State Rep. Jeremy Bynum is seeking reelection to the House District 1 seat on Nov. 3.

The Ketchikan Republican is running against former Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly Member Grant EchoHawk for the seat that represents Metlakatla, Saxman, Ketchikan, Coffman Cove, Whale Pass, Wrangell and Hyder.

Originally from Oregon, Bynum moved to Ketchikan in 2016 after spending more than a dozen summers in Southeast.

Before serving in the Legislature, Bynum was the electric division manager for Ketchikan Public Utilities and served on the borough assembly 2020-2024 before being sworn in as the state representative in January 2025.

Bynum received 51.97% of the vote during the 2024 election, defeating Agnes Moran and EchoHawk 

He said the biggest problem facing Southeast is “multiple things” that contribute “to this cascading effect of losing qualified people in our community.”

He said he would like to address affordability and housing costs beyond property tax relief by selling accessible state land to open up more acres for residential development.

The Legislature needs “to look at funding” education. Although he celebrated recent legislative wins such as increasing the base student allocation — a per-student dollar amount the state uses to calculate its portion of local schools’ operating budgets — and funding one-time energy and student transportation relief for school districts, he said he wants to reexamine the state retirement system for teachers.

He would forward fund education as a separate appropriation from the usual annual state budget process. And he supports a technical readiness and career training bill that would be aimed at “giving our kids and alternative education pathway.”

Bynum said he also wants to again attempt passing a bill supported by American Association of Retired Persons that would have allowed qualified individuals the ability to deposit their Permanent Fund dividends into a special retirement account.

When it comes to the Alaska Marine Highway System, he values long-term stability and planning, as well as making sure there is enough funding. 

“Ultimately, this is going to be an administration-driven activity, and so it’s getting with the administration, collaborating with them and then making sure that we fight like hell to give them the funding they need to make it happen,” Bynum said of restoring state ferry service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, or an alternative port on the Canadian highway system.

“A reason it’s not done now, and it hasn’t been able to get done, is because a single legislator from Southeast is not able to fix that problem. You need a governor that wants it to happen. I think we’re going to get a governor that wants it to happen ... and if not ... then I’m going to be a problem for them.”

Bynum said the state needs “to look at alternatives for diversifying” its revenue.

He said the ongoing “renaissance” in North Slope oil production will help boost revenue, but there’s more the state can do.

He supports changing state law to extend Alaska’s corporate taxes to out-of-state companies that have no physical presence or payroll in Alaska but sell their goods or services to Alaskans — and make a profit at it. The Legislature passed such a change this year but the governor vetoed the measure.

When it comes to oil revenue windfall from months of high prices for crude, driving more tax and royalty revenue to the state general fund. Bynum said some of it needs to be saved in the statutory budget reserve “because it’s accessible to the Legislature without the three-quarter vote,” though legislators would need to moderate their desire to spend it.

He said some of the additional oil revenues should be spent on education and teachers, as well at state capital projects such as deferred school maintenance.

“We need to invest that windfall money into one-time expenditures, and not try to create long-term liability with it, but one-time expenditures and deferred maintenance is one of the spaces we can do that, and we should do that,” Bynum said. “Along the way, we need to make improvements on making sure that deferred maintenance doesn’t continue to be an ongoing problem.”

He also suggested further investing in matching grant programs related to local facilities such as ports and harbors and fire stations.

Bynum said he would caucus next year with any coalition leading the House that “positions (him) to best represent District 1.”

He said a lot of people have asked him why he didn’t join the House majority caucus two years ago. The coalition sets the legislative agenda.

“When it came right down to it, I worked really hard to get a seat on Finance (Committee), and that pathway was through the minority,” he explained. That meant staying with the Republican minority caucus rather than joining the Democrat- and independent-led majority caucus.

“That offer was not there from the (majority) coalition at the time — I get it, I was new, a freshman, they didn’t know who I was, they never worked with me — and the Finance Committee is a very viable committee to be seated on. And so, they just weren’t willing to do that.”

Bynum celebrates his ability to work across party lines, noting that he voted with the majority on several issues. “I’m pretty proud of that. I mean, some of my members in the minority didn’t like that, but I did what I thought was best for district,” he said. “I thought if it was good legislation, good for Alaskans, I was going to vote for it, and I did.”