Jonathan S. Kreiss-Tomkins (born February 7, 1989) is a member of the

Alaska House of Representatives The Alaska State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. The House is composed of 40 members, each of whom represents a district of approximately 17,756 people per ...

. A

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

, he represents the state's 35th district, which encompasses many Southeast island communities including

Hoonah Hoonah ( tli, Xunaa or ''Gaaw Yat’aḵ Aan'') is a largely Tlingit community on Chichagof Island, located in Alaska's panhandle in the southeast region of the state. It is west of Juneau, across the Alaskan Inside Passage. Hoonah is the only f ...

Sitka russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...

Kake KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and ...

Klawock Klawock ( tli, Lawáak) is a city in Prince of Wales–Hyder Census Area, in the U.S. state of Alaska, on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, on Klawock Inlet, across from Klawock Island. The population was 755 at the 2010 census, down ...

, Craig,

Angoon Angoon (sometimes formerly spelled Angun, tli, Aangóon) is a city on Admiralty Island in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 572; by the 2010 census the population had declined to 459. The ...

, and Petersburg.

Alaska House of Representatives

Committees

For the 30th Legislature, Kreiss-Tomkins is a member of the following committees: * House State Affairs (Chair) * House Community & Regional Affairs * House Fisheries * House Judiciary

Legislation

House Bill 216, sponsored by Kreiss-Tomkins, was signed into law on October 23, 2014, making each of the twenty Native languages in Alaska an official language of the state. The act, which was passed by large bipartisan majorities in both chambers, adds Inupiaq, Siberian Yupik, Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Alutiiq, Unangax, Dena'ina, Deg Xinag, Holikachuk, Koyukon, Upper Kuskokwim, Gwich'in, Tanana, Upper Tanana, Tanacross, Hän, Ahtna, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian languages as official languages of the state.

Political campaigns

2012 election

Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Terry Gardiner

Due to the 2010 census

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

Bill Thomas William Marshall Thomas (born December 6, 1941) is an American politician. He was a California Republican Party, Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 2007, finishing his tenure representing California's 22 ...

, a state representative since 2004, was redrawn into a slightly altered district. Kreiss-Tomkins's hometown of

Sitka russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...

fell into the 34th district and no other candidates from the Democratic party filed to run in the primary, so he decided to run for the seat. Kreiss-Tomkins dropped out of Yale University after three years to run. The race was very close, and Kreiss-Tomkins won with 50.12% of the vote. After a recount that decreased his margin of victory from 34 votes to 32, the vote was finalized on December 3, 2012, almost a month after election day.

2014 election

Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins at Alaska Day Parade crop

In the 2014 midterm elections, Kreiss-Tomkins was reelected with 60% of the vote (3393 votes to 2288). His opponent was Petersburg Republican Steven Samuelson, who had lost twice before to Peggy Wilson of Wrangell in primaries. Kreiss-Tomkins was elected in a slightly altered district (renumbered as House District 35) that now included Petersburg and the northern end of Prince of Wales Island, but no longer covered Haines and Metlakatla.

Media coverage

After Kreiss-Tomkins's victory in 2012, ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'' wrote an article about him titled
Alaska's Lesson for the Left
and he later featured in Politico’s
How to Turn a Red State Purple
. Following the 2014 legislative session, during which Kreiss-Tomkins sponsored a successful bill that made Alaska's Native languages official, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' named him one of its
40 Under 40
of American politicians.

Personal life

As a freshman at

Sitka High School Sitka High School (abbreviated SHS) is the principal high school for the Southeast Alaskan community of Sitka and the Sitka School District. The school's student body is primarily composed of Alaskan Natives, and Asian-Pacific Islanders and ...

in 2003, Kreiss-Tomkins attracte
national attention
as a major online organizer for the

Howard Dean Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American physician, author, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 200 ...

presidential campaign. He is a long distance runner, winning the Alpine Adventure Race in 2009 and placing second in the Coyote Two Moon ultramarathon in 2010. He is also a mountaineer and in 2009 he climbed the highest volcano in the world, Argentina’s

Ojos del Salado Nevado Ojos del Salado is a dormant complex volcano in the Andes on the Argentina–Chile border. It is the highest volcano on Earth and the highest peak in Chile. The upper reaches of Ojos del Salado consist of several overlapping lava domes, ...

, to conclusively measure its height against a neighboring peak in Chile. Kreiss-Tomkins founded

Outer Coast College Outer Coast College is a small, private, liberal arts college in development in Sitka, Alaska. It is currently in the accreditation process with the goal of expansion into a two-year undergraduate program. History After Sheldon Jackson College ...

and Alaska Fellows Program. In 2020, he co-founded

Covid Act Now Covid Act Now (CAN) is an independent, 501(c)3 nonprofit founded by Max Henderson, Zachary Rosen, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, and Igor Kofman that provides local-level disease intelligence and data analysis on COVID-19 pandemic in the United States ...

References

External links

Alaska Democrats Page

Alaska State Legislature Page

Legislative Facebook Page

Follow the Money Page

Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins
at ''100 Years of Alaska's Legislature'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kreiss-Tomkins, Jonathan 1989 births 21st-century American politicians American cellists American male long-distance runners American male marathon runners American mountain climbers Living people Democratic Party members of the Alaska House of Representatives People from Sitka, Alaska Yale University alumni