Issues
My highest priority is to listen to the needs of the communities across the North Slope and Northwest Arctic.
This is a large district, and the most pressing needs are different across the region. In many parts of the Northwest Arctic, communities need water and sanitation infrastructure, erosion mitigation, and a strong public safety presence in villages. Through Voice of the Arctic Inupiaq, I participated in a community needs assessment that identified more activities for youth, job opportunities and economic development, and good schools as top priorities. I’m running because these needs are urgent, and our district deserves a representative that will listen to the people from our communities, and put the needs of our district first. I will do that. I will listen. I will work collaboratively with my colleagues in the legislature, and I will make sure our district has a strong voice.
Resource Development
The needs of our people are unique. We have lived on these lands in harsh environments since time immemorial. To do so, we had to exhibit our Inupiaq values like Cooperation, Respect for Others, and Humility and rely on each other for survival.
The vast wealth of the Great State of Alaska is derived from House District 40, from the Red Dog Mine to the North Slope Oil Fields. We have demonstrated that the residents have been and continue to be careful stewards in developing infrastructure in accordance with our Inupiaq values.
Most residents in HD40 rely on subsistence hunting on our lands, rivers, and oceans to sustain our physical and cultural well-being as a link to our ancestors and traditions. We recognize that in order to increase infrastructure and revenues that our communities heavily rely upon, we must support resource development while respecting the knowledge and culture of our people.