Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Kurka on Monday named Homer’s Paul Hueper as his lieutenant governor candidate for this fall’s general election.

Hueper and his wife, Marilyn, were the targets of a misguided FBI raid in April 2021 looking for a stolen laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. the United States.

Marilyn Hueper had been identified as a possible culprit; the FBI then arrested a New York woman after following the same advice that led them to the Heupers.

US Senator Dan Sullivan asked the Justice Department in October to apologize for the raid.

The Huepers have not been charged with a crime. They attended protests leading up to the riot and shared photos of themselves approaching the Capitol, but they say they did not enter it.

Speaking at a Monday night campaign event in Mat-Su, Hueper said the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., by supporters of former President Donald Trump “ignited a fire inside of us”, and that the FBI raid “made fighters of us.”

Alaska’s new electoral system requires a governor and lieutenant governor to run together as one ticket. In the August 16 state general election, voters will choose a governor-lieutenant-governor pair. The four candidates who receive the most votes will advance to the general election in November.

The Lieutenant Governor of Alaska is responsible for state elections. Wearing a black T-shirt with the slogan “We the People are pissed off,” Hueper called the Alaska Division of Elections a “disaster” and said he would fire its current director, Gail Fenumiai.

On Monday night and in an interview on Tuesday, he said he supports the development of the Pebble mine and limits on deep sea trawling, opposes vaccination mandates and abortion rights, and wants to see a government based on the “Judeo-Christian beliefs” of the founders. the United States. That doesn’t mean a government made up entirely of white men, he said.

He praised his pastor, Mark Edens, for supporting “kingdom government” and for backing a “government paradise” program that aims to elect people to “every seat on the (Kenai) peninsula”.

“We have to think in terms of independence from the federal government,” he said, denouncing the federal debt.

Kurka said he met Hueper during the election campaign and asked him to run as his lieutenant governor because they agreed on the issues.

He said he first thought Kurka was going to ask his wife to run, and he was slightly surprised when Kurka asked him.

He said he and Kurka thought they would win the election “because people are tired of compromise. We are tired of people going to bed.

On Monday, seven people signed up to run for governor by filing a letter of intent with the Alaska Public Offices Commission or registering with the Alaska Division of Elections.

Incumbent Governor Mike Dunleavy, Democratic nominee Les Gara and Republican nominee Charlie Pierce have yet to announce nominees for lieutenant governor.

Independent Governor candidate Bill Walker is running with Lieutenant Governor candidate Heidi Drygas. Libertarian Billy Toien runs with Shirley Rainbolt. Republican candidate Bruce Walden is running with Tanya Lange.