Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor will resign Aug. 29, he told employees at the Alaska Department of Law in an all-staff email Thursday afternoon.
Taylor, who became the state’s top attorney in 2021 after his two immediate predecessors resigned in disgrace, is expected by political observers to join a competitive field of candidates running for governor in the state’s 2026 general election.
Incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy is term-limited and unable to run for reelection, leaving the office open to challengers.
This week, former Alaska Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum formally confirmed his plans to run for governor, and former state Sen. Tom Begich became the first Democrat to announce a run for the office. Bruce Walden of Palmer, who ran as a write-in candidate in 2022, filed for the office on Wednesday.
In addition to Crum and Walden, seven other Republicans have filed documents for a campaign: former state Sen. Click Bishop of Fairbanks; current state Sen. Shelley Hughes of Palmer, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom of Eagle River; Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries; podiatrist Matt Heilala of Anchorage; former teacher James William Parkin IV of Angoon; and business owner Bernadette Wilson of Anchorage.
No independents have filed for the office, and Begich is the only Democrat who has filed.
While Taylor has not formally stated that he will run for governor, he has participated in a significant number of non-state events that appear to foreshadow a campaign.
Next Thursday, he was scheduled to join other Republican attorneys general in Anchorage at an event hosted by the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club. It wasn’t immediately clear whether that event would still take place.
In a written statement, Dunleavy thanked Taylor for his service and noted that he will end his career as the third-longest-serving attorney general in state history. In the same statement, Taylor thanked the employees of the Department of Law.
During four and a half years as attorney general, Taylor has tended to favor Christian conservative and Republican causes, aligning the state legally with other Republican attorneys general.
In 2022, Taylor helped fundraising efforts for a Republican group that ran ads opposing more moderate members of the state House and Senate in that year’s elections. Taylor’s family has backed efforts that would allow state homeschool funding to be used for tuition at private and religious schools.
Earlier this year, Taylor’s travel itinerary drew scrutiny after it was revealed that a corporate-funded group had paid at least $20,000 for a trip to France for Taylor and his wife.
Taylor’s time in office has corresponded with a drop in violent and sexual crime within the state. Alaska ranks among the worst states in the nation for both categories of crimes.
Dunleavy is expected to appoint an acting attorney general on or before Aug. 29.