera was unopposed in the Democratic primary, while District L incumbent Kevin Meyer was unopposed in the Republican primary. Meyer defeated Rivera in the general election.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Alaska State Senate, District M, General Election, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Kevin Meyer Incumbent	70%	9,909
	Democratic	Felix E. Rivera	30%	4,239
Total Votes				14,148

2012

See also: Alaska State Senate elections, 2012

Elections for the office of Alaska State Senate consisted of a primary election on August 28, 2012, and a general election on November 6, 2012. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was June 1, 2012. Anna Fairclough defeated Bettye Davis (D) in the general election.^[18] Fairclough ran unopposed in the August 28 Republican primary. Davis defeated Harry Crawford, Jr. (D) in the August 28 Democratic primary.^[19]

Alaska State Senate, District 13 (M), General Election, 2012

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Anna Fairclough	62.3%	11,012
	Democratic	Bettye Davis Incumbent	37.7%	6,676
Total Votes				17,688

Campaign contributions

From 2000 to 2022, candidates for Alaska State Senate District M raised a total of $1,040,864. Candidates who raised money in contributions earned $74,347 on average. All figures come from Follow the Money

See also

Suggest a link

• Alaska State Legislature
• Alaska State Senate
• Alaska House of Representatives
• Alaska state legislative districts

External links

• The Alaska State Legislature

Footnotes

	v • e State of Alaska Juneau (capital)
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