Early Life

In 1997, Lauri Stec, manager of Nagley's General Store, found Stubbs in a box full of kittens in her parking lot. The owners were giving the kittens away; Stec chose "Stubbs" because he did not have a tail. Stubbs was widely described as having been elected after a write-in campaign by voters who opposed the human candidates, but National Public Radio pointed out that this could not have happened because "the tiny town has no real mayor, so there was no election." Nagley's General Store was used as Stubbs's "mayoral office" during his tenure. Stubbs was featured in an effort to protest the 2014 U.S. Senate race in Alaska when people urged voters to write Stubbs in on the ballot. Stubbs was featured in a video criticizing both the Democratic and Republican candidates for Senate.