ALASKA — Former Alaska Governor Bill Walker, an independent, filed to run for governor on June 1, 2026. Walker left the office of Alaska governor in 2018. His entry into the 2026 race is the 10th non-consecutive run by a governor in Alaska since 1960.

Walker ran for governor in 2022 and received 21% of the vote. In that election, Republican Mike Dunleavy received 50% of the vote, and Democrat Les Gara received 24%, placing Walker in third.

Alaska has the second-highest number of non-consecutive gubernatorial candidacies, with 10 instances across nine elections since 1960. Research dating back to 1960 identified at least 135 instances of 102 governors running for non-consecutive terms nationally. On average, former governors nationally ran for office about eight years after leaving. The average for Alaska governors was 7.9 years.

Former territorial governor Mike Stepovich, a Republican, ran for governor of Alaska in 1962 and was defeated by Democrat William Egan. Two former governors also ran against each other in the 1974 Alaska gubernatorial election. Only two former governors have won bids for their former office in Alaska: Bill Egan in 1970 and Wally Hickel in 1990.

Wally Hickel ran for governor of Alaska four times. He ran three times as a Republican and once as a member of the Alaska Independence Party. Hickel lost the Republican primary in 1974 and again in 1986. In 1978, he lost both the Republican primary and the general election as a write-in candidate. Hickel won the governor's office in 1990 as a third-party candidate, 21 years after leaving the office in 1969. Bill Walker is the only other Alaska governor besides Hickel to run for the office more than once. Hickel's 21-year gap between leaving office and running again is the longest in Alaska, while Mike Stepovich had the shortest gap at three years after leaving office in 1959.

Harold Stassen, a Republican from Minnesota, ran for governor of Minnesota in 1982, 39 years after leaving office, marking the longest national gap. Cecil Underwood, a Republican from West Virginia, won the governor's office in 1996, 35 years after leaving office. Underwood had three previously failed bids before his 1996 victory. The most common outcome for former Alaska governors running for non-consecutive terms was a loss. In three instances, a former Alaska governor lost either the primary or the general election. In one instance, a former Alaska governor lost the primary and then the general election as a write-in candidate. The Alaska gubernatorial election is scheduled for November 2026. Former Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer, a Republican, announced a campaign in 2025 but did not file to run.