Tok Republican Sen. Mike Cronk is the state Senate’s new minority leader. The six-member minority caucus in the state Legislature’s upper chamber announced Tuesday its members had elected Cronk to replace former Wasilla Republican Sen. Mike Shower, who resigned to run for lieutenant governor earlier this year.
Cronk is a former schoolteacher and construction worker who first joined the state House in 2021. Last year, he won a seat in the Senate representing a massive swath of Interior Alaska that includes Glennallen, Tok, southeast Fairbanks, Delta Junction and much of the Yukon River.
In a phone interview, Cronk said he was looking forward to working on a fiscal plan that Gov. Mike Dunleavy plans to unveil next month.
"Obviously, we are in the minority, but I'm hopeful to, you know, work with the majority, to — can we get some of these things solved?" Cronk said.
The caucus includes six of the 11 Republican members in the Senate. Five others caucus with Democrats in a bipartisan majority that controls the chamber.
Fairbanks Republican Sen. Robb Myers will remain minority whip, the caucus’s the second-in-command.
Cronk will lead a caucus with two new members after Gov. Mike Dunleavy picked two House Republicans, now-Sens. Cathy Tilton and George Rauscher, to replace Shower and former Sen. Shelley Hughes, who is running for governor. Cronk said he would keep his seat on the Senate Finance Committee, but he said the caucus is still finalizing other senators’ committee assignments.
Cronk’s elevation to minority leader follows a leadership shakeup in the House’s minority caucus. That means both minority caucuses will have new leaders when lawmakers return to Juneau next month.
