Trevor Shaw, candidate for state representative, is tired of the "status quo"

Trevor Shaw moved to Alaska with his parents in 2001. He said that his father had always wanted to live in Alaska, and when his mother found a nursing job with the hospital in Ketchikan, they made a move. He integrated into life in Southeast Alaska quickly, and graduated from high school in 2014. While still a senior in high school, he was elected to the Ketchikan school board. He served there for five years, he said, with two terms as the school board president. He has also served on the Alaska Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee and the Association of Alaska School Boards. He currently works as the administrative manager and director of government affairs for the Ward Cove Group.

He is seeking election as state representative for District 36.

"I am pretty young, but I'm a small business owner," said Shaw, who is 23-years-old. "I have experience, locally, and I want to bring that experience to the state house."

Shaw said that he decided to run because he felt that the "status quo" was not working for Southeast Alaska. He said that he asked himself if people were better off than they were two or four years ago. After discussing it with several colleagues, he said, he found that was not the case. So, he decided to put his name on the ballot.

"I hope to bring something different to the table, a new vision," Shaw said. "The government works best when it works close to people."

Shaw is running as a Republican, a political affiliation he said he has held since he first registered to vote when he was 18-years-old. He said, as a constitutional conservative, that the Republican party and he share many similar values. If he is elected, he said that he wants to put aside political labels and get things done.

He said he wants to see a more business-friendly state government, with as much of a free market as possible. He also emphasized that he wants to focus on local autonomy for communities across the district, and Southeast Alaska in general. He said that there needs to be a bigger focus on the individual needs of the state's different regions and towns, instead of on the state as a whole. For Southeast Alaska, Shaw said that his main priority is to grow the regional economy as much as he can, and to expand currently existing industries like fishing and tourism.

He also said he would like to look into bringing back the timber industry, which went away in the 1990s. For Wrangell, specifically, Shaw said that he would be interested in seeing the town's shipyard expand.

"My big priority is seeing that we continue to grow and diversify our economy," he said. "I want to see that we have an environment that encourages people to be involved and to have responsible development."