Stephen J. Cox (born August 2, 1977) is an American lawyer who has served as Counsel to Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy since May 2026. He previously served as the 28th Alaska Attorney General from August 29, 2025, until May 14, 2026, when the Alaska Legislature failed to confirm him in a 29–31 vote. Cox previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas after being appointed by U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and in senior positions at the United States Department of Justice. Before joining Alaska state government, he worked in the private sector, most recently as a senior vice president and chief legal and strategy officer at Bristol Bay Industrial.
During his tenure as attorney general, Cox described an agenda centered on public safety, consumer protection, constitutional liberties—especially “First Freedoms”—and increasing Alaska's energy and economic-development potential.Stephen J. Cox, contemporaneous public remarks identifying “Public Safety,” “Consumer Protection,” “Protecting First Freedoms,” and “Unleashing Alaska’s Energy Potential,” 2025–2026; supplemented by . His tenure included a state-local Quality of Life Initiative in Anchorage, several consumer-protection initiatives, implementation of Governor Dunleavy's regulatory-reform program, resource and navigability litigation, and participation in multistate constitutional litigation. Cox also began what he called a Counter-China Initiative aimed at applying state consumer-protection and regulatory authority to risks involving Chinese-connected products, technology, infrastructure and financial services.; testimony of Stephen J. Cox, Counsel to the Governor of Alaska, published in the U.S. Government Publishing Office hearing record.
His appointment became the subject of an unusually contentious confirmation process. Democrats in the Legislature objected to aspects of his nationally focused litigation, including briefs involving birthright citizenship, and questioned other policy decisions made during his tenure; supporters pointed to his public-safety work and argued that federal constitutional cases could directly affect Alaska. After his tenure as Attorney General, Dunleavy appointed Cox as the first Counsel to the Governor and named Cox’s Deputy Attorney General Cori Mills as acting attorney general.
Early Life, Education, and Legal Career
Cox graduated from Texas A&M University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and from the University of Houston Law Center in 2006 with a Juris Doctor degree, summa cum laude. After graduating from law school, Cox was a law clerk to judge James Larry Edmondson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Cox graduated from Texas A&M University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and from the University of Houston Law Center in 2006 with a Juris Doctor degree, summa cum laude. He subsequently clerked for James Larry Edmondson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.; ; .
Earlier in his career, Cox worked in the federal government, including as a senior adviser to the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also worked with the William H. Webster Commission that reviewed the FBI's handling of intelligence relating to the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. He later entered private practice, working on white-collar investigations, regulatory matters, compliance and related litigation.
During the first Trump administration, Cox served at the Department of Justice as deputy associate attorney general and chief of staff in the Office of the Associate Attorney General. His responsibilities included corporate-enforcement policy, regulatory reform, and matters involving financial and health-care fraud. He also served as executive director of the Department's regulatory-reform task force. In 2020, he became United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, serving until the change of presidential administrations in January 2021. Cox subsequently worked in the private sector. Immediately before his Alaska appointment, he was senior vice president and chief legal and strategy officer at Bristol Bay Industrial, an investment platform of Bristol Bay Native Corporation. When Governor Mike Dunleavy appointed him attorney general in August 2025, Cox told Alaska Public Media that he had worked on Alaska-related matters since 2011.
Attorney General of Alaska
Dunleavy announced Cox's appointment on August 28, 2025, with the appointment effective the following day. Because Alaska cabinet officials are subject to legislative confirmation, Cox served while his confirmation remained pending.
In public remarks, Cox described four principal areas of emphasis: public safety, consumer protection, protecting what he called “First Freedoms,” and “unleashing” Alaska's economic or energy potential.Stephen J. Cox, contemporaneous public remarks identifying “Public Safety,” “Consumer Protection,” “Protecting First Freedoms,” and “Unleashing Alaska’s Energy Potential,” 2025–2026; supplemented by . Legislative material from early 2026 also records Cox describing increased investment and Alaska's development potential as a priority.
Public Safety One of Cox's principal public-safety projects was the Quality of Life Initiative, a state-local effort in Anchorage developed over several months in late 2025 and publicly announced by Dunleavy during his January 2026 State of the State address. Associated Press reporting described the initiative as a partnership between state and municipal officials directed at recurring quality-of-life offenses, including repeat retail theft, public drug activity, illegal camping and related public disorder, while also increasing coordination on drug interdiction and violent crime.
A central feature was closer coordination between the Department of Law, Anchorage municipal prosecutors, the Anchorage Police Department and other state agencies. The arrangement included cross-designating municipal prosecutors so they could pursue state felony cases in circumstances in which repeat retail theft or related conduct crossed state-law thresholds. Alaska News Source later reported that Cox and Anchorage Municipal Attorney Eva Gardner described the initiative as an effort to make fuller use of existing criminal-law tools against repeat offenders.
The initiative also placed emphasis on drug interdiction in a state where a limited number of air and transportation routes serve as major gateways into remote communities. In early 2026, Cox wrote Alaska Airlines chief executive Ben Minicucci about reports that company policies discouraged employees from voluntarily cooperating with law enforcement in drug-trafficking or other investigations. In the letter, Cox sought greater real-time cooperation in response.
Consumer Protection Under Cox’s leadership, the Department of Law increased the consumer-protection agenda. For example, in January 2026 it announced a statewide grocery-pricing compliance initiative involving announced and unannounced price checks to determine whether advertised or posted grocery prices corresponded with prices charged at checkout.
In March, the Department sued six online charitable-fundraising or financial-technology platforms—GoFundMe, PayPal, Charity Navigator, JustGiving, Pledge.to and Network for Good. The State alleged that the companies had created fundraising pages associated with Alaska charities without the charities' knowledge or consent and had solicited donations in ways that could implicate Alaska's charitable-solicitation and consumer-protection laws.The Alaska Story, in reporting on the suits, noted the contrast between GoFundMe’s effort to facilitate donations to Alaska nonprofits and earlier controversies in which the platform had removed certain conservative-linked fundraising campaigns.
Later that month, Alaska resolved a consumer-protection case against Swickard automobile dealerships. The State had alleged that dealerships advertised unavailable vehicles or prices that were not honored and imposed undisclosed dealer add-ons. The settlement provided for a $1 million civil penalty with $200,000 of that penalty suspended on the condition that the defendants avoid specified future violations.
The Department also questioned automatic “round-up” charitable programs used by electric utilities. An October 2025 consumer alert argued that automatically enrolling customers unless they opted out raised both consumer-consent concerns and potential compelled-speech or compelled-subsidy questions. The Department did not characterize participation in charitable giving itself as unlawful; its objection centered on automatic enrollment without affirmative consent.
In June 2026, after Cox had moved to the Governor’s Office, Alaska joined the Federal Trade Commission and the states of Texas, Iowa and Nebraska in litigation against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. The complaint alleged deceptive representations concerning gender-related medical treatment for minors. The case was filed during Mills’s tenure as acting attorney general.
Counter China Initiative During his tenure as Attorney General, Cox began what he called a Counter-China Initiative. He described the project as examining how state consumer-protection, licensing and regulatory authorities could respond to risks associated with products, technology, financial services, data and infrastructure connected to the People's Republic of China. National Review reported on the initiative as an effort to use ordinary state consumer-protection powers as an additional means of addressing national-security concerns involving China.; testimony of Stephen J. Cox, Counsel to the Governor of Alaska, published in the U.S. Government Publishing Office hearing record. After becoming Counsel to the Governor, Cox told the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China that he intended to continue that work.; testimony of Stephen J. Cox, Counsel to the Governor of Alaska, published in the U.S. Government Publishing Office hearing record.
At a June 4, 2026 Commission hearing, Cox specifically discussed Airwallex, a cross-border payment company whose relationship to China had been questioned by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton. Cox said that he shared concerns about potential access to sensitive American financial information and had begun discussions in Alaska about whether state regulators should scrutinize foreign-adversary-connected money transmitters more closely.; testimony of Stephen J. Cox, Counsel to the Governor of Alaska, published in the U.S. Government Publishing Office hearing record. A video clip of the testimony circulated publicly afterward.
The initiative also included concerns about Chinese-manufactured vaping products sold in the United States without federal authorization, with Alaska participating in efforts directed at the consumer-protection and public-health implications of those products.
Constitutional Liberties Cox used the phrase “First Freedoms” to describe a portion of his agenda involving speech, religion and related constitutional rights.Stephen J. Cox, contemporaneous public remarks identifying “Public Safety,” “Consumer Protection,” “Protecting First Freedoms,” and “Unleashing Alaska’s Energy Potential,” 2025–2026; supplemented by . One concrete application was the Department's utility round-up policy. The Department argued that requiring customers to take affirmative steps to avoid making charitable contributions could raise First Amendment concerns as well as ordinary consumer-consent issues.
Cox also objected after copies of the U.S. Constitution distributed at an Anchorage School District event were accompanied by a disclaimer distancing the district from the material. The district subsequently apologized, characterized the incident as a mistake, and said it would take steps to prevent a recurrence.