4 Special Coverage

The first round of fundraising reports in the 2026 governor’s race were released Tuesday, shedding some light on a crowded field.

Altogether, candidates raised more than $4.3 million by the beginning of February, according to the first batch of campaign finance reports in the race.

Anchorage podiatrist and Republican Matt Heilala accounts for more than a quarter of the total. Heilala contributed nearly $1.3 million to his own campaign, accounting for more than 94% of his fundraising. In an interview, Heilala said self-funding his campaign means he can turn down contributions from donors or groups that don’t jive with his values.

“I’m not in desperate need of big money from big, influential donors. There’s a quid pro quo, and that’s a major problem,” Heilala said. “Not to say I’m not going to take money from some big donors as we keep going, but I’m going to be able to be very, very selective.”

Heilala has also accumulated hundreds of smaller donors, raising more than $60,000 from just shy of 350 donors.

Former Attorney General Treg Taylor is another Republican candidate relying on self-funding to an extent. He’s the No. 2 fundraiser in the race so far, with roughly $880,000 in total contributions. About a third of that comes from Taylor himself.

Taylor leads in external fundraising by a significant margin. He’s raised more than $592,000 in outside funding from nearly 250 donors, including $100,000 from Anchorage anesthesiologist John Morris and several five-figure checks from business and medical professionals in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

Former state Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum is in third with roughly $350,000 in contributions, much of it from himself and family members. An uncle of Crum’s wife, Charles McGarrity of Florida, was the largest single contributor at $40,000, and Crum kicked in an additional $60,000. Another notable Crum contributor is state Education Commissioner Deena Bishop, who donated $5,000.

Crum said he’s expecting more money to come off the sidelines and head to candidates as the August primary draws closer.

“Knowing that there’s a handful of us that are kind of out in front on the money side, I think that fundraising is going to ramp up,” Crum said.

Tom Begich was the top Democratic fundraiser in this round of reports. The former Anchorage state senator has also taken in roughly $350,000 from a wide range of donors. He said fundraising ramped up in earnest when Mary Peltola announced she’d be running for U.S. Senate rather than for governor.

Begich is “not a wealthy person,” he said in an interview, and he said he’s proud of the fact that 92% of the funding for his campaign has come from Alaskans.

“Buying your way to the governorship is just not — I just don’t think that’s good for Alaska,” he said. “What I want to see is people reaching out to regular donors, getting people who are regular Alaskans engaged and involved in their campaign. And that’s certainly what I’m doing.”

Among Begich’s largest donors are Anchorage wealth manager Justin Weaver, donating $75,000, Anchorage attorney Robin Brena, who kicked in $50,000 and attorney Mark Choate of Juneau, who contributed $15,000. Chicago-based Jennifer Pritzker, a cousin of billionaire Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, donated $10,000. Begich said he’d never met her but appreciated the support.

Another Democrat in the race, former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, didn’t join the race until after the reporting period had ended. But according to his campaign, he’s raised $750,000 in his first two weeks in the race. That’s more than twice as much as Begich, who has been in the race since August.

Including Kreiss-Tomkins, 10 candidates reported raising six-figure totals. Those include Republicans Shelley Hughes, Bernadette Wilson, Click Bishop and Dave Bronson, in addition to Democrat Matt Claman. Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who won Trump’s endorsement in the 2024 House race, raised just over $17,000.

“It’s a little bit like being a venture capitalist,” said Scott Kendall, an attorney and occasional campaign operative. “When you’re a candidate, you’re selling a product — and if no one’s investing, that’s a bad sign.”

But with strong early fundraising, quite a few candidates have a real shot at winning, Kendall said.

“For probably the most important race in the state, we have a level of competition maybe we’ve never seen,” Kendall said. “Yeah, there were 48 candidates in the special election for Don Young’s seat. But really, there were only, like, four or five, six serious candidates. Here, there’s really 10 legit candidates, and it’s pretty exciting.”

The top four vote-getters in the nonpartisan blanket primary in August will advance to the general election in November.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated where Mark Choate lives. He lives in Juneau, not Anchorage.

A 17th candidate has announced she’s running for governor.

Meda DeWitt, 45, is a traditional healer, drawing on her Tlingit heritage. She teaches at the University of Alaska.

She’s running as a nonpartisan.

“I care about our future,” she said. “I care about the way that we steward our lands and want to see a state that has a thriving ecosystem and healthy communities that can live in perpetuity.”

In 2021, DeWitt chaired a campaign to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The petition gathered more than 60,000 signatures but fell short of the number needed for a recall election.

Her campaign website lists a wide array of priorities, from cost of living to health care to the state economy.

DeWitt lives in Anchorage and has family roots in Wrangell and Yakutat, as well as relatives around the state.

The Aug. 18 primary will feature a long list of gubernatorial candidates, most running with the Republican label. In the primary, voters can choose just one. The top four candidates, of any party, will advance to the November ballot. General election voters will have the option of ranking up to four candidates.

WASHINGTON — Alaska Congressman Nick Begich said it’s just common sense to require a photo ID to vote and to make sure that only citizens can register.

“For years, there have been questions levied, on both sides of the aisle, about the integrity of elections,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “We can’t have that. That’s not healthy for our democratic republic to be questioning the nature of elections.”

The SAVE America bill will restore trust in election integrity, he said.

The U.S. House passed it on Wednesday. It requires people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote and to show photo ID to get a ballot.

Begich signed on as a co-sponsor Monday, though the bill’s requirements for proving citizenship asks more of voters than he first thought.

Also called the SAVE Act, the legislation is a huge priority for Republicans. President Trump, Elon Musk and a host of right-wing influencers are pressuring the Senate to pass it. They say the survival of American democracy depends on ensuring that non-Americans don’t cast ballots.

Many surveys and audits show illegal voting by noncitizens is rare. Democrats say what the SAVE Act will really do is prevent millions of eligible people from voting.

Begich cites polling that shows more than 80% of Americans want to require photo identification at the polls. The bill won’t be hard to comply with, he said.

To vote, he said, Alaskans could just show their REAL ID card at their polling place, or another type of photo identification listed in the bill.

Where a person would have to prove citizenship is when they register. Begich said that requirement, too, is as simple as showing a REAL ID.

“The REAL ID was acquired in a manner that is demonstrative of your citizenship status,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

But that’s not correct, as a Begich staffer acknowledged in an email after the interview. States issue REAL ID cards to noncitizens, such as green card holders, who are not allowed to vote.

If the SAVE bill becomes law, a person would have to bring other documentation of citizenship, like a passport or a birth certificate, with them when they register to vote. Technically, the bill doesn’t end registration by mail or online, but the applicant would still have to present documents “in person to the office of the appropriate election official” before the registration deadline.

“The Congressman’s view is that for most Americans, including most Alaskans, this is documentation they already possess and use for other routine purposes (employment verification, travel, obtaining a REAL ID, applying for benefits, etc.),” the email from Begich’s office says.

Voting advocates say the bill imposes several requirements that will discourage people from participating in elections, like requiring that mailed ballots include a photocopy of the voter’s ID card.

“This is creating incredible barriers to voting,” said Michelle Sparck, director of Get Out the Native Vote.

It would be especially hard on communities off Alaska’s road system and those that are far from government services, she said.

“It’s just asking way too much of a lot of demographics and pockets in the state,” she said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski calls the bill federal overreach. The Constitution gives states the authority to determine the “times, places and manner” of federal elections, and Murkowski said states know best the on-the-ground realities.

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t have identification,” she said. “I’m saying that it is left to the states to determine how you provide that proof.”

Begich and other sponsors of the SAVE Act say the Elections Clause in the Constitution leaves a lot of authority to the states but not everything.

“It continues,” Begich said, reading the end of the clause. “‘… But the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations.'”

That, Begich said, gives Congress the power to impose the SAVE Act.

The bill, so far, does not have the 60 votes it needs to pass the Senate.

Fortyeight Republicans are co-sponsors, including Sen. Dan Sullivan. He did not respond to an interview request. His office sent a statement saying the bill wouldn’t disenfranchise Alaskans.

Former state legislator Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a Democrat from Sitka, is running for governor, he said Tuesday.

Kreiss-Tomkins, frequently known as “JKT,” served in the Alaska House of Representatives between 2013 and 2023. He becomes the 16th candidate and third Democrat to enter this year’s gubernatorial election.

Incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy is term-limited and unable to run for a third term.

In Alaska, the top four vote-getters, regardless of political party, advance from the August primary to the November general election. In November, Alaskans use ranked-choice voting to name their preferences.

Kreiss-Tomkins said he’s running because Alaska has big problems and he’s interested in solving them.

“I really enjoy working with people from diverse backgrounds and different viewpoints and perspectives to try to forge compromise and get things done,” he said.

While in the Legislature, Kreiss-Tomkins was a member of the bipartisan, bicameral fiscal working group that in 2021 drafted a plan intended to bring the state’s finances in line over the long term.

Though that plan was never enacted, its components resemble the fiscal plan introduced this year by Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

“We’re in a perpetual budget uncertainty,” Kreiss-Tomkins said, identifying the state’s fiscal situation as his No. 1 issue.

Since oil prices plunged in 2015, legislators and governors have struggled to balance Alaska’s budget on an annual basis, occasionally bringing the state to the brink of a government shutdown.

“We’re living and dying by the price of oil, and we have a structural budget deficit, so the state’s finances are not especially in order, and that is, I think, probably the highest-order problem,” Kreiss-Tomkins said.

He said Dunleavy hasn’t been able to work across party lines and hasn’t been successful with the Legislature. Kreiss-Tomkins contrasted that with his own experience as a member of a Democratic-independent-Republican coalition majority in the state House.

“I feel like we need that same spirit in the executive branch, and if we could have a governor and an executive with that approach and mindset … there’s a tremendous amount of good that we can get done for Alaska,” he said.

Kreiss-Tomkins said the campaign season will show how he differs from the other two Democrats in the race: former state Sen. Tom Begich, and current state Sen. Matt Claman.

When it comes to the number of other candidates in the race, Kreiss-Tomkins said it’s not a bad thing for Alaskans to have so many choices.

“Seeing so many people willing to run sort of reflects the importance of the election and the gravity of the problems facing Alaska,” he said, adding that he expects “some winnowing of the field as time goes on.”

Candidates for Governor

• Former state Sen. Tom Begich (Democrat)
• Former state Sen. Click Bishop (Republican)
• Former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson (Republican) and Lt. Gov. candidate Josh Church (Republican)
• Former state revenue commissioner Adam Crum (Republican)
• Current state Sen. Matt Claman (Democrat)
• Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom (Republican)
• Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries (Republican)
• Kasilof resident Jessica Faircloth
• Anchorage podiatrist and state medical board member Matt Heilala
• Former state Sen. Shelley Hughes (Republican)
• Former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (Democrat)
• Author Hank Kroll (Registered Republican) with Lt. Gov. candidate Tommy Nicholson (Undeclared)
• Angoon resident and former teacher James William Parkin IV (Republican)
• Former Attorney General Treg Taylor (Republican)
• Palmer resident Bruce Walden (Republican)
• Businesswoman Bernadette Wilson (Republican) with Lt. Gov. candidate Mike Shower (Republican)

WASHINGTON — We’re only one month into election year 2026 and it’s already clear that the incumbents in Alaska’s federal races have a lot of money to defend their seats.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan raised nearly $7.5 million last year, according to his latest campaign finance report.

“We’re feeling incredibly strong about where our campaign is,” campaign spokesperson Nate Adams said. “Our fundraising is on track, and our support continues to grow.”

The campaign of Democratic challenger Mary Peltola is also touting its fundraising success. Peltola has only been in the race a few weeks and hasn’t had to disclose her contributions yet. But a Peltola campaign press release says she raked in $1.5 million on the first day after she announced. The campaign declined an interview request.

Campaign strategist Jim Lottsfeldt, who led a 2020 group that tried to unseat Sullivan, said the senator’s $7.5 million actually doesn’t give him much of a head start.

“Mary Peltola is in the middle of a money bomb, and she will raise every bit of that and more, and I think ultimately outspend Dan Sullivan,” Lottsfeldt said.

The U.S. Senate race is, so far anyway, a referendum on how people feel about President Trump, he said, and money doesn’t tell the whole story.

“The problem with money in this race is there’s going to be so much of it that most people will shoot their TVs and their computers,” he said. “And I’m not sure how it’s going to all get spent in a way that actually is effective.”

In the U.S. House race, Congressman Nick Begich’s campaign raised $3.2 million last year. Paul Smith, a consultant to the Begich campaign, said that’s an Alaska record for a U.S. House race in a non-election year.

“We feel really good about it and are proud of the start that he has to this election cycle, on the fundraising side,” Smith said.

Democratic challenger Matt Schultz, an Anchorage pastor, filed to run against Begich in October. He reported contributions of $300,000 by year’s end.

Schultz campaign manager Mai Linh McNicholas, said it’s a good foundation, with contributions from more than 2,000 people. She said Schultz set a fundraising record, too.

“It’s the most that any first-time candidate has raised, in an off-year, for this seat in Alaska,” she said.

An Independent candidate is also running for U.S. House — fisherman and retired educator Bill Hill. He hasn’t had to file a campaign finance report yet but his team says he’s raised, like Schultz, more than $300,000, and he did so in his first week.

The reports show Sullivan and Begich, like most incumbents, get significant money from Political Action Committees affiliated with corporations, trade associations and political groups. About half of their 2025 contribution totals are from individuals. The rest largely came from PACs, or “other authorized committees.”

WASHINGTON — National Democrats cheered when former Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola announced on Monday that she’s challenging U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Peltola, they said, gives Democrats a shot at winning a majority in the Senate.

But much more often than not, Alaska votes Republican in statewide races. Is it just wishful Democratic thinking that this race might be different?

“Alaska might be a state that has traditionally voted for Republicans, but it’s far more of an independent state than it is a hard Republican state,” said Lauren French, a senior political advisor with Senate Majority PAC, affiliated with Democrat Chuck Schumer from New York, the Senate Minority Leader. “You have people there who cross parties just looking for someone who will fight for them and represent them well in the U.S. Congress and in the U.S. Senate.”

French talked up Peltola’s attributes as a candidate and said she has a winning message, which is in part an Alaska version of “affordability,” a case Democrats are making nationwide. French cited the conventional wisdom that the president’s party tends to lose seats in Congress in midterm elections.

“You’re likely to see an election that, just by historical standards, is a little bit tougher for Republicans,” she said.

Analyst Kyle Kondik at the University of Virginia Center for Politics said 2026 is shaping up to be a good one for Democrats but that it would take a very big blue wave for Peltola to win.

“The Alaska Senate race is probably a lot more competitive now than it was before Mary Peltola got in,” he said. “I do still think that Dan Sullivan is favored.”

Kondik is managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, which rates congressional races. When Peltola announced her run, he moved the rating for the Alaska Senate seat two categories to the left, from “safe Republican” to “leans Republican.” So did The Cook Political Report. That’s one category away from “toss-up.”

Peltola proved in 2022 – twice – that she can win a statewide election in Alaska, Kondik said, despite losing her U.S. House race in 2024.

“I think even in losing, she performed fairly impressively,” he said. “Donald Trump won Alaska by 13 (percentage) points. She lost in the final ranked choice voting allocation to now-Rep. Nick Begich by about two and a half points.”

(Peltola ultimately lost ground in the rankings. With just first choices counted, Peltola lagged Begich by about only two percentage points).

Peltola’s 2024 “overperformance” – meaning she got more votes in Alaska than the Democrat at the top of the ticket, presidential candidate and then-Vice President Kamala Harris – is important, Kondik said. It shows a significant number of Alaskans who voted for Trump also voted for Peltola.

Peltola will need that crossover appeal to succeed this year, Kondik said.

“And I do think Peltola has a fighting chance to win, even though I think you’d generally rather be the Republican nominee in a state like Alaska,” he said.

As Kondik sees it, Sullivan is a mainstream Republican without baggage, and in Alaska, that gives him a leg up.

Alaska pollster Ivan Moore, who’s worked for Democrats, points to a different metric he finds significant.

“Seven percent more Alaskans like Mary than like Dan,” he said.

Moore’s firm, Alaska Survey Research, asks Alaskans four times a year whether they have a positive or negative view of various political figures, including Peltola and Sullivan. Since Peltola became known statewide in 2022, Moore has found her “positives” to be consistently higher than Sullivan’s. Moore said it’s a simple measure that matters.

“It’s about who you like,” he said. “You generally tend not to vote for people that you don’t like.”

But likeability is not the whole story. Moore also found that 10% of people who said they didn’t like Sullivan also said they’d vote for him. That could be because they prefer Republicans or because they like Trump, and Sullivan aligns himself with the president.

How Alaskans feel about Trump, Moore said, is tied to how they feel about Sullivan.

“And so his numbers will rise and fall based on Trump’s fortunes,” he said.

Sullivan’s campaign spokesman, Nate Adams, said Team Sullivan remains confident of the senator’s re-election. Adams, who has access to internal polling that hasn’t been made public, doesn’t think much of the idea that the election is a referendum on Trump, or that Sullivan’s fate is linked to Trump’s popularity.

“I think Alaska is still very much a state that is a lot more complex than ‘red team and blue team,'” he said.

Amid the substantial national attention Peltola generated with her launch, Sullivan’s campaign has been highlighting prominent Alaskans endorsing the Republican incumbent.

“You know, Alaska Native leaders, trades, unions,” Adams said. “There are more of these forthcoming, but these are groups and coalitions that have traditionally backed Mary in her previous races, who, on Day 1 – if not before and certainly in the days after – have decided to support Sen. Sullivan.”

One thing everyone is certain of: National groups on both sides will raise and spend boatloads of money trying to win Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat.