Senator Donny Olson

Donald C. “Donny” Olson was born on June 18, 1953, in Nome, Territory of Alaska. He is an American physician, attorney, commercial pilot, reindeer herder, and politician. He has been serving as a member of the Alaska Senate, representing the T district since 2001.

Olson was born in the Inupiat village of Golovin, Alaska, where he resides to date. He graduated from Covenant High School in Unalakleet and attended Seattle Pacific College. He then went to the University of Minnesota, Duluth, where he received a B.A. in Chemistry. He also attended the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the Oral Roberts University School of Medicine in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he received his M.D. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Colorado School of Law and did postgraduate work in law at Cambridge University in England.

He is the president and CEO of Olson Air Service, based in Nome, Alaska. He was appointed to the Alaska State Medical Board by Governor Tony Knowles in 1995 and served until taking office in the Alaska Senate in 2001. He was the sole Democrat associated with the Alaska political corruption probe. He was the only Alaska legislator to reject a bribe offer to vote for an oil tax bill. It was proposed as a campaign contribution of $25,000 for his 2004 Lieutenant Governor’s race. He subsequently helped the FBI make their case against those involved.

Olson caucused with the Republicans in the majority during the 28th Senate, from 2013 to 2014, but he was not invited to participate in the organization of the majority caucus for the 29th Senate. He is currently a member of the Democratic minority caucus.