I signed on to work for the Walker Mallott re-election campaign because of, not in spite of, my progressive values.
I’m pretty fierce about those values. I was the lead field organizer for Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii during the fight to save the Affordable Care Act and maintain funding for Planned Parenthood. Just this past spring I was the campaign manager for the successful Fair Anchorage campaign to defeat proposition 1, an anti-transgender bathroom bill on Anchorage’s municipal ballot.
Since June 1, some friends have questioned my decision to work for this independent team. But I categorically reject the notion that the passion and ideals I bring to my work don’t align with our governor and lieutenant governor.
First of all, no one candidate has a monopoly on women by being the “woman candidate.” Alaskan women are diverse, intersectional, hard-working people that you can’t fit into a box. Just like you can’t fit the governor and lieutenant governor into a box. They expanded Medicaid, despite the partisan paralysis, and brought health care to more than 40,000 Alaskans, while aligning with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to defend our health care.
Walker and Mallott overhauled the Alaska National Guard after widespread misogyny and gender violence were uncovered. They passed criminal justice reform and prioritized rural public safety. They ended our fiscal uncertainty, allowing government to forward fund education and end the pink-slipping of state workers. Throughout their first term, Walker has appointed more female judges and more female cabinet members than any previous administration, including the second female Attorney General in Alaska’s history, and the first female Adjutant General.
Mallott is a lifelong advocate for Native sovereignty, social justice and economic equity, while Walker has spent his life advocating for Alaskan sovereignty over our resources and the ability of Alaskans to make their own choices. Self-determination and the right to privacy are the building blocks to one’s own sovereignty, which is why I know that this team will continue to uphold our constitution that guarantees my privacy as a woman to determine my own health care, in addition to all the work they have done to support women and families.
These values aren’t new. Alaskans have always declared our right to privacy, while maintaining that the government doesn’t have a role in one’s personal choices. Which is exactly why Alaska legalized a woman’s right to choose in 1970, three years before the Supreme Court handed down Roe v. Wade. It’s why the Alaska Supreme Court issued a 4–1 decision striking down a law requiring parental notification for minors seeking an abortion, holding that it ran afoul of the Alaska constitution.
I voted for this team in 2014 believing that this state could be better. Believing that Alaska’s politics didn’t need to look like the lip service and partisan gridlock that we see every day in Washington, D.C. Believing that we could move toward fiscal sustainability that benefits all Alaskans in their claims to individual and state sovereignty. Not only believing that my governor and lieutenant governor would uphold the law, which is what they promised to do and have done, but that they would make the practical, politically-challenging decisions to strengthen Alaska’s long-term future.
I was raised on values of hard work, loyalty, integrity and compassion. That’s exactly what Bill Walker and Byron Mallott promised when they first ran, it’s what they’ve shown the last four years, and it is what they deserve from Alaska’s progressives right now.
Some may pander this election, claiming that there’s only one woman candidate or that there’s only one choice a woman should care about for the next four years. I don’t think they could be further from the truth. This pro-choice woman is standing with the Walker Mallott team because they don’t just talk about being the candidate for women, they do the work.
• Kati Ward lives in Anchorage with her partner Tully and their dog Margo while working as the political director for the Walker/Mallott team. My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire.
