“Personal Liberty.
Live Free.”

Jim was a Republican. He left because of the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act. Both bills had patriotic-sounding titles and anti-American content. The Patriot Act expanded surveillance of American citizens without adequate judicial oversight. The NDAA included provisions allowing indefinite military detention of U.S. citizens without charge or trial.

The right to due process is not a partisan position. It is the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. It is not optional. Jim believes these laws should be repealed or fundamentally reformed. Reauthorizing the Patriot Act — which Congress has done repeatedly with bipartisan support — is not a defense of freedom. It is an admission that Washington trusts the government more than it trusts the people who pay for it.

Prohibition has not worked. It did not work for alcohol in the 1920s. It has not worked for cannabis or other substances since. What prohibition reliably produces is a black market, higher profit margins for criminal organizations, and the criminalization of personal choices that harm no one but the person making them.

Jim supports regulating substances the way alcohol is regulated: age verification, quality standards, and legal accountability for harm caused to others. He does not support using federal law enforcement resources to override the choices of adults making decisions about their own bodies. This is consistent with both the Libertarian principle of personal sovereignty and with the practical evidence from decades of drug prohibition.

Jim served 22.5 years in the United States Air Force. He is not anti-military. He is anti-recklessness with the military. He believes the United States should not serve as the world’s policeman. Permanent entanglement in foreign conflicts, without clear objectives, defined endpoints, or Congressional declarations of war, is not a defense policy. It is a jobs program for contractors and a burden on the American people.

He supports a strong national defense — including protecting Alaska’s borders, airspace, and Arctic strategic position. He does not support open-ended military commitments made without Congressional authorization. The War Powers Resolution exists for a reason. He supports diplomatic engagement and opposes the assumption that military action is the default first option. On recent U.S. strikes in the Middle East: these commitments require a clear-eyed accounting of cost, consequence, and constitutional authority.

The national debt is over $37 trillion. That is not a number that fixes itself. Every dollar of interest payment is a dollar that can’t go to infrastructure, to veterans, or to simply leaving money in the pockets of Americans who earned it. Jim believes in zero-based budgeting at the federal level — every program justifies its existence annually rather than having its baseline automatically rolled forward. He supports balanced budget requirements and opposes continuing resolutions used to avoid hard budget choices.

Tariffs are a tax. They are paid by American businesses and American consumers, not by the countries being targeted. When the federal government imposes tariffs on goods from Canada or other trading partners, Alaska pays — through higher prices on everyday goods and through damage to Alaska industries that depend on cross-border commerce. Jim supports trade agreements that lower barriers, expand markets, and let Alaskan goods — seafood, timber, energy — reach buyers worldwide on equal terms. No international tariffs, no trade barriers, no federal schemes that make Alaskans pay more for the things they need.

Small businesses represent 97% of Alaska’s economy. Jim has spent his post-military career supporting them: teaching business at UAF, running small business development programs in Fairbanks, mentoring military veterans through the transition to entrepreneurship. He believes the federal regulatory burden on small businesses is disproportionate to any public benefit it delivers. Large corporations can absorb compliance costs. Small businesses cannot. The result is a regulatory environment that systematically advantages incumbents over new entrants — the opposite of competition. Jim supports simplifying the tax code, reducing unnecessary federal reporting requirements, and opposing any new mandates that increase the overhead cost of running a small Alaskan business.

Washington D.C. has a groupthink problem Jim calls “incestual thinking.” Career politicians surrounded by other career politicians, lobbyists, and strategists stop thinking clearly about what ordinary Americans need. Term limits are the cure. Jim practices what he preaches: he has publicly stated he would not seek a third term. He is running for a second time in 2026. If elected and re-elected, he would step aside. Not because the rules require it. Because it’s right. The current occupant of Alaska’s House seat has now served multiple terms. If you asked him in his first campaign whether Congress needed new voices, he would have said yes. That is what term limits are for.

The PFD is Alaska’s most direct mechanism for returning resource wealth to the people it belongs to. The statutory formula — 50% of the five-year average Permanent Fund earnings — was set by law and should be honored. The Alaska Legislature has repeatedly reduced the PFD below the statutory amount without a corresponding constitutional amendment or public vote. Jim believes that is a breach of faith with Alaskans. The people of Alaska own this resource wealth collectively. The dividend is how they receive their share. He supports restoring the PFD to at least the 50% statutory minimum and opposes any further reductions not approved through a constitutional process.

Alaska has workforce shortages in healthcare, construction, commercial fishing, and skilled trades. A functioning work visa system would help fill those gaps with people who want to be here, work hard, and contribute. Jim supports work visa liberalization — expanding the number of visas available, reducing backlogs, and making the process more predictable for Alaska employers. He also supports proper vetting. Those two positions are compatible. A faster, more transparent process is not the same as an open border. He opposes treating immigration as primarily a law enforcement issue when the underlying cause is an immigration system that does not function.