Former Alaska state senator Natasha von Imhof is throwing her hat in the ring to become Anchorage’s next mayor.
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Born and raised in Anchorage, von Imhof served on the local school board from 2012 to 2015 and in the state Senate as a Republican from 2017 to 2023. She has a background in finance and said her public and private sector experience put her in a good position to run the state’s largest city.
“I have the ability to think big, and I can think long term, and I have the guts and grit and the determination to work with everybody and anybody to make things happen,” von Imhof said in an interview Friday.
Public safety and homelessness have been central issues for Anchorage’s city leaders in recent years. Von Imhof said she appreciates Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s administration for its focus on clearing out homeless camps and adding shelter capacity, but she said the city could be doing more to bolster its treatment options. She proposed what she calls a Next Chance Recovery Center as an alternative to prison.
“They will receive detox, wraparound services, social services, counseling, behavioral health therapy, medical treatment, you name it,” von Imhof said. “And the goal is to get people to address their root cause of why they’re homeless.”
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She said she thinks the city could fund the center using federal money from the Rural Health Transformation Program.
Von Imhof said she anticipates a large influx of workers to the city in the near future, from military expansion at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to the potential Alaska LNG pipeline project. The next mayor needs to be prepared for that, she said.
“When these economic booms happen, we need a big thinker in Anchorage that can bring the right people together in the room to have the right conversation, so we can capture and we can protect and we can grow our economy,” von Imhof said.
Mayor LaFrance has also filed for reelection. The city’s next mayoral election will be held in April 2027.
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