Gabrielle LeDoux

Political career

Ledoux ran for State House as a Democrat in Kodiak in 2000, losing in the general election to Gary Stevens by a 44%-55% margin. LeDoux served as Mayor of the Kodiak Island Borough March 2001 through October 2004. LeDoux was then elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 2004. Taking office in January 2005, she served two terms in the Alaska State Legislature, through January 2009 and was a recipient of the Toll Fellowship in 2006. While in the legislature LeDoux served as co-chair of both the Fisheries and the Community and Regional Affairs Committees. She was also a member of the Labor and Commerce, and Resources committees. She was best known for her passage of the "Safe Haven" Bill which allows parents to surrender newborns without prosecution.

In October 2007, LeDoux announced her candidacy for Alaska’s lone seat in the United States House of Representatives challenging 18-term Congressman Don Young and Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. LeDoux was dubbed a spoiler and placed a distant third in the primary, garnering less than 10% of the vote. The only part of the state she carried was her former legislative district, by a plurality.

After her second term in the house ended in January 2009, LeDoux moved to east Anchorage from Kodiak Island in 2009, and ran for State House in her new district in the 2010 elections. She lost to Pete Petersen in the general election by 5% (47%-52%). In 2012, Ledoux's presumptive Democratic opponent withdrew after winning an uncontested primary, and was replaced by Kay Rollison. Ledoux beat Rollison in the general election. She defeated retired colonel Laurie Hummel to represent District 15 (East Anchorage) in 2014 (52%-47%). LeDoux is her own single largest campaign contributor, by a factor of more than 10 times.

After being elected in 2016 to her 5th non-consecutive term in the state house, Seaton joined a majority coalition of Democrats, Independents and two other Republicans, with an avowed goal of ameliorating the state's budget deficit, the latter a product of declining oil revenues, budgeting, and prior taxation restructuring. LeDoux was chosen to chair the house Rules Committee. Alaska state Republican Party chair, Tuckerman Babcock, informed LeDoux by letter that the party will recruit and support a primary opponent against her in 2018. After joining the majority coalition in 2016, LeDoux expressed confidence that she would be representing the needs of her constituents saying "We're hired to do a job, and the purpose of our job is not to keep our job. It's to actually do something.".

Education

She is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley (B.A. 1970) and University of California, Berkeley School of Law (J.D. 1973). She also attended the University of Southern California (1966–1968).

Family

LeDoux's husband (Kurt) and youngest son (Daniel) died in a car accident in 1992. She has two children.

Community service