Anchorage Daily News · September 1, 2026
Alaskans disagree about plenty of things. That is nothing new. We are independent-minded people, and we don't expect everyone in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, the Mat-Su or our rural communities to see every political issue the same way.
But there is one thing I hear from Alaskans across the political spectrum: Washington, D.C., is broken.
Wherever I go and talk about congressional term limits, people come up to me with essentially the same question: How do we actually make term limits happen?
They are tired of the dysfunction. They are tired of gridlock. They are tired of watching members of Congress remain in Washington for decades, accumulating seniority, power and influence while becoming increasingly removed from the people they were elected to represent.
Alaskans understand something Washington too often forgets: Public office is supposed to be public service, not a lifetime career.
Poll after poll shows overwhelming public support for congressional term limits. Yet Congress has repeatedly failed to send the states a constitutional amendment establishing them.
Why would we expect Congress to voluntarily limit its own power?
Fortunately, the founders anticipated the possibility of a federal government unwilling to reform itself. The U.S. Constitution gives the states a way to respond.
The Alaska Legislature can pass a resolution applying for an amendment convention limited to proposing congressional term limits. Other states have already taken this step, and Alaska should join them.
Some people hear that and immediately worry about what might happen if one actually convenes. But that misses an important part of the strategy.
The goal is to make Congress act before a convention becomes necessary. That is what I mean by preemption.
Preemption occurs when mounting action by the states convinces Congress that if it does not address an issue itself, the states may use their constitutional authority to force the question.
Congress then has a choice: continue ignoring the public and risk surrendering control of the process to the states, or propose the amendment itself and send it to the states for ratification.
History demonstrates that pressure from the states can move Washington when appeals, speeches and public opinion alone do not.
The clearest example is the 17th Amendment, establishing the direct election of U.S. senators. As state demands for reform grew and the movement toward an Article V convention gathered strength, Congress finally acted and proposed the amendment itself. The convention never needed to occur.
That is preemption in action.
More broadly, our constitutional history -- from the abolition of slavery through the 13th Amendment, women's suffrage through the 19th, the repeal of Prohibition through the 21st and presidential term limits through the 22nd -- demonstrates an important principle: Sustained political pressure from the states and the American people can eventually force Washington to address issues it has resisted.
Congressional term limits should be the next great reform driven by that same determination.
Every additional state that passes a term-limits convention resolution increases the pressure. Every state that joins the movement sends Congress the same message: If you will not act, the states will.
As that number grows closer to the constitutional threshold required to call an amendment convention, members of Congress will have virtually no choice but to preempt the process by proposing a congressional term limits amendment themselves.
We may not have the population of California, Texas, Florida or New York, but under Article V, Alaska is a sovereign state with the same constitutional authority to participate in the amendment process as every other state.
And there is something particularly appropriate about Alaska taking a leadership role. Alaskans have never been comfortable with distant government telling us what is best for our state. We value independence, accountability and citizen government. We understand that political power should ultimately rest with the people and the states -- not permanently with politicians thousands of miles away in Washington.
Congressional term limits reflect those values.
This isn't a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. It isn't conservative versus liberal. It is about whether Americans still have the ability to reform a political system that increasingly seems incapable of reforming itself.
Washington is unlikely to voluntarily surrender power, so Alaska and the other states must give Congress a reason to act.
The closer the states move toward an amendment convention, the greater the pressure on Congress to preempt it by proposing the congressional term limits amendment itself.
If Washington won't fix Washington on its own, Alaska can help force its hand.
Sharon Jackson is Alaska state chair of U.S. Term Limits and former Alaska state representative.
The Anchorage Daily News welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.