My family and I live in Anchorage.
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Articles by Zack Fields
Opinion: The middle class cannot thrive while democracy crumbles
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Oncenter, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) We are living at a surreal moment in Western history, as America’s president attempts to tear down the foundations of the nation that invented modern democracy and the most prosperous society in human history.
Opinion: We are better off when voters have competent choices on the general election ballot
Residents in Anchorage take part in early voting at a mall on Oct. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen) Alaska hasn’t had this much at stake in a governor’s race since statehood. After eight years of Gov. Mike Dunleavy systematically breaking and dismantling the most critical functions of state government, Alaska desperately needs a competent and honorable person to win the governor’s race.
Opinion: Good things are happening in Anchorage
Daisies growing along the Hillcrest Drive off ramp face the sunshine on Wednesday, July 3, 2025. The Anchorage skyline is visible in the distance beyond Minnesota Drive. (Bill Roth / ADN) Anchorage is cleaner and safer today than at any time in the last decade. That’s the result of a competent mayoral administration with support from local, state and federal legislators. Reflecting on what’s going well empowers us to keep making progress.
Opinion: Complex energy policy questions go beyond Alaska LNG legislation
Pipes lead to cooling fans, at right, at the Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska facility in Kenai. (Loren Holmes / ADN) The Legislature faces extremely complex policy questions around Alaska liquified natural gas, but it would be a mistake to limit policy debate to that single project.
Opinion: Trump’s coddling of drug traffickers threatens our safety and economy
A screen shows former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who published a message on TikTok thanking U.S. President Donald Trump for pardoning him, at a coffee shop in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Donald Trump’s pardons of some of the world’s worst drug traffickers are an unprecedented assault on public safety in America.
Opinion: The pro-worker, pro-business win Alaska can’t afford to miss
We have a significant opportunity to make Alaska more competitive in the upcoming legislative session. Substantial overfunding of the longstanding Unemployment Insurance (UI) program enables us to create a new Paid Parental Leave program, cut employer taxes and restore the purchasing power of UI benefits for laid-off workers. Due to Alaska’s highly seasonal construction, oil and gas workforce, these UI reforms would be a huge boost for our pipeline workforce and resource developers.
Opinion: Why ‘all-of-the-above’ is the right energy policy for Alaska
A true “all-of-the-above” energy policy is right for Alaska. We need increased oil production to create jobs and state revenue, and more natural gas and renewable energy production for electric generation. For most of the state’s history, elected officials from both parties supported an all-of-the-above approach.
Opinion: Anchorage is making progress. Here’s what we need to do to keep moving forward.
The Alaska Legislature has come together with overwhelming bipartisan support for stable school funding. Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has overseen the most comprehensive, effective effort to clean up homeless camps in city history. There’s new mixed-use development underway Downtown. With voter-approved bonds to expand parks and trails, there’s real consensus that Anchorage can capitalize on our city’s unique quality of life amenities to drive economic growth.
Opinion: If Donald Trump had a conscience, here’s what he could learn from Alaskans
Donald Trump is meeting with the world’s most notorious war criminal in Anchorage this week. As a totally self-absorbed and corrupt narcissist, Trump has zero interest or capacity to learn from anyone. But if he had a conscience or curiosity, here’s what he could learn from Alaskans. Human life matters. Trump’s most fundamental assault on American values is his relentless attack on the sanctity of life.
Opinion: Our responsibility to confront autocracy and defend democracy
There’s snow in the mountains, kids are playing in the streets and gardens are coming to life across Alaska. But beneath that surface of normalcy, something profound and troubling is happening in our country. We are watching democratic norms erode. The president is ignoring court orders, directing the military to suppress peaceful protesters and attempting to centralize power in ways that challenge the very structure of our republic.
Opinion: Trump programs threaten Alaska’s economy and working families
Three top Trump appointees are visiting Alaska this week to tout the president’s executive order on Alaska. If only this administration were actually pursuing job creation and growth in our state. Instead, illegal cancellation of energy projects, elimination of University of Alaska research and massive proposed cuts to Medicaid health coverage and SNAP food for children pose a dire threat both to the state’s economy and to the survival of Alaska’s working poor.
Opinion: Energy opportunities for Alaska
While declining Cook Inlet gas production poses significant challenges for Alaska, rapid technological advancement creates even more opportunity for energy development in our state. Developing our energy resources requires collaboration between policymakers in the legislature and electric cooperatives, and families have an opportunity to do their part as well. Solar and wind are the cheapest sources of electric generation on earth.
Opinion: Trump’s threat to the Alaska economy
Stock markets are in free fall, oil prices are cratering and the Trump Republican budget would eliminate health care for tens of thousands of Alaskans while shifting hundreds of millions of dollars onto the state budget. America as a whole now faces a serious risk of recession, and Alaska faces extreme risk due to the structure of our budget and dependence on oil revenue and federal investment. Trump’s tariffs are causing a collapse both in stock value and oil prices.
Opinion: The reality is we can’t fund Alaska’s needs and also pay large PFDs
After years of paying large PFDs, the Legislature faces a stark reality: It is impossible to pay a large PFD and meet our constitutional responsibility of funding public schools. Meanwhile, Republican leadership of the U.S. House has advanced a budget proposal that would shift $1 billion in Medicaid expenses onto the state, which would put us in an immediate fiscal crisis. If the U.S. House Republicans prevail with this cost shift to states, the Legislature might not be able to fund a PFD at all.
OPINION: Who’s funding slanderous political attack ads?
Attack ads from a group called “Families of the Last Frontier” are hitting your media and are particularly slanderous and baseless. Who is this latest special interest attack group? “Families of the Last Frontier” isn’t funded by anyone in Alaska. Instead, it is a front for the Republican State Legislative Committee (RSLC), based in Washington, DC. RSLC is not a traditional political party group. Instead, it is a front for Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, and school privatization special interests.
OPINION: We must invest in Alaska
After a decade of outmigration strangling our economy, we need to articulate a clear path to restore economic growth in Alaska. As a guiding principle, the solution is simple: invest in Alaska.
OPINION: Lessons from Don Young
In today’s warped environment of performative politics, we can look back and learn a lot from the late, great “Congressman for All Alaska,” Don Young. The media’s recent feeding frenzy is just one symptom of a broken political system that prioritizes flash over substance. Don Young both warned about the dangers of performative politics and remained resolute in doing his actual job, all the way up to the day he passed away.
OPINION: All in for Suzanne LaFrance
Anchorage has faced incredible challenges over the past few years. Amidst political and economic turbulence, Suzanne LaFrance has been a pillar of stability, civility, and common sense. Confronted with deep policy divisions between the mayor and the Assembly, LaFrance charted a path forward for sensible municipal budgets and ensured there’s review and oversight of mayoral malfeasance.
OPINION: Alaska should be the most prosperous place on Earth
Alaska has the resources to be the wealthiest jurisdiction on earth. With an $83 billion sovereign wealth fund and the highest per-capita federal investments in the country, we have the extraordinary privilege of being able to fund state operations and capital programs without citizens paying a dime in state taxes. We possess such wealth that in most years we’ve paid nearly a billion dollars annually in cash payments to residents with America’s largest Universal Basic Income (UBI) program.
OPINION: New year brings energy opportunity for Alaska
2024 presents unprecedented opportunities for energy development in Alaska. Our job as state legislators is to seize that opportunity and work with business and electric cooperative leaders to realize the opportunities created by technological innovation, our congressional delegation and the Biden administration. For the past 20 years, Alaska has gone through one natural gas supply crisis after another.
OPINION: We need diverse energy solutions for the Railbelt
Anchorage and the rest of the Railbelt rely heavily on natural gas from Cook Inlet for heating and electricity. Cook Inlet natural gas production is dropping as wells age, and gas producers are not drilling enough replacement wells to keep up. Meanwhile, the largest gas producer in Cook Inlet is not renewing its contracts to supply Anchorage natural gas and electric utilities.
OPINION: All Alaskans have a stake in flight attendants’ contract - Anchorage Daily News
Alaska Airlines flight attendants are bargaining for a new contract, and every single one of us who relies on reliable air service has a stake in their success. While Wall Street special interests and foreign shareholders will push Alaska Airlines to drive down wages and benefits, those of us who need safe, reliable air service are counting on flight attendants to have good pay and benefits, just as we do for pilots and other staff.
OPINION: All Alaskans have a stake in flight attendants’ contract
Alaska Airlines flight attendants are bargaining for a new contract, and every single one of us who relies on reliable air service has a stake in their success. While Wall Street special interests and foreign shareholders will push Alaska Airlines to drive down wages and benefits, those of us who need safe, reliable air service are counting on flight attendants to have good pay and benefits, just as we do for pilots and other staff.
OPINION: Let’s reward American businesses and hold China accountable
With gridlock growing across our country, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that there are many issues where there is meaningful agreement across the political spectrum. Rural economic development, more competitive businesses, responsible resource development and clean air and water — these are all shared priorities in a state as diverse as ours.
OPINION: We need to invest in our schools
On Tuesday, the Anchorage School Board will consider moving forward with capital appropriations for Bayshore, Creekside, Ursa Major, Inlet View, Fire Lake, Spring Hill, Klatt and Ravenwood elementary schools, as well as Steller Secondary and West High schools. As we confront outmigration and a state economy in decline, it is imperative to invest in our schools and project a vision of hope for Anchorage and Alaska. Alaska is a young state, and Anchorage is a young city.
OPINION: A great budget is only the first step
The first balanced budget that doesn’t draw from state savings in a decade, with a largest-in-history increase for education, is a major step to restore fiscal stability and population growth for Alaska. However, our work is not nearly complete, and we must tackle child care, renewable energy policy and revenue next year if we’re going to ensure long-term economic growth.
Opinion: Transformational policies for economic growth
Once again the Legislature has spent most of the session stuck in a morass arguing about the size of the Permanent Fund Dividend. Let’s imagine an alternate universe where we prioritized economic and population growth to help our state recover after a decade of decline: Key policies we would focus on would be healthy families, education, and deployment of cheap, renewable energy. Here’s why investment in people and energy are key for sustainable economic growth.
OPINION: If the Legislature’s budget reflected Alaskans’ values
Alaska’s House of Representatives has finalized an operating budget after rejecting amendments to fund literacy, child care, Pre-K education, and a range of public health programs designed to reduce the rate of child trauma and abuse. With Alaska children facing the highest rate of abuse and sexual assault and some of the lowest reading preparedness rates in the U.S., why would a slim majority of legislators reject funding for programs that most voters see as common sense?
I’m a lifelong environmentalist: President Biden was right on Willow Original
ConocoPhillips via AP, File FILE – This 2019 aerial photo provided by ConocoPhillips shows an exploratory drilling camp at the proposed site of the Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope. If you care about meeting our climate change goals and preserving a planet that our children will want to inhabit, now is the time to support President Biden — including his decision to move forward with Alaska’s Willow energy project.
OPINION: How to invest Alaska’s budget surplus
Once again, this year Alaska is in the enviable position of being able to fund public services with a combination of sustainable earnings from the Permanent Fund and revenue from oil production — even though individual Alaskans don’t pay a cent in state income or sales tax. Alaska is the only state in the U.S. to have such wealth, and it gives us the opportunity to plan and invest for the long term. But wait, you might say — I thought the state had a budget deficit?
For a stronger economy, rebuild Alaska's workforce
Our economy faces two critical workforce challenges: Parents can’t get back to work due to inadequate child care, and our career and technical education must be strengthened to prepare young Alaskans for the workforce. We need to tackle these challenges right now so our economy can reach its full potential. Here’s what the state can do during this year’s legislative session. We need to expand the availability of child care.
OPINION: The power of neighborhood schools
Last year, the Alaska Legislature made historic investments in long-overdue school capital investments. We appropriated these funds at a critical time, as rural schools needed replacement or major repairs, Mat-Su voters needed help funding school expansion as their population grows, and as Anchorage voters sent a clear signal they demand the state support for capital investments in local schools.
OPINION: Our schools are worth fighting for
The Anchorage School District is confronting critical needs for deferred maintenance and an operating budget shortfall, which result from malicious campaigns against school bonds and years of educational vetoes. In my own district, parents and neighbors are fighting to replace a beloved, high-performing and diverse neighborhood school that is likely to close soon if its decrepit building is not replaced.
OPINION: Yes, we can reduce homelessness and fight crime
Like most cities across the country, Anchorage faces complicated challenges relating to homelessness, the drug epidemic and property crime. Although people colloquially refer to these problems as “homelessness,” we actually face multiple challenges that are related to one another but require targeted responses in terms of public policies and budgets. We can and must solve these problems if we work together — across party lines, and by partnering as state and local governments.
As state and local elected officials representing neighborhoods from East Anchorage to Westchester Lagoon to Spenard, we are writing to express our enthusiastic support for Dan Volland for the new North Anchorage Assembly seat. Dr. Volland is a small-business owner in Anchorage who is very involved in community groups including Rotary, the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, Anchorage Downtown Partnership, and the South Addition Community Council.
OPINION: The most reckless budget in Alaska history
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is attempting to bully legislators into approving a budget that defunds education, wipes out savings, and creates a $900 million deficit. This budget is so reckless it would crate a deficit even if oil prices stay at $100 per barrel. The governor clearly sees the $5,500 mega-dividend in this budget as a political win in an election year, but it would come at the expense of public safety, our schools and the fiscal health of our state.
OPINION: Alaska needs to help its cities address mental health and addiction issues
By Zack Fields Updated: 25 minutes ago Published: 25 minutes ago Downtown Anchorage, photographed on Thursday, April 15, 2021. (Loren Holmes / ADN) Anchorage local government has taken critical steps to improve public safety in Anchorage, but the state needs to be a partner with our local leaders to address mental health and addiction as root causes. We no longer live in a world where it is enough to have a robust police force.
Defeating White supremacy: Racial apartheid and the path to justice
Alaska can seem far-removed from the Jim Crow South, but when a sitting legislator advertises his membership in the white supremacist organization Oath Keepers, and when another legislator introduces legislation to ban the teaching of certain aspects of racism in U.S. history, we all have an obligation to confront white supremacy right now. Rep.
We need to step up for Alaska’s schools Original
By Zack Fields Updated: 20 minutes ago Published: 35 minutes ago (Getty Images) Students, parents and teachers who have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic together are heroes. Yet our schools are in crisis: Prior vetoes of classroom funding and school capital investments mean school districts face rising class sizes and an ever-rising deferred maintenance backlog.
What Inlet View represents
The Anchorage School Board recently passed a package of school bond projects, which goes to the Anchorage Assembly and then to voters for approval on the April ballot. This bond package contains 28 projects from Chugiak to South Anchorage, including one that is close to the heart of many Anchorage residents: replacement of the Inlet View Elementary School building.
We need to turn Alaska’s economy around
By Zack Fields Updated: 25 minutes ago Published: 2 hours ago Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, speaks on the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives on Monday, Aug. 30, 2021 at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau. (James Brooks / ADN) Our economy has lost jobs and our state has lost population for the last three years. How do we turn things around and jump-start economic growth? It starts with a strong education system, a focus on public safety and stable, pro-business fiscal policy.
Stand Up for Democracy
Decades ago, a few politicians made a choice to run political campaigns based on opposition to “government.” It would have been impossible at that time to foresee how that rhetoric would consume one political party, or how social media and economic trends would radicalize and polarize Americans. Now we live at a juncture in history where we will choose whether to save democracy.
Bike Camping With Kids: The fastest, easiest way for families to get into the backcountry
There’s nothing I love more than camping in the backcountry with our kids. As all parents know, however, it’s hard enough to get out of the house to go car camping, much less figure out logistics to get into the backcountry with young children. Fortunately, bike packing actually makes this easier, provided you find a trail that is sufficiently easy.
Biking with Kids: Take advantage of huge advances in bike technology
When I was a little kid I had a plastic ET scooter I rode around the sidewalk in front of our apartment, and that was about the most advanced “bike” a two year old could ride. How things have changed. Toddlers can ride their own strider (aka “kick” or “balance”) bikes, and ride in or on Chariots, Weehoos, and Shotgun seats affixed to their parents’ bikes, allowing them and us to ride everything from paved paths to mountain bike single track.
The debate we should be having in Juneau
For too long the Legislature has been consumed with a debate about redistributing wealth through dividends. Instead, we should be having a debate about how to create wealth and grow the economy. What investments in human capital and physical infrastructure could lead to long-term economic growth? How can Alaska be the best place in America to live, work and invest? This debate about growth must not wait: For the fourth year in a row, Alaska has lost population and a cumulative 46,000 jobs.
The debate we should be having
For too long, the Legislature has been consumed with a debate about redistributing wealth through dividends. Instead, we should be having a debate about how to create wealth and grow the economy. What investments in human capital and physical infrastructure could lead to long-term economic growth? How can Alaska be the best place in America to live, work and invest? This debate about growth must not wait: For the fourth year in a row, Alaska has lost population and a cumulative 46,000 jobs.
Sound skiing, sans boat: Backcountry skiing from Whittier
Backcountry skiing above Prince William Sound is so magical it feels like an activity undertaken by your alternate self, as if you were a person existing in a parallel universe of simultaneously endless snow, sun, and bountiful marine life plying turquoise waters. The only problem is, most places in the Sound require either owning a boat—a rather expensive endeavor—or paying exorbitant prices for the Whittier-based boat taxis to drop you off.
Arduin 2.0
Rep. Zack Fields Remember when Donna Arduin led the Dunleavy administration’s jihad against public services, attempting to make over a billion dollars in cuts? Well, those cuts are back—cloaked far more cleverly this time behind the facade of a big Permanent Fund dividend. Make no mistake: The Governor’s “50/50” proposal to create a billion dollar deficit is simply a starve-the-beast attempt to force draconian spending cuts.
The power and wisdom of Alaska’s Bush Caucus
Rep. Zack Fields Alaska Native corporations’ and tribes’ economic and political power have advanced in tandem over the last fifty years. This progress could not have occurred without a strong federal statutory framework or without extraordinary leadership by state legislators in the ‘Bush Caucus.’ Today, the Bush Caucus is stronger than ever, and has played the central role defending services and opportunities for economic growth.
My grandmother’s optimism
My grandmother was born in 1928, and grew up without medical care, electricity or running water. Her family endured the Great Depression by growing their own food and foraging in the woods, and her brothers were on the front lines fighting for democracy in World War II. She lives at home today in rural Alabama, and despite being nearly completely alone since the pandemic struck, she remains optimistic. I’ve tried to internalize her sense of perspective and her sense of hope.
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