Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins

Deep Dive

Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, who campaigns as JKT, was born in Sitka and represented Southeast Alaska in the state House for five terms, from 2013 to 2023, chairing its State Affairs Committee in his last two years. He led the nonpartisan top-four primary on August 18, 2026 with 22.5 percent, and he is the only Democrat among the four candidates for governor on the November 3 ballot.

The one thing in his record that touches this subject is twelve years old. On April 4, 2014 the Alaska House passed House Concurrent Resolution 26, which commends the State of Israel and supports "the legal, historical, and moral right of the State of Israel to self-governance and the defense of its lands". The words are the legislature's rather than his. The resolution came from the Rules Committee by request, and its clauses say the land was "originally granted to the people of Israel by a deed recorded in the Old Testament", that "the 650,000 Jewish persons in the areas of Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem reside there legitimately", and that "peace cannot be achieved in the Middle East unless Israel is united and whole". It asks nothing of the United States in weapons or money, and it names no aid program. Kreiss-Tomkins voted yes, with thirty-five other members and none against; three members were excused and one was absent, and the journal for the day records no remarks from him about it. The Senate passed it four days later, 19 to 1.

Since then there is nothing. His platform runs to thirteen sections and none of them reaches Israel, Gaza, Palestinians or foreign aid, and the only plank in it that names foreign governments is about gifts and travel: "No foreign junkets. Building on laws I helped pass as a legislator, state officials should not accept lavish vacations from foreign governments or deep-pocketed individuals when there is little to no benefit to the State of Alaska." He answered every question on Ballotpedia's candidate questionnaire this year, at length, and no answer reaches foreign policy of any kind; the twenty releases on his own press page, from July to September 2026, are about schools, energy, fisheries, endorsements and the primary. An empty record carries no implication either way.

Alaska's own standing policy on this subject, which the next governor inherits, is set out on his research page, together with the 2014 resolution in full and the two state bills on it that never came to a vote while he served. You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask Kreiss-Tomkins directly, or at a candidate forum, and send us the reply: it goes on this page in his own words, which is worth more than anything we could write about him.

Research log

The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.

Every page named below was opened and read on 2026-09-20 unless the entry says otherwise. His campaign site was read in full, its platform page and its press page and the twenty releases listed there; so were his Ballotpedia profile and the candidate questionnaire he filled in this year, his profile on a second guide, the full text and the House roll call of the one measure about Israel he is recorded voting on in ten years in the Alaska House, and two of the interviews his own site links. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. He has never held federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are his, and no funding from the committees this site tracks is recorded on this record. He left the Alaska House in January 2023, so he held no office in the weeks after the October 2023 attack.

U.S. military aid and weapons to the government of Israel

• Nothing located, at any date. No statement by him about arms transfers, weapons shipments, Foreign Military Financing, the memorandum of understanding, security assistance, a dollar figure, a condition on aid, or any bill or amendment on those subjects appears on his campaign site, in his platform, in his Ballotpedia questionnaire answers, in his campaign's press releases, in his profile on a second guide, or in the coverage of his campaign read for this card. The one measure about Israel he is recorded voting on, in 2014, asks nothing of the United States in weapons or money; it is set out below.
• He has never voted on any of this and, as governor, would not. That is a fact about the office rather than about him, and it is why the card leads on what he has actually done.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

• Nothing located, at any date. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Gaza humanitarian funding and the aid pipeline appear nowhere in his published material. The words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian, Hamas and Middle East occur zero times in his campaign platform, zero times on his campaign's press page, and zero times in his Ballotpedia survey answers.

Characterization of the conflict

• [Earlier record, 2014-04-04] House Concurrent Resolution 26, short title "COMMENDING AND SUPPORTING STATE OF ISRAEL", sponsor line "HOUSE RULES BY REQUEST". The enrolled text resolves that the Alaska State Legislature "commends the State of Israel for its cordial and mutually beneficial relationship with the United States and Alaska and supports the legal, historical, and moral right of the State of Israel to self-governance and the defense of its lands". Its clauses say that the land of the State of Israel was "originally granted to the people of Israel by a deed recorded in the Old Testament"; that the 1920 San Remo Resolution "established the legal basis under international law for the modern State of Israel"; that "the 650,000 Jewish persons in the areas of Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem reside there legitimately"; that the State of Israel "has used force only when necessary to defend itself"; and that "peace cannot be achieved in the Middle East unless Israel is united and whole". It asks nothing of the United States in weapons or money and names no aid program. These are the resolution's words and the legislature's act; none of it is quoted here as his own words, because none of it is his.
• [Earlier record, 2014-04-04] The roll call. The House journal for that day records on final passage "YEAS: 36 NAYS: 0 EXCUSED: 3 ABSENT: 1", with Kreiss-Tomkins in the list of yeas, three members excused and one absent. The resolution went from second reading to final passage in one sitting and the journal carries no remarks on it from him or from anyone else. The bill's history page records that the Senate passed it 19 to 1 on April 8, 2014 and that it was permanently filed as Legislative Resolve 37 on July 14, 2014.
• Nothing else located, at any date. He has not been found using the words genocide, apartheid, self-defense or terrorism about the war in Gaza, and nothing was found from him on Palestinian statehood, a two-state framework or territorial boundaries.

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

• Nothing located from him, at any date. Nothing read for this card has him naming the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or any other advocacy organization on this subject, and nothing connects him to money from any of them. Governor of Alaska is a state office, and the federal committees this site tracks do not report contributions to state candidates.
• [Position, read 2026-09-20] The nearest thing in his own platform is a plank about gifts and travel, under the heading "Better Government; NO Corruption": "No foreign junkets. Building on laws I helped pass as a legislator, state officials should not accept lavish vacations from foreign governments or deep-pocketed individuals when there is little to no benefit to the State of Alaska." It names no country and no organization.
• [Earlier record, 2022] Two bills in his last session would have barred state contracts with, and state investment in, companies that boycott the government of Israel. House Bill 239, introduced on January 18, 2022 by Representative Sarah Vance, was referred to Labor and Commerce and never left it. House Bill 394, introduced on February 22, 2022 by Representative David Eastman, was referred to the State Affairs Committee, which Kreiss-Tomkins chaired that session, and was never scheduled for a hearing. Neither bill reached a vote in either chamber, so neither produced a recorded vote of his, and nothing he said about either could be found. Both are recorded here as facts; no motive is attributed to anyone.
• [Position, 2024-02-07] A standing state policy that the next governor inherits. The Anchorage Daily News reported that the sitting governor had issued an administrative order calling for public agencies to stop doing business with companies that support an economic boycott of the government of Israel, in a piece by James Brooks of the Alaska Beacon published on February 7, 2024, which reports that the order made Alaska the 38th state to act against such boycotts and that its language follows a bill that had failed in the House. Kreiss-Tomkins is not named in it, and nothing located has him saying whether he would keep, change or end the order. The order's own page, https://gov.alaska.gov/admin-orders/administrative-order-no-352/ , could not be opened, so its address is printed here rather than linked.

Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what America sends)

• Nothing located, at any date. Nothing in his published material addresses antisemitism or the safety of any religious community.
• Identity. The name is distinctive and no namesake surfaced in any search run for this card. Every source used here places him as the Sitka Democrat who held Alaska House District 35 from 2013 to 2023 and chaired House State Affairs in 2021 and 2022; that chain is confirmed independently by Ballotpedia, by the Alaska Legislature's own member and journal pages, and by his campaign site.

What the campaign site and his own pages say

• [Undated; read 2026-09-20] His campaign site was read: the home page, Meet Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, Meet Zac Johnson, Platform, Endorsements, Press, Events, Volunteer, Request a Yard Sign and Contact. A search of the platform and press pages for israel, gaza, palestin, antisemit, jewish, hamas, aipac, foreign aid, foreign policy, military aid, middle east, ukraine and iran returns nothing of any kind; the only occurrences of the word foreign are in the junkets plank.
• [Position, read 2026-09-20] The platform has thirteen sections: Support Our Schools, Lower Energy Costs, Support Healthcare Access, Protect Our Fisheries, Regulate Data Centers and AI, Build More Homes, End the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Crisis, Better Government; NO Corruption, Protect Alaskans' Personal Freedoms, Defend Subsistence, Fix Our Infrastructure, Keep Alaskans Safe, and Balance the Budget. It is a state platform throughout: school funding, utility rates and a gas pipeline, Medicaid and telehealth, trawl bycatch and fishing permits, data centers, housing, domestic violence, campaign money and state appointments, abortion and privacy, subsistence, the ferry system, first responders, the Permanent Fund and oil taxes.
• [Position, submitted 2026; read 2026-09-20] Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. The page records that he completed it in 2026 and gives no day. He answered every question at length: who he is, the three key messages of his campaign, the areas of policy he cares about, and his endorsements. The messages are school funding and teacher pay, the cost of living and housing, and electricity rates; the policy answer names public education, fisheries and good government, and says he co-sponsored the law that banned lobbyists from buying lawmakers dinners. No answer reaches foreign policy, foreign aid or any foreign country. The questionnaire test is met in his favor: he used the whole range of the form, so the silence on this subject is his own and not a wall of blanks, though no question on the form asks about it. The same page records "Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey."
• [Undated; read 2026-09-20] iVoterGuide's profile for him carries the question "Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?" and records "Did not answer" against it. That is not evidence of anything: the profile records "Did not answer" 34 times, against every question on the form, and the guide fills the rest of the page from public records.
• [Position, 2026-04-30 and 2026-06-11] Two of the interviews his campaign links were read: KMXT's interview with him, a transcript of about 2,300 words on education, the budget, fisheries and energy, and the Chilkat Valley News question and answer, which opens only in part. Israel, Gaza and Palestinians occur zero times in both.
• [Position, 2026-07-27 to 2026-09-18] The campaign's press page lists twenty releases, from a union endorsement on July 27, 2026 to a race rating on September 18, 2026, plus ten links to news coverage. The releases are endorsements, the primary result, fisheries and Alaska Native leaders, a film about a Yukon River trip, campaign contributions and a closing primary message. None is in scope.

The race

• [Read 2026-09-20] Ballotpedia's page for the race reads: "Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, David Bronson, Treg Taylor, and Bernadette Wilson are running in the general election for Governor of Alaska on November 3, 2026." There is no incumbent in the race; the sitting governor is not on the ballot.
• [Read 2026-09-20] The August 18, 2026 primary was a nonpartisan top-four primary with seventeen candidates and 164,155 votes cast. Kreiss-Tomkins led it with 22.5 percent and 36,961 votes; Tom Begich took 20.8 percent, Bernadette Wilson 10.0 percent and David Bronson 8.1 percent; Treg Taylor finished fifth with 7.3 percent. Ballotpedia's note on his profile page reads: "Treg Taylor became a candidate for the Alaska gubernatorial general election after Tom Begich, who had advanced from the primary, withdrew." His campaign announced Begich's withdrawal and endorsement on August 29, 2026. The state's own summary report of the primary, https://www.elections.alaska.gov/enr26/results/ElectionSummaryReportRPT.pdf , could not be opened, so the shares above are Ballotpedia's, and Ballotpedia's table, read again on 2026-09-26, records that the results have been certified.
• The other three candidates' records belong on their own cards and are not narrated here.

Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them

• The 2015 radio report our research cited, https://www.kcaw.org/2015/02/10/bill-to-boost-native-language-immersion-schools/ , said to carry a remark of his about Hebrew language revitalization in an argument for Alaska Native language immersion schools. It redirects to a page that could not be opened, and it was never read. Nothing from it is used, and its subject is language teaching rather than anything this site asks about.
• The state's own summary report of the August 18, 2026 primary, https://www.elections.alaska.gov/enr26/results/ElectionSummaryReportRPT.pdf . Could not be opened.
• The administrative order's own page, https://gov.alaska.gov/admin-orders/administrative-order-no-352/ . Could not be opened. The report of it cited above opened.
• The Alaska Beacon's own copy of that report, https://alaskabeacon.com/2024/02/07/alaska-governor-bans-big-new-contracts-with-companies-that-boycott-israel/ , which does not open; the same piece by the same reporter opened at the Anchorage Daily News and is what is cited.
• His campaign's accounts, https://x.com/jktforak and https://www.facebook.com/jktforak/ , and the Instagram and Flickr pages his site links. None was read.
• The twenty-minute film his campaign published on August 12, 2026, and the other news items and interviews his press page links, including https://www.krbd.org/2026/05/18/jonathan-kreiss-tomkins-talks-education-funding-fisheries-and-reviving-the-ferry-system-in-ketchikan-campaign-stop/ , https://www.newsminer.com/news/politics/sitka-democrat-makes-education-central-point-in-run-for-governor/article_cb7c84e5-7a69-4534-b1f7-60a5fe0f1dd9.html , https://sitkasentinel.com/stories/education-top-jkt-priority-in-governor-race,140468 and https://www.ketchikandailynews.com/news/alaska/kreiss-tomkins-seeks-top-job/article_b0674d7b-5369-4955-8401-36c9bb89df72.html . Not read for this card; their headlines and his campaign's own summaries are about education, fisheries and the ferry system.

Not on the card, and why

• The 2015 remark about Hebrew language revitalization. Its source could not be opened, and a reference to language teaching in another country is not a position on what the United States sends.
• The "Did not answer" entry against the Israel question on his profile on a second guide. He answered nothing at all on that form, 34 questions of 34. A wall of blanks is a fact about the guide's reach, not about the candidate.
• Any reading of his plank about gifts from foreign governments as a position on U.S. weapons, U.S. money for the government of Israel or U.S. aid to Palestinians. It is about travel and gifts to state officials, it names no country, and the card records it as what it is.
• The February 2024 administrative order on state contracting. It is the sitting governor's act, not his, and its subject is boycotts by companies rather than what the United States sends. It is recorded above because the office he is seeking inherits it.
• House Bill 239 and House Bill 394 of 2022. Neither reached a vote, neither produced a recorded vote of his, and both are about state contracting and state investment rather than about what the United States sends.
• The whole of his platform and his questionnaire answers on schools, energy, healthcare, fisheries, data centers, housing, domestic violence, government ethics, personal freedoms, subsistence, infrastructure, public safety and the budget. Out of scope, and listed above so the absence can be checked.
• The records of the three other candidates on the November ballot. Another candidate's positions belong on that candidate's own card.

Sources retrieved for this card (address; opened or could not open; date)

• https://www.jktforak.com/ (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.jktforak.com/platform (opened; 2026-09-20; read twice, once as rendered text)
• https://www.jktforak.com/press (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Jonathan_S._Kreiss-Tomkins (opened; 2026-09-20; survey completed 2026, no day given)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Alaska_gubernatorial_and_lieutenant_gubernatorial_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Text/28?Hsid=HCR026Z (opened; 2026-09-20; enrolled HCR 26, 2014)
• https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Detail/28?Root=HCR%2026 (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Journal/Pages/28?Chamber=H&Page=2197&pageEnd=2197 (opened; 2026-09-20; House Journal page 2197, April 4, 2014)
• https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Detail/32?Root=HB%20239 (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Detail/32?Root=HB%20394 (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/61600/race/27434/election/1416 (opened; 2026-09-20; 34 questions, none answered)
• https://www.kmxt.org/elections/2026-04-30/interview-with-jonathan-kreiss-tomkins-gubernatorial-candidate (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2026-04-30)
• https://www.chilkatvalleynews.com/2026/06/11/qa-with-jonathan-kreiss-tomkins-governor-candidate/ (opened in part; 2026-09-20; published 2026-06-11)
• https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2024/02/07/alaska-governor-bans-big-new-contracts-with-companies-that-boycott-israel/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2024-02-07)
• https://legislation.palestinelegal.org/location/alaska/ (opened; 2026-09-20; used only to find the two 2022 bill numbers, which were then read on the legislature's own pages)
• https://www.kcaw.org/2015/02/10/bill-to-boost-native-language-immersion-schools/ (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.elections.alaska.gov/enr26/results/ElectionSummaryReportRPT.pdf (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• https://gov.alaska.gov/admin-orders/administrative-order-no-352/ (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• https://alaskabeacon.com/2024/02/07/alaska-governor-bans-big-new-contracts-with-companies-that-boycott-israel/ (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• https://x.com/jktforak and https://www.facebook.com/jktforak/ (not read; 2026-09-20)
• This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-20, not a claim that no statement exists anywhere.