Grant Echohawk is dropping out of the race for the District 1 seat on the Alaska House of Representatives.
Echohawk, who is an independent, announced his withdrawal March 22, telling KRBD it was a difficult decision but ultimately, he decided he didn’t have the bandwidth to pull a campaign together amid his other commitments.
Echohawk is also a member of the Ketchikan Borough Assembly and a board member of the Ketchikan Tribal Business Corporation. He filed a letter of intent for the district seat in August of last year. He was the second candidate to join the race — behind incumbent Rep. Dan Ortiz, who is also nonpartisan.
Though Echohawk publicly stated his campaign for the seat, he never completed the official candidacy filings. Filing a letter of intent is the first step in mounting a campaign for political office, but there are a few other necessary steps to be put on the ballot. Echohawk says he was putting a team together and visiting community leaders before he pulled the administrative trigger.
He said one of the main issues he wanted to address as a legislator was increasing the base student allocation.
“The recent decision by the governor, and those that would not override the governor’s veto is very disappointing,” said Echohawk, while standing on a windy dock in downtown Ketchikan with his dog Nueq. “I think we need to have candidates who are willing to stand up to the governor and willing to stand up for our students and stand up for our communities. And so I think that’s a big one, because the entire state seems to be in agreement on this.”
Echohawk also stressed the importance of voting, regardless of who your candidate is, adding that electing legislators who will advocate for a more sustainable future in Alaska, both economically and in the face of climate change, is critical.
“Alaska is ground zero for climate change, we’re seeing it all throughout the state,” he said. “It is going to have a major infrastructure impact, a major negative economic impact on the entire state, and we need to address it. We need to stop acting like it’s something far off into the future. It is now and it needs to be addressed now.”
Echohawk’s withdrawal comes after Robb Arnold, a Republican candidate, also dropped out of the race, leaving two current candidates for the seat — the incumbent Rep. Ortiz and Echohawk’s fellow Borough Assembly member Jeremy Bynum, who is a Republican. Echohawk says he plans to run again in 2026.
Get in touch with the author at jack@krbd.org.
