Al Gross (politician)
Alan Stuart Gross (born April 13, 1962) is an American politician, orthopedic surgeon and a commercial fisherman who, running as an independent candidate, was the Democratic nominee for the 2020 United States Senate election in Alaska. He lost the race to incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan. Early life and education Gross was born in Juneau in 1962. He is the son of former Alaska Attorney General Avrum and Shari Gross, the first Executive Director of the United Fishermen of Alaska, who also founded the League of Women Voters-Alaska. As a child, he was part of the small Jewish community in Alaska, and had the first bar mitzvah in Southeast Alaska. While attending Douglas High School in Juneau, Gross developed an interest in fishing, both sport and commercial. When he was 14, he bought his first commercial fishing boat with a bank loan. He commercially gillnet fished for salmon in the summer to pay his way through college and medical school. Gross attended Douglas High School in Juneau before enrolling at Amherst College, where he graduated in 1985 with a degree in neuroscience. He studied medicine at the University of Washington’s WWAMI Regional Medical Education Program, graduating in 1989. Medical career After graduating from medical school, Gross served as the president of the Bartlett Regional Hospital medical staff. In 2006, he founded and served as the president of the Juneau Bone and Joint Center. Gross retired from full-time orthopedic surgery in 2013, but continues to work part time for the Petersburg Medical Center, and volunteers at a training hospital in Cambodia every year. Gross practiced as an orthopedic surgeon in Juneau, beginning in 1994. In 2013, Gross left his practice, along with his wife Monica Gross, to study health care economics, earning a master's of public health at University of California, Los Angeles. He has said that he grew uncomfortable with the high costs of healthcare, and pursued his MPH degree to study solutions. Political career After earning his MPH, Gross returned to Alaska and began his advocacy for healthcare reform. In 2017, he co-sponsored two ballot initiatives in Alaska. The Quality Health Insurance for Alaskans Act sought to add certain provisions from the Affordable Care Act into state law, including protection against discrimination based on preexisting conditions, mandatory coverage for prenatal and maternal care, and provisions that children could remain covered by their parents' insurance until age 26. The Healthcare for Alaskans Act would codify the Medicaid expansion, already in effect due to an executive order by Governor Bill Walker. Both initiatives were withdrawn from the ballot in December 2017. Supporters cited uncertainty in healthcare policy at the federal level as the reason for the withdrawal. 2020 U.S. Senate campaign On July 2, 2019, Gross announced he would run as an independent in the 2020 U.S. Senate election in Alaska. He won the August Democratic primary against Democrat Edgar Blatchford and Independent Chris Cumings, gaining the nomination of the Alaska Democratic Party, which had endorsed him before the filing deadline. Gross