Looking Beyond the Next Election: A Vision for Alaska’s Future with Brett Huber

Usually it's one candidate, one election, one product, one measure, you stand together,

a team, you spend a million dollars, you build a business, it's got that one time, and

that expiration date is right then, and it goes right. With this, we can take our transformational ideas, our right center approach, our non-partisan, non-secular approach, we can touch different groups, bring them together. I can think about what do I want to accomplish in 2026, and what's the field in the look like in 2028, and what are those problems, and how do we get into the Laskans involved

“and educated enough to make good, quality decisions as we're coming into those things?”

So, most exciting for me climb on this organization, and this guy for right now, I'm having so much fun at it, are here to stay, and we can look past the next election cycle and really on how to make a constructive transformational change for the Laskans. Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom, men-dopportunity to do so. This is American potential.

Hey, go on and welcome to the American Tension Podcast. I'm your host David from it. So, if you ever travel to Alaska, you know how beautiful and rugged it is. I've had the blessing to spend a number of days and weeks in Alaska. When fishing there, this past summer, and I've got to know the people in Alaska who really are a pretty fabulous unique group of people, but Matt, have you ever been to Alaska?

No, Alaska's been one of my bucket list states that I need to go to, though. I've been talking with Monica, producer of the show about that as well. We need to find a way to get the podcast into Alaska. That's a bucket list item we got to do it. We can do it. I did record some episodes from our office up there and you recorded the sounds, but where was I? And where was Monica?

Yeah, I'm just saying. Although, you know, I always have that the weather, you know,

you have the on your weather app on your phone, a lot of times you just, you have different places

“you should go and you see what the weather is and I look at Anchorage and I'm like, oh, wow.”

Now, there are times though, myself living in the Chicago area where I noticed an anchorage actually is a little warmer, but it's not very often. And the thing I was surprised by is how much rain they get and how cloudy it is, you know, I think of it as like, you know, you're in Colorado where it's mountains, snowy mountains, and blue skies, you know, and that's not necessarily true for Alaska, but man, when the summer comes in Alaska, everybody's outside. You just, everybody just

goes outside because it's magnificent. It's just a breathtaking place. Well, and you've got, you know,

basically the entire day is daylight from what I understand. So why wouldn't you go outside and

take advantage of it? Yeah, I was sitting in a restaurant bar and I was like, man, I can't believe it's still so early and I looked at it and we were watching like, nope, it's 11 o'clock at night. I should go to bed. It's like, this is dangerous, but it's, it is a magical place. It really is. It's so unique to so many other places. And I'm really, I'm really excited to talk to our guest Brett who's going to, who's lived in Alaska and life and has a lot to share.

Well, today's guest is Alaska pretty well. He spent decades right in the middle of Alaska is policy and political fights, especially on issues like energy and natural resources. Over the years, he served as a senior advisor, chief of staff, campaign manager to state legislators and governors, and most recently as chair of the Alaska oil and gas conservation commission. And while that resume sounds impressive, just remember, it all started by taking one small step in getting involved.

I want to welcome Brett Hubert, who's American for prosperity, state director for Alaska. Brett, welcome. Good morning, David. It's great to be with you today. Thank you so much for the kind words of introduction. Yeah, no, I'm looking forward to this conversation because, you know, we work together. I know your story, we've had the pleasure to know each other for, you know, part of this year and have really got to know each other a lot more and I thought it would just be

a lot of fun for you to talk about, you know, how you become a leader in the public policy space and a place that people really find fascinating, you know, Alaska. So maybe you could start though going all the way back because I know you're not originally from Alaska. So talk about, you know, growing up, we grew up in like what what you wanted to do over your dreams.

“I'm going to do my best to remember that far back, David. Kind of tough for me to remember what I had”

for lunch yesterday. But yeah, it started for me in the Midwest. I was raised as born in 62 or I'm 63 years old. I was raised in a time when life, especially in that part of the country was pretty simple. There was a lot of agricultural influence, right? People still did chores. We sent kids out to ride around their bikes and the neighborhood we didn't worry about them. Raising me was as simple as open in the door in the morning and then calling me back in at night, right? So a lot different place

and a lot different times. So I moved to high school or moved to Colorado when I started junior high

of where to go next and my wife Renee said, what do you think about Alaska Brett two weeks later? We sold everything that would not fit in the whole trailer. We hooked it to our Jeep. We put our six month daughter in the car seat and we hit the road. Wow. So you just jumped in a car a few weeks later with a baby and drove up to Alaska. That's something a lot of people wouldn't do. Like what gave you that desire to do that? So I'm not sure if you asked my parents and say

because I was the hopeless black sheep of the family and always needed to try something new.

For me, David, I love the outdoors. I'd hunted and fished across the United States and I need to new ground. So when Renee said, what about Alaska? I jumped on and I tell you we crossed the border.

“I think we had $800 left to our name. We had our stuff in our U Hall. We found a little place to”

rent but Alaska immediately felt like home to me. It's just the feeling of this place, the outdoor community, the beauty, the way people bond together. It just says it's not just a unique place. It has unique people and unique feel and clearly it was just home to me when I got here. So you guys, you got a small baby, you're living in Alaska. Were you up in Fairbanks? Was that where you originally were? Yeah, we moved. We moved straight to Fairbanks. If we got there in March and

just a quick story, I remember the first night that we saw the northern lights. It was unbelievable,

mesmerizing. It's something you can't explain until you've seen it. I was so excited about it. I took my kitchen chair planted in the front yard. It was about 30 below and I sat there and watched it so long. I nearly couldn't get back to the house. Yeah, we plunged right into Fairbanks, the land of 50 and 60 below and ice fog and 90 degree summers. But we didn't stay there long. I took a job there that then ended up moving me to Anchorage.

Nice. So, you know, you're a original career up there. Wasn't working in public policy or politics. So what did you do? Because I know you've done some interesting stuff. They did very Alaskan. And that eventually led towards getting involved in politics and public policy. Yeah, like I said, as soon as we crossed the border, the stage just kind of reached out and accepted us. We found a little place to live. Went to work right away. My first job was tending bar at

10 at night till five of the morning shift at a little after hours bar outside of Fairbanks.

“That's quite a way to be introduced to a new state coming right after Pipeline times, right?”

Great eye opener. And I went from there to a job and business that moved me to Anchorage. But

for me, it's always been David Alecney challenges. I like new things. I'm not scared of saying yes.

So when I had opportunity, I did. I moved kind of through the business community. Got a chance to jump out and do some fishing with a friend of mine that was a publisher of a magazine. A few photos in that led to an opportunity to meet the opportunity for me to move out in Bristol Bay start a fishing lodge. I'm running a hunting and fishing concession on a national wildlife refuge. I became a photographer, a guide, an outfitter. Kind of bounce the family around the state.

Rural Alaska on the peninsula was amazing. Move back to Tolkita, South Central Alaska, where I became, again, a fishing guide, opened up a small business to canvas shop and Tolkita, raising young family and just kind of bouncing along and enjoying life. And then like a lot of people, I noticed an outside threat, something that was just closing the world down around me and something I cared deeply about. And that's kind of what drug me into backwards to the policy

and political discussion here. So fishing played a role in a big role in your life and still does. And fishing's really probably more central to Alaska than probably any other state I'd guess. Maybe talk a little bit about fishing in Alaska, the role played in your life. And then I know it did lead directly to how you ended up, but ultimately get involved in politics. It did, it did. So fishing took me to Alaska, the outdoors, fishing like right over my shoulder,

you know, 15 pound rainbow trout on a fly and a river in the fall. That kind of thing kept me here. I knew that this is where I was going to be. It's hard really to find a single topic that alaskans are more passionate about than our fisheries. Whether there are commercial fishermen, harvesting for a living, whether there are subsistence fishermen that's been doing it for thousands of years and it's part of their culture and part of their livelihood and really kind of a main staple

of their will exists since too. Folks like me, they just want to go chase fish to people that want to go dip netting and put fish in the freezer. We all care about fish and it's a central

“topic to Alaska. Since fish is so so important to us all. We're also passionate about it. We like to”

argue about the harvestable soup surplus and which user groups should get the fish. Yeah, talk about dip net. That's the next, isn't there a dip net? That's such a uniquely Alaska thing.

resident to participate. You see people participate from little kids to grandmothers,

“from shore to river banks to out on boats. We'll have several hundred thousand people”

participate in the dip net fishery. There's three of them in the state by far the most popular down here in the Q and I peninsula. We're allowed 25 per family and then 10 for each additional household member. We've had times when we've been dip netting and with a family of five,

putting 90 fish in the boat and doing it in 30 minutes to two hours. It is amazing. It's fun.

It's, there's nothing like that. Yeah, and it's a bunch of, it's a bunch of food. David, I mean, I've been, I've wrote up river in my boat before where I've had to put all of the people that were dipnating with me off on shore to catch a ride at the bridge, because the boat was too heavy to go upstream. I mean, it's a serious salmon fishery. Wow, it sounds like you're in the gospels. Like fish them with the Lord. It's three and that out on the right side. Yeah, my guess is he

wouldn't be nearly as clumsy about it as we Alaska or it's just a great way to fill our freezers.

“Yeah, I think this is so uniquely Alaska. It's so cool. Like you have certain rights as”

Alaskaans. And I kind of appreciate that. It's like, hey, no, we get to do this. We get to go and get this a lot of an fish because it's the relationship we have with our environment. And I think it's taken really seriously in Alaska. So, well, and you know, we're common property resource owners here, right? So instead of having individual rights like subsurface rights or mineral rights or oil and gas rights, our resources have been collectifies. So those fish and

game, our waters, our resources are held in common by the people, and having that direct connection to it, the ability to participate in the harvest, the ability to feed your family's super important to us in Alaska. So, how did you take your first step to getting involved in what became your your very successful career in public policy? You know, I I deal with as you know in the business where we help people take their first step all the time and often it's a specific

“issue that gets under their skin or runs them the wrong way or they know they need or they see”

in their life or somebody else's life doesn't exist and it finally just gets you out of the edge. And they start out with making a phone call or coming into an AFP office or getting involved in a small campaign. I did mine a little bit differently. I had an accomplice, a really good fishing and hunting colleague of mine served in the Alaska legislature and he came down with me to fish in that fateful summer of 1994. David. Oh, yeah. And yeah, I was complaining about the

fishery management. I was complaining about the allocation. I was watching our fisheries and our opportunity, especially for our families and young kids changing and I was frustrated about that. So, my friend, I'll we'll just call him out said, well, you know, young man, we'd like to have some smart people get involved early in the process and you're at least young. I don't know about smart, but $35 in sign up and you can run for office. So, David, my one small step was registering

to file for the statehouse here in Alaska. I'm going to win big step, actually. Yeah, and I did have no idea, right? I'd not been to a political meeting before. I'd not been involved in the party. I was of course involved in the community member, like a lot of parents in businessmen were,

but not representing other people. So, what an amazing opportunity I campaigned around the district.

I got to know the district, not just the issue. I cared about, but those same issues other people cared about. I got to see other people taking that small step. And quite frankly, I really enjoyed campaigning. I'd kind of jumped into politics headfirst. I lost in a Republican primary by a narrow margin after being the conservative from talk eat in Alaska. And when you're here, talk eat in Homer, not the conservative strongholds in the state, right? They're kind of our arts communities,

our village communities, lots of diverse opinions. So, I felt pretty good about that. I managed the campaign of the young lady that defeated me. Instead of going home and, you know, chuck in my toys under the porch, I still wanted to be involved. The issue I cared about still motivated me. And I just found a different path, but that's the issue. That's the step I took, whether it's knocking on a door or a phone call or talking to a neighbor or following for office.

It all just begins the process. And I just found a home in that process for me. I cured deeply about Alaska. I have a bit of a knack working with issues. I love working with people. So, it's got me in and out coming back to the public policy process I'd now for nearly 40 years. Well, you've had an interesting path too. I mean, you've done you've held some really interesting cool positions in government. And then decided to go do other things too that you enjoyed.

So, they talk to walk us through a little bit of your path over the last few decades.

Well, for me, I never wanted to, you know, go to work for government. I never wanted

that. I didn't think that was my career path representing other people. I didn't think what was my career path. I wanted like a lot of people to do a decent job of managing the things within my world.

fed and learning to read and being involved in school, being involved with my church and my community, those kind of things. But then I realized that there's a bigger opportunity. I got involved. I became a staff member for the senator from this district. Got to see how the political process works. But more importantly, how the legislative process works. And I went to work for the legislature back in the days when you could have people that wildly disagreed on the topic. But could have

an adult conversation about it. Could respect each other about it. Could hear both sides. When we take bills to the floor that you didn't know if we were going to pass or fail. And the discussion on the floor is actually what made that determination.

Back when when I saw the process, this amazing process our founders put in place,

we're pretty well. So I loved it. It pulled me in. But it became apparent to me, people that had been down there for a while when I got there had been there long enough. So really, their lens seemed to be from the government perspective, from the government lens. What do we need to do to make sure our budget sustainable? What do we need to do to make sure that we can fund these programs? Which new programs do we want to bring on? Often times the discussion was

really internal. Capital and Juno removed from Alaskaans, not a lot of influence from other people. You go down there for 120 days and people just start looking through the government lens. I don't want to be that guy. So I'd come and go from politics and public policy. So I think

I worked for six different senators, chief of staff in each office. I was policy advisor to the

Senate Finance Committee. I got to work for one senator in the interim and one senator in the summer. But I took several years off to and started businesses and sold advertising and worked with community members. And I just wanted to make sure I was grounded in how I was raised.

“Where I was from, you didn't want to go to work for the government. That's what you did if you”

couldn't get a job in the private sector. I have found and don't give me wrong. Those positions are important. I've held up many of them. I felt like I've earned my money, but still it's a different lens. It's a different perspective than writing a paycheck signing the front end, balancing a small budget, doing all those things on a daily basis like most of the people out there doing. And it's really only a section of us that get caught up in politics and public

policy. And I wanted my perspective to be kind of broad. So I'd bounce in and work for a senator. I'd bounce out and be a fishing guide for a summer. I'd bounce in and work for the legislature for year and a half. I'd leave and spend time with my family and run a statewide non-profit. And see what that non-profit perspective is. So for me, lots of opportunities in Alaska, I like new challenges. In a short story of my career, I think you could sum up. I just

calling me a Gypsy David. Well, that wandering, though, you kind of took a sabbatical at one point, right? Went to a warmer climate and just did kind of live everybody's dream. You didn't did it, right? So in 2005, I'd been really involved in politics now for 11 years or so. I'd been working

“full time. I'd been running, I think I was serving on 10 or 12 boards. Nice thing about Alaska is”

we're at great big state David, but we're a fairly small pond. Yeah. So a kid like me from the Midwest, it just had a bit of a work ethic and kind of an active mind and wanted to get involved has had that opportunity here. So I've been able to do more things here than I'm sure I would of any other place. One of the things it's beautiful about Alaska. One of the things that I like to remind people are motto is north to the future. That's still available and it certainly was when

I came here. So I had the opportunity to bounce in about at, start a couple of businesses, run some campaigns, work on some ballad initiative issues come into the governor's office as a policy advisor on state affairs, deal with the communications director position during COVID. It was really important to talk to people, but get back out of there, spend some time taking care of my elderly folks as they needed it because family and free enterprise and people and individuals

is why I got this play this job in the first place and it remains my priorities. And with this organization, they're the same kind of priority issues that I'm able to work on every day. So

“that's what's got me back in the game and I'm super happy to be here. Well, we're really happy”

for you to be running our state chapter there. You're off to a wonderful start. I can tell that because I probably know better than anyone. I watched in paid attention and we're really excited

about the leaders that you're providing. But you've not always, I know when we talked about

you joining the state director, you know, you were kind of like, well, might retire, might not retire, semi-retired, what made you decide to keep coming back and being involved in the public policy process. Yeah. So, you know, that's a great question. And part of it, I'd say is just, you know, what worked best for me individually, how did it fit in my life, what are my priorities? But the other part was that it's what I do. It's what my career has been built in. It's where my relationships are.

governor's office, I was his policy director and communications director when I left there to take

care of my father who was suffering from Alzheimer's, help my mother care for him. Great decision would do it again 100% of the time. It was a priority for me. But I understood after that, that

“that was important work, but I didn't have something to fulfill that passion, that drive, that”

thing that makes me want to get out of bed and do good things and be involved in the community. So, pulled me back to Alaska and pulled me back to the position of the Alaska Wellness Conservation Commission. The governor asked me to serve there. I was happy to say yes. It's been about a year and a half accomplished a couple of the big goals he wanted to accomplish. And then it

was time to go spend some time with my mom, David, and, and also again, have some time with kids

and to reflect on where I'm at and take another crack at retirement. That one lasted about a year and a half again, David, and I learned a couple of things. Time with your parents is irreplaceable. Anybody that has that opportunity should take it and I'm horrible at retiring. So, it was hard to come back. I didn't know if I wanted to come back in politics. We shared this conversation right you were part of that process. Because I missed those times when we could have diverse conversations,

opposing viewpoints, good discussions. I missed the times when it wasn't the gotcha moment of the day, the immediacy of looking for power, the putting things aside and not coming up with those kind of solutions. And it was a struggle for me until it dawned on me after one of my many discussions with you in a couple of the people I really respect up here that if I want to have those type of conversations in politics again, if I think it's important that we listen and not just look, if I think it's

“important that we care about grassroots and what the people want, that's what this job is. So,”

it's been 100% of perfect fit. Super excited. I decided to get back in the arena and can't think of a better organization or a better bunch of people or a better state at a more important time than this juncture right now. So, I'm living my best life and I'm happy to be doing it. I love to hear that. So, tell us what you've been doing in the job for a number of months now. Tell us what you've been doing and then what are you excited or fearful of in the future for Alaska? Great questions,

right? So, again, I've been in public policy for almost 40 years here. So, we're doing with a number of these issues that are groundhogged day issues that Alaska has been trying to solve for quite some time. Some kind of fiscal stability. How do we provide stability and predictability for resource development issues in Alaska prosperity kind of is resource development? So, as you know, we're leaning in on these issues. That's where our jobs come from. That's where economic base comes from.

That's where those family wage jobs that allow partners to make decisions about how to work, how to move forward with their American Dream looks like and how to take care of their kids. So, we have all of those things going on, but for me, it really is about what do Alaskans want and how do we involve Alaskans that align with us in our right center, common sense priorities and objectives, right? Our principles based on really just common sense how human progress works,

how the system works, what transformational change looks like. So, it couples the opportunity for a really important time in Alaska to lift Alaska's voices in the process, right? I joke with people. I'm a community organizer. I, other day, I tried this one. I said, I'm Alaska's Barack Obama.

“It did not go well in my crowd. I'm not going back to that one again, but truly, right?”

So, the first issue that we took up was a misguided sales tax proposal from our municipal mayor.

Actually, just past the largest budget ever, just under the tax cap, Anchorage by all measures is not succeeding. The failed kind of progressive revised history, cancel culture, identity politics, backwards plans for homelessness, etc. have our city in a bit of a tail spin. At the same time, the only answer for the very progressive government in our town has been more money spent on things people don't care about. So, that issue popped up. Anchorage residents across

the board and across the political spectrum were immediately angry about it, but it's been a while here since local governments listened to the people. A lot of people were disaffected. A lot of people didn't know if it mattered. So, I saw an opportunity for our organization to do it. We provided a little bit of organization. We spent a little bit of money on messaging. We listened to people and brought their message out through radio shows, through statewide op-eds, through Collins,

through town hall meetings. We just got people involved in the process and then Anchorage residents went to the assembly, went to the phones, went to the letters to the editor, went to their

proposal. It didn't even go to a vote. So, what have we been doing? Try and understand what Alaskan's care about, trying to take a little bit of background that I have in this process, and try to take an organization that's well-resourced and well-staffed and well-respected, and make a difference. And we've done that. I'm past the three-month mark. So, thank you for not referring to me as the new guy in Alaskan. I just don't want to be the new guy anymore. I want

“to take a guy that's helping get things done. And I think we're on a pretty good path. Still lots to”

learn. Still lots of people to get involved. Still lots of areas of the state to get involved. But I think we're on a path to do that in an excite way, David. That's great. Is there one thing that you're most excited about when you look ahead? For me personally, from this position, so I think 30-some campaigns, right, have managed over my career, 35 years inside and outside

of public policy. Never in that process have I had the opportunity to have the length of vision

the horizon that I do now. Usually it's one candidate, one election, one product, one measure, you stand together, a team, you spend a million dollars, you build a business, it's got that one time and the expiration date is right then and it goes away. With this, we can take our transformational ideas, our right center approach, our non-partisan, non-secular approach. We can touch different groups, bring them together. I can think about what do I want to accomplish in 2026? And what's

the field going to look like in 2028? And what are those problems? And how do we get in Alaskans

“involved and educated enough to make good quality decisions as we're coming into those things?”

So, most exciting for me, timeline. Yeah. This organization and this guy for right now and having so much fun at it are here to stay and we can look past the next election cycle and really on how to make a constructive transformational change in Alaskan. Well, you're a man at the right time because I have a lot of confidence in your leadership for AFP Alaskan, but Alaskan's had across roads. I mean, they have there's some big decisions that the leaders of the state will

have to make and it'll be very consequential for how do you fund government? What do you do with you know, resource development? What, you know, how can we just keep spending there? You know, there's big things and then there's big races on the Senate and Congress and the governor's race and the legislature would. It's just a fascinating place politically right now and with a lot up for grabs and you're right in the middle of it. So we're happy you're a man in Alaskan.

Well, it's it's a fascinating place for a lot of reasons, right? We have no professional sports team in Alaskan. None. So our state professional sport is politics, David. People in other states wouldn't understand that. You come here. We know and expect to see our congressmen, our US senators, our governor at the airport at the grocery stores. We're a small state. We're only one congressional district. So that's one difference. Another difference is we're a long ways away from our neighbors.

So we feel quite self reliant and people bring that attitude to all things that they look at.

“Yeah, that might work there. Does it work here? Making those decisions?”

But you're exactly right. We like to say most important election ever. Yeah, biggest decisions in history,

right? We like to say that. We like to get people fired up. It is all important. Every time people vote and actually reach out and take their one chance to touch their government. It's important. But here in Alaskan this time, we have a 1.6 billion dollar structural deficit in the budget. We have a permanent fund that we're trying to decide what the future of looks like and and what does that redistribution look like? We have a ton of good news on resource development

side. But most of those gains happen six or seven years out. So this next five years is a tough time. Super important time. For example, if Alaskan would determine that they don't want alignment between the president or congressional delegation and the governor. And if Alaskans would decide,

they don't like finally making great gains and resource development like we've seen under this

presidency completely contrasted with the Biden administration. They care about all of those things. Now is the time to make that difference. I think it really is in a lot of people's mind. The election where we decide who we want to be when we grow up in Alaskan. Alaskan was born three years ahead of me. I call it a young state. That means I'm a young man. Any time I can really be a young man, I'll take it. It's just a great time. It really is. And people feel that.

There's risk. There is tremendous potential for good or for real threat for Alaskan's future in this election cycle. And in these next four years, we're really young. We haven't grown up. We haven't made the decisions of other states. Our economy is not diversified. Our energy costs are still through the roof and some of the highest in the nation. We don't own our individual

dividend. All those issues are on the table right now. And this the next election is just

going to make the decision whether people still believe in Alaskan, whether it's north to the future, or we're managing a steady decline. We become a national park and the last one here shuts off the

“lights. And that's really what we're looking at. People understand that. That's what's a great”

time to be in my job. Folks are motivated now. We just have to do what we need to do and make sure

their voices heard. Well, I've had a chance to watch the job you've done in the first number of

months you've been doing this. And I am super glad you're a guy for American's prosperity in Alaskan.

“Right, I really appreciate you sharing your story. It's such an interesting story. I love”

your stories. I've had a chance to listen to them in long form. I'm glad you could share some

of it with us here. The chance or you've been forced to listen to a couple of them in long form. And I'm sorry. Alaskans are really excited about who we are and where we live and what's different here and what's same here and what's unique here. So I feel that way. I've also a believer in people and if we just concentrate on family, free enterprise, simple solutions, some back-to-basics

“and a fast-changing world, I think we've got a great future up here and I couldn't be happier”

than to be able to represent this organization in my state. Right, you feel the same? Thanks, Brad. Thanks, David. Folks, if you like this episode and would like to say connected with the podcast, be sure to like and subscribe to our channel as well as following us on Facebook Instagram and YouTube. Don't take it, Brad. Go out there and defend freedom. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to American Potential.

You may listen to more stories from Americans working every day to expand freedom and opportunity in their communities by visiting Americanpotential.com.