 During his term as governor, he was a leading advocate in the effort to gain statehood for Alaska.Following Alaska's admission to the Union, he made an unsuccessful run for a U.S. Senate seat and two unsuccessful attempts to be elected Governor of Alaska.Stepovich was born to a well-known Serbian miner father, Michael "Wise Mike" Stepovich, and a Montenegrin Croat mother, Olga, in Fairbanks, Alaska on March 12, 1919.