Retired Anchorage podiatrist Matt Heilala filed to join the 2026 Alaska governor’s race Friday. So far, he’s the sixth Republican to join the field.
Heilala, born in Anchorage and raised on the Kenai Peninsula, has never held elected office. But in an interview, the 55-year-old said his experience as a doctor and business owner make him well-suited for the top job in state government.
“The more I get to know candidates and other people that are in office, as much as I admire them, I think I have something unique to offer to help with a lot of the divisiveness without having to compromise on critical principles,” he said.
Heilala said he’s especially adept at working with people with whom he disagrees, an approach he said would lend itself well to collaborating with lawmakers.
“When's the last time we had an overwhelming majority in our Legislature in Alaska?” he said. “It's always kind of razor-thin, back and forth, and you become stymied and dysfunctional when people aren't able to get through the contempt and recognize and align that with common goals.”
For decades, Heilala has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates, including Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Congressman Nick Begich and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, according to campaign finance data aggregator OpenSecrets.
Heilala, though, cast himself as straddling political fault lines.
For example, Heilala said he’d like to expand school choice options like charter schools and homeschool — priorities that Republicans, including Dunleavy, have emphasized — but Heilala also emphasized the state’s obligation to ordinary neighborhood public schools. The government is obligated to “defend the defenseless and care for those in need,” Heilala said, adding that he’d like to expand opportunities for businesses to create jobs.
Like Alaska politicians on both sides of the political aisle, Heilala says he’d like to expand resource development in the state.
As the state faces a budget crunch, Heilala said the state government has a “spending problem.” He said he’d like to make the state’s spending more transparent in an effort to build trust with the public. That, he said, could help lawmakers find a compromise on annual Permanent Fund dividends the state can afford.
“You can't sustain $2 billion deficits every year,” Heilala said. “That just compounds problems.”
Heilala’s most recent experience in government comes as a Dunleavy appointee to the State Medical Board, which made headlines this spring when it asked the Legislature to restrict gender-affirming care for minors. Lawmakers did not act on the request.
Heilala joins a field of six Republicans running for governor in 2026, so far. No Democrats or independents have filed to join the race. Dunleavy cannot run for a third term.
The deadline to file is June 1, 2026.
