The incoming bipartisan majority coalition in the Alaska House has announced its leadership for the session that starts in January, with Anchorage independent Rep. Calvin Schrage selected as the new House speaker.
The majority coalition is forming with independent, Democratic and Republican members. While many votes are still being counted, preliminary election results published Nov. 4 show independent and Democratic candidates leading in 23 races for the House’s 40 seats.
That will produce a larger majority coalition than in the past Legislature, where a 21-member bipartisan majority held a thin lead over the 19-member Republican minority.
The majority coalition sets the agenda for the House, assigns key committee assignments and decides what legislation will be considered.
Schrage, 35, served as House minority leader from 2023 to 2024, and as co-chair of the House Finance Committee from 2025 to 2026.
He is set to succeed outgoing House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, who is in the race for the Senate seat representing Western Alaska to the Aleutian Islands.
In an interview on Nov. 4, Shrage said the “door is still open” for more members to join the majority coalition. But he said they formed quickly after Election Day to begin moving ahead with a bipartisan agenda with members “ready and willing to work across the aisle to move the state forward after a decade of fairly difficult times, austere budgets, outmigration, and, in my view, a really declining sense of hope and optimism about the future of our state.”
Republican Rep. Jeremy Bynum, who represents Ketchikan Wrangell, Metlakatla, Saxman, Coffman Cove, Whale Pass and Hyder, won reelection to a second term and is undecided on whether he will join the majority coalition.
“My preference is to go to the House and be productive and get things done,” he said in an interview on Nov. 4.
He has been a Republican minority caucus member of the budget-writing Finance Committee the past two years and said he would prefer to stay on Finance, though he added, “I am open to exploring other options,” depending on how House members organize the committees and leadership positions.
Schrage said the majority coalition’s priorities will include reviving the pension system for public employees, improving predictable and stable education funding, and energy policy — priorities echoed by the incoming bipartisan Senate majority coalition.
“(There’s) a big interest in addressing the fiscal instability in our state, and also in addressing the high cost of energy, which we’re all expecting to rise in the years to come, and needs to be addressed by the Legislature,” he said.
Alaska state oil revenues have surged due to the U.S. war on Iran, but Schrage cautioned that high energy prices have also hurt communities and the state, including schools.
The majority coalition also named Anchorage Republican Chuck Kopp for another term as House majority leader. He has served in the House since 2017 and ran unopposed in this election for a fourth term. Kopp served as majority leader 2025-2026.
The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization, online at Alaskabeacon.com.
