Like so many families across the Kenai Peninsula, my family knows what it means to work hard, sacrifice, and stitch together a life against the odds.

For years, my husband shipped out to work on the Alaska Marine Highway ferries for weeks at a time. While he was away keeping our state moving, I stayed home here on the Peninsula, pulling double duty. I was a mom trying to find safe, affordable childcare that simply didn't exist, while simultaneously fighting to build and grow a local business from the ground up.

That is not a unique story. It is the Peninsula standard. We are a community of innovators, shift workers, builders, and parents who grind every single day to make ends meet.

But while our families are doing our part, Juneau is failing to do theirs.

I look at our current leadership and I don't see 'steady progress'—I see stagnation. I see a state government that has gone backward on funding our schools, backward on supporting our working parents, and entirely blind to the childcare crisis that forces parents to choose between a career and their kids.

I am Nissa Savage, and I am running for the Alaska House of Representatives because I am ready to break the cycle of decline. We need a focused fiscal strategy that centers on the real issues that Alaskans face daily.  I am going to Juneau to demand accountability, to secure the baseline support our families deserve, and to ensure the Kenai Peninsula is a place where people can actually afford to stay, work, and thrive.