 He also served as Mayor of Anchorage from 1964 to 1967 and was the Republican nominee for United States Senator from Alaska in the 1968 election, losing the general election to Mike Gravel.Elmer Edwin Rasmuson was born in Yakutat, Alaska to Edward Anton Rasmuson (1882–1949) and Jenny Olson Rasmuson, Swedish immigrants and missionaries of the Evangelical Covenant Church who had met in Yakutat.Elmer had an older sister, Evangeline, who born in 1906.