Jesse Kiehl (born April 17, 1976) is a Democratic member of the

Alaska Legislature The Alaska Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is a bicameral institution consisting of the 40-member Alaska House of Representatives (lower house) and the 20-member Alaska Senate (upper house). There are 40 Ho ...

representing the State Senate's Q district and a former member of the Assembly of the City and Borough of

Juneau The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...

, Alaska.

Early life

Jesse Kiehl was born on April 17, 1976 in Anchorage Alaska, and graduated from Steller Secondary School in 1994. Kiehl attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington and received a bachelor of arts degree in 1998, with both a major in theatre and a major with honors in politics.

Political career

From 2000 to 2018, Kiehl worked as staff to Juneau-area members of the

Alaska State Senate The Alaska State Senate is the upper house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. It convenes in the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, Alaska and is responsible for making laws and confirming or rejecting gube ...

. Until 2009 he worked for

Kim Elton Kim Steven Elton (born April 9, 1948) is a journalist, commercial fisherman, government official and Democratic politician in the U.S. state of Alaska. Elton represented Juneau in the Alaska House of Representatives for two terms, from 1995 to ...

, and began working for

Dennis Egan Dennis William Egan (March 3, 1947 – June 28, 2022) was an American politician who was a member of the Alaska Senate representing Juneau from April 19, 2009, until January 15, 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as t ...

upon his appointment to replace Elton. In 2011, Kiehl ran for local office, beating Bradley Fluetsch by a large margin. He took office in October 2011. Kiehl was unopposed in his 2014 re-election campaign. In 2017 he won a third term in a three-candidate race against Chuck Collins and Loretto Jones, garnering more than 67% of the vote. He served as a member of the

Assembly of the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska The Assembly of the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska is the governing body and legislative branch of the City and Borough of Juneau, the local government of Juneau, Alaska, United States. As Juneau is a unified municipality, its corporate limits ...

until resigning to serve in the state senate in January 2019. Kiehl also served in a Juneau-specific seat on the board of directors of the Alaska Municipal League. Kiehl won the State Senate election on November 6, 2018 from the platform of

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. He secured sixty-two percent of the vote while his closest rival

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Don Etheridge secured thirty-eight percent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiehl, Jesse Living people 1976 births 21st-century American politicians Democratic Party Alaska state senators Jewish American state legislators in Alaska Politicians from Anchorage, Alaska Politicians from Juneau, Alaska Alaska city council members Borough assembly members in Alaska 21st-century American Jews