Forrest Dunbar

Dunbar will be seated along with the rest of the 33rd Alaska State Legislature, on January 17, 2023. He will caucus with the bipartisan majority coalition which consists of nine Democrats and eight Republicans.

Dunbar announced his candidacy for mayor of Anchorage in September 2019, to succeed term limited mayor Ethan Berkowitz. The landscape of the election changed when Berkowitz resigned in October 2020, although the race remained open, as acting mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson chose not to run for a full term. In a wide-ranging field of candidates, Dunbar's campaign raised the most money and he was endorsed by several local labor unions; he became the front-runner in the race. Many expected there would be a runoff election between Dunbar and a much more conservative candidate. No candidate received 45% of the vote in the first round of the election on April 6, 2021. Dunbar advanced to a runoff against retired Air Force pilot Dave Bronson which was held on May 11. The runoff election was close; Bronson claimed a win by 1,000 votes out of nearly 90,000 votes cast. After ten days of counting Dunbar conceded the race to Bronson.

Following the redistricting cycle brought upon by the release of the 2020 United States census, an independent redistricting commission approved new legislative maps for the Alaska Legislature, in which a new district for the Alaska Senate was created, covering most of east Anchorage and Mountain View. Following state representative Ivy Spohnholz's announcement that she would not run for the seat, Dunbar was the first to file for the 2022 election in the newly established district. He faced Republican Andrew Satterfield and Democratic state representative Geran Tarr in the general election. He narrowly won the first round with 50% of the vote, avoiding an instant runoff by winning the election outright.

He has worked to increase funding in his district to improve the city's infrastructure, beginning projects for upgrades to roads and drainage, improvements to Russian Jack Springs Park, and increased attention on traffic calming. Twice he has been the assembly chair overseeing new budgets and the city's response to the 2018 earthquake.

Dunbar was first elected to the Anchorage Assembly in 2016, defeating Terre Gales with 61.6% of the vote in the fifth district, representing the eastern portion of the city. He has since been re-elected twice, in 2019 unopposed, and in 2022 with 55.4% of the vote against Stephanie Taylor. He is currently the second-longest serving incumbent member of the assembly behind Pete Petersen, who has served since 2014 in the same district. During his tenure, Dunbar says he has focused his efforts on "jobs, quality of life, and public safety," including expanding the Anchorage Police Department and the city's snow removal budget.

In 2014, Dunbar launched a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives running against Republican incumbent Don Young, who had represented Alaska's at-large congressional district for 41 years and was running for his 21st full term. He easily won the nomination in the primary election; Libertarian candidate Jim McDermott also advanced to the general election. Dunbar received 41% of the vote in the general election, losing to Young by 10 percentage points in the closest race for the seat since 2008.

Forrest Dunbar (born September 1984) is an American politician, attorney, and military officer. He is a member-elect of the Alaska Senate, representing eastern Anchorage in District J. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been on the Anchorage Assembly representing the fifth district since 2016. He also is a major and a judge advocate general in the Alaska Army National Guard.