Political Career
In the late 1960s in Anchorage, Alaska, Thelma Buchholdt became involved in politics as a member of the Ad Hoc Committee of Young Democrats. In 1969, she was selected to attend a conference "On the Future of Alaska" held by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
She ran for the Anchorage School Board and lost in a surprisingly close race for a first-time candidate. George McGovern named her the Alaska coordinator for his 1972 presidential campaign. After her work on the McGovern campaign, in 1974 Thelma was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives as an Ad Hoc Democrat. She was subsequently re-elected to the Alaskan legislature in 1976, 1978, and 1980.
She was the first female Filipino American legislator in the United States of America.
She was also the first Filipino American elected to a United States legislative body by a constituency which was less than 3% Asian American and less than 1% Filipino American.
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