Government

A large gravel lot in the heart of downtown Juneau’s tourism corridor has sat empty for years. But that might soon change. 

On Tuesday, the city’s planning commission will consider whether to approve a conditional use permit for the construction of a two-story retail and entertainment building called “Alaska Fly & Dive.”

According to the permit application, the project will bring tourists coming off cruise ships into an immersive theater experience of Alaska’s natural wonders, like local glaciers and underwater adventures. The development would include three large interactive theaters/rides, a retail store and some office space. 

The project, estimated to cost at least $60 million with hopes of opening in 2027, would turn into a civic and educational venue in the tourism off-season. 

“I know it’s private property. They should be allowed to develop as they do, but I just don’t know that it will benefit Juneau, as I know it, or the Juneau that is here after the tourists leave,” former Juneau Assembly member Loren Jones said in an interview.  

Back in 2019, the Juneau Assembly negotiated a land swap with property owner Archipelago Properties LLC, a subsidiary of Morris Communications based in Georgia and the former owner of the Juneau Empire newspaper. The negotiation was so that the city could develop bus staging and additional pedestrian space along the seawalk. Plans for Morris Communications to develop something on their property have been discussed for at least close to a decade. 

Jones voted against the land trade deal. He was skeptical about how any development there would benefit the community as a whole. 

At the time of the deal, a representative for the property said they wanted to develop the lot into retail shops and restaurants starting in 2020. That never happened. 

Instead, the nearly 1-acre property adjacent to the downtown library and parking garage — along South Franklin Street and under the watchful eyes of the Elizabeth Peratrovich mural — has remained largely empty. That’s despite the property’s extreme proximity to where 1.7 million cruise ship tourists walk off ships and into downtown Juneau each summer.

Jones said he’s not totally against the current “Alaska Fly & Dive” project — but needs more convincing that it will actually benefit Juneau.

“I don’t see anything in there that tells me that somebody in the middle of winter is going to leave their home in the valley and go,” he said. “I can’t imagine any of us going down in the middle of winter to take a simulated boat ride or a simulated submarine ride.”

Still, the new project has received letters of support from the Juneau Economic Development Council, Travel Juneau, the Downtown Business Association and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. According to its application with the city, the development is in collaboration with Melvern Entertainment, a company that develops theater attractions for Disney, Universal Studios and Six Flags.

The proposed theaters include a 60-person 4D theater, a 72-person flying theater, and three 20-person ocean simulator theaters. The flying theater and ocean simulator theater would also be rides, taking guests via immersive films to see local glaciers and landscapes, and on underwater adventures.

Liz Perry with Travel Juneau said in an interview that she’s excited to see the empty lot turn into something new. 

“This would be a terrific year-round addition to our offerings for both visitors and residents — it will create something that hasn’t been in that lot,” she said. 

And before you ask – no, they’re not planning to build any housing there. At least not in this application. Alix Pierce is Juneau’s Visitor Industry Director. In an interview, she said she thinks the project could help with managing the number of tourists that come into town each day in the summer. 

“I think having something downtown on the waterfront that’s indoors and helps manage congestion by pulling people into an activity, is a positive thing,” she said. 

The applicant for the permit is Reuben Willis, a local insurance Agent for State Farm. He declined an interview with KTOO to speak about the project before the meeting on Tuesday. In the application, it states that he signed a sales agreement for the lot, which is in a “due diligence period.” Morris Communications has also not responded to multiple requests for comment. 

The Juneau planning commission will decide whether to approve a conditional use permit for the project’s construction, along with two other variance requests related to the project, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at City Hall. 

A state legislator’s former chief of staff faces charges of child sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking. Federal agents arrested Craig Scott Valdez, 36, early Friday in Juneau, according to court documents.

Valdez is an Anchorage resident listed as having served as Republican Wasilla state Sen. George Rauscher’s chief of staff since November. Valdez was terminated Friday hours after the charges were made public, according to a press secretary for the state Senate minority caucus, of which Rauscher is a member.

Valdez was also elected as chair of the Anchorage Young Republicans in January 2025 and became the group’s state committee chair last month, according to social media posts.

A grand jury on Tuesday indicted Valdez on charges of sex trafficking a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor – for both allegedly producing and receiving child sexual abuse material – and coercion and enticement of a minor. The alleged crimes occurred in October 2025, according to the indictment.

Court documents detail a specific instance in which Valdez allegedly lured a 15-year-old girl to his Anchorage home. But prosecutors also wrote that the FBI has identified at least 11 other potential victims, and federal authorities are asking the public for help as their investigation continues.

In a court filing supporting Valdez’s detention in jail, federal prosecutors laid out what they say happened in October:

Valdez had met the 15-year-old girl on Snapchat, picked her up at her home and drove her to his house, “for the purpose of sexually exploiting the child to celebrate his birthday,” the detention memorandum says.

The girl’s sibling alerted her mother, who used a family tracking application to track her daughter to Valdez’s home in south Anchorage. The mother called Anchorage police after arriving at Valdez’s home and waited outside, where she heard her daughter inside the house say something about wanting to leave.

“(The girl’s) mother then entered the residence, struck Valdez once in the face and recovered the child, who exhibited signs of extreme drug or alcohol intoxication and had difficulty walking and maintaining consciousness,” the memo says. “(Police) responded a short time later, at which point Valdez, puzzlingly, chose to flee from his own residence.”

While the girl had left her own phone at Valdez’s residence, the mother was able to copy messages from a separate linked device showing Valdez had used Snapchat to entice the girl to come to his home for sexual purposes.

The girl later told investigators that other children had introduced her to Valdez when she was 13 or 14 years old.

Law enforcement officials do not think the October incident was the first time Valdez exploited the girl, nor do they think she was his only victim.

Federal prosecutors wrote in a news release Friday that investigators are looking for more information, including other victims. They say he went by the usernames “NONAME20233132” or “DOCHANK” and ask that anyone with further information on Valdez call the FBI Anchorage Field Office at 907-276-4441 or deliver tips anonymously to tips.fbi.gov.

A request for comment Friday morning to Rauscher’s office was referred to the state Senate minority caucus’s press secretary, who said she did not have any information to release beyond what was publicly available in the court documents. The press secretary, Cassandra Day, texted later to say that Valdez had been fired.

The next hearing in the case is set for Monday.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Valdez was fired from his position as state Sen. George Rauscher’s chief of staff Friday afternoon.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the group Valdez was elected chair of in 2025. He was elected chair of the Anchorage Young Republicans, not the Alaska Young Republicans.

The Alaska Department of Corrections spent over $24 million more than the budget approved by the Legislature last year, with a large portion for staff overtime, raising alarm from lawmakers.

DOC officials submitted their additional budget request to the Legislature earlier this month, part of a routine budget process to account for state spending over the past year — but this year’s price tag for the state’s prison system is at a historic high.

The department requested an additional $20 million for staffing and overtime for last year at the state’s 13 prison and jail facilities.

According to department data provided to the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, there were 15 correctional staff that earned over $100,000 each in overtime pay last year, on top of salary and benefits.

Two correctional officers at the Anchorage Correctional Complex worked over 2,000 hours in overtime last year — one officer topped the list working 2,770 hours of overtime, to earn a total of over $225,000 last year.

DOC officials did not respond to questions about the department’s policies around overtime and mandatory overtime on Thursday, but a spokesperson said the department’s current vacancy rate is 11.5% statewide. In budget documents, DOC officials noted the additional funding was needed for minimal staffing requirements for “24/7 operational readiness.”

Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka and co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said while the rising costs in DOC are well-known, going millions over budget is a problem as lawmakers grapple with declining state oil revenues and a growing list of state funding needs this year.

“Their budget has been growing exponentially,” he said Thursday. “It’s not fair, because those funds that are being channeled in that direction could go elsewhere.”

DOC’s budget has seen increases year-over-year throughout Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s term, unlike other agencies who have sustained cutbacks. Since 2019, the state budget for DOC has increased 46% to over $437 million last year, according to state data.

The $24 million in additional funds the agency requested also included $1.1 million for community residential treatment centers, or halfway houses, and $2.95 million in health care costs last year.

Sen. Mike Cronk, R-Tok, also serves on the Senate Finance Committee and expressed surprise and concern at the overtime hours presented to the committee on Thursday.

“That’s literally 100 hours a week. All year long,” he said, and questioned if people were running up overtime for a short time in order to retire or leave the department. “So it’s very concerning. You know, obviously I don’t blame anybody for it, but we have to figure out why this is happening, and we just have to do better. We have to be more efficient and make sure that we’re doing everything we possibly can to keep costs down.”

Stedman questioned the state’s contracts with the union representing correctional officers, the Alaska Correctional Officers Association, in accounting for the extensive overtime.

“My concern is maybe they ought to haggle a little bit better when they do their labor agreements, because this is definitely not appropriate for the public treasury to put up with, and it’s got to get corrected,” he said.

Representatives with the union did not immediately respond to emailed questions about lawmakers’ concerns on Thursday.

Last year, over 9,800 people entered DOC custody in institutions or on supervised release on probation or parole, according to state data.

Lawmakers held a series of hearings with officials from Mt. Edgecumbe High School, the largest state-run boarding school in Alaska, following a tumultuous year of budget and staff cuts, administration changes and a wave of student disenrollments.

Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, opened his remarks at a Feb. 12 Senate Finance Committee hearing saying lawmakers need to air the school’s “dirty laundry” so they can help fix the school’s finances and make needed repairs.

“The goal here is to improve Mt. Edgecumbe High School, and we can’t do that without accurate information,” he said.

Stedman was among a delegation of legislators that made an impromptu visit to the school on Feb. 6, after the news of a mass student disenrollment after this winter break. Lawmakers reported they found leaking roofs, classrooms and buildings in disrepair, rodents, and outdated dormitories. They also met with students to hear about their concerns.

After the visit, Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, reported at a Senate news conference the conditions of the facilities were “deplorable.”

Hoffman, who also serves as the finance co–chair, did not mince words to school officials at the hearing. “I could say that if I were a parent, I wouldn’t let my child go to school there,” he said. “The condition of that school speaks for itself. ”

Mt. Edgecumbe High School is based in Sitka, which typically enrolls around 400 students, the majority of whom are Alaska Native from rural communities without local high schools. As of February, enrollment dropped to 311 students, officials said.

Superintendent David Langford, newly hired in July, told lawmakers that administrators were concerned that roughly 25% of students had disenrolled, but said they could not identify a common reason to explain why.

“So far, all the data of all the 100 students that have left this year, we can’t find any trends,” he said. “Like we didn’t have any majority of the students saying ‘it was the food’ or ‘it was the dorm,’ or was this or the other thing. But all those were issues that we’re working to rectify.”

Lawmakers put questions to Deena Bishop, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, which administers the school, along with the governor-appointed Alaska State Board of Education.

To explain recent events at the school, Bishop painted a picture for lawmakers of a “right-sizing” effort led by DEED after COVID pandemic relief funding ran out in 2024. She said Mt. Edgecumbe had a $1.6 million budget shortfall that forced a series of cost-cutting measures throughout 2025. The state sold off a parcel of land on the campus property for $900,000 to help fill that gap.

But Bishop said last year, the DEED and the administration cut four teachers, one administrator and two support staff positions. They also made cuts to student activities, travel and maintenance funding — plus a change in the superintendent and contractors running the student dorms and food service this year.

Langford testified that when he arrived in August, he wasn’t sure the school would open. But DEED and administrators made a series of emergency repairs and deep cleaned the kitchen facilities and dorms, replacing years-old mattresses, dorm furniture and upgrading the kitchen including all cookware.

Legislators asked how school facilities had been left to deteriorate so badly, who was responsible for advocating for the school repairs, and how officials planned to make improvements.

Hoffman said it was obvious from legislators’ visit that there is more work to do.

“It seems every time we go down the path, there are more and more and more issues that aren’t being addressed,” Hoffman said. “I’m glad we’re addressing the immediate needs, but there’s long term needs that need to be addressed that aren’t being addressed by the Department of Education.”

Bishop acknowledged that the effort is ongoing. “So in right-sizing the ship, it’s moving forward. I absolutely agree with you. Is Mount Edgecumbe where we want it to be? Absolutely not. I believe, with the leadership that is there and support for this school, that we can get there.”

Hoffman pointed out the school lost Americorps support staff after the Trump administration gutted the program last year. Mt. Edgecumbe lost three staff who served in major support roles for students for after-school activities and outings into town.

“The primary role of these people was to do nothing but be with students in the evening,” said Langford. He added that he tried to hire staff back this year, but it was too late. “So in terms of students going home, I would point to that as one of the biggest impacts that could have been prevented.”

In a state Board of Education meeting in December, parents, alumni and current and former staff from Mt. Edgecumbe testified that because of changes in the dorms, loss of staff and teachers and reduced activities, students’ quality of life suffered, and morale plummeted last fall. A local healthcare provider testified to members of the board that in the previous month, eight students were hospitalized for suicidal ideation — an unprecedented number, she said.

Ilana Kalke, a junior, was one of two Mt. Edgecumbe students that testified to lawmakers last week. She said there is a disconnect between the new contractor running the dorms, the NANA Corporation, and staff and students.

“It seems like they have trouble communicating, which impacts us, this leads to inconsistent application of rules,” Kalke said. “There’s been trouble communicating, getting rides, and just like less collaboration, which affects rec activities.”

Kadyn Cross, a sophomore, testified in support of the school and told lawmakers that supporting the school supports students like him, who are coming from small villages like his community of Koyuk, on the coast of Norton Sound.

“MEHS is already producing future educators, leaders and contributors to Alaska’s communities. But we can’t do that without stable funding for staff, updated facilities, student activities, and real maintenance, especially maintenance, which is stretched thin right now,” he said. “I’m not here with data charts. I’m here as one student who moved from a small village to a school that changed my trajectory fast. And I’m one of hundreds. MEHS isn’t just a school, it’s a place that grows people who go back to their communities and strengthen them.”

Lawmakers slam Gov. Dunleavy for years of vetoing funds for repairs

Lawmakers criticized Gov. Mike Dunleavy for vetoing funding for Mt. Edgecumbe year after year — most recently last year vetoing $2.7 million for a new roof and windows on the girls’ dorm.

Since the start of Dunleavy’s term in 2019, the governor has vetoed funding allocated for Mt. Edgecumbe, including maintenance of the aquatic center and student services. He vetoed funds to replace the dorm windows for three years in a row. Over six years his vetoes totaled over $22.4 million, according to state data.

Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage and chair of the Senate Finance Committee, expressed her frustration at a Senate news conference last week, reading out a list of the vetoes. “We continue to advocate for school repairs and to address school infrastructure across the state,” she added. “And it seems that we do not have a governor who wishes to lead. It is incredibly frustrating.”

A spokesperson for the governor’s office responded to questions about lawmakers’ criticisms by email on Tuesday, noting the governor had approved $15.3 million for repairs and maintenance for Mt. Edgecumbe since 2019, including for bathroom and kitchen upgrades, asbestos and lead abatement and some funding toward replacing dorm roofs.

“The challenges Mt. Edgecumbe is currently addressing stem from years of low prioritization of needs. With the new leadership of Superintendent David Langford, under Commissioner Deena Bishop, emphasis has been placed on realigning the budget to remedy maintenance issues,” said Jeff Turner, Dunleavy’s director of communications.

Turner said that even with the governor’s vetoes, Mt. Edgecumbe maintenance and repairs are underway.

“Without the vetoed funding, Mt. Edgecumbe has reprioritized and has updated culinary equipment, furniture, and scheduled three buildings to be re-rooved this summer — with more to come. Budget management has now been placed at the forefront, allowing existing funding to begin remedying what was thought to be unattainable without further allocation,” he said. “This is a textbook example of results obtainable when accountability is highlighted.”

Legislative action for Mt. Edgecumbe repairs

On Wednesday, the Senate passed a new bill, Senate Bill 146, that would add Mt. Edgecumbe to the state’s school major maintenance list to be eligible for state grants for construction and maintenance projects. Currently Mt. Edgecumbe is maintained using funds through the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Services, as a state-run facility.

The bill would also do away with the $70 million cap on the Regional Education Attendance Area school fund — for schools that rely solely on state funding as they’re located in rural areas without municipal funding — and allow those funds to be used for Mt. Edgecumbe projects, including teacher housing.

A similar bill was passed last year, but Dunleavy vetoed it. Senators said they are hopeful there will be more support this year, and the bill now advances to the House.

“I’m hoping that there’ll be broad support in the legislature like there was last year, and we’ll put it back on the governor’s desk, and hopefully the governor will reconsider,” Stedman said.

Moving forward, Stedman said the Finance Committee is gathering information on critical repairs and maintenance needed, projects in progress and items to be added into next year’s budget, including funds immediately available to replace items like washing machines and mattresses.

“We’ll be monitoring it,” Stedman said Tuesday. “There’s a good percentage of the (Capitol) building here that got its attention, because it’s embarrassing for everybody.”

Lawmakers questioned Langford, the superintendent, last week on his role currently running two school districts this year — both the Mt. Edgecumbe high school and the Chatham School District, which serves approximately 175 students across rural schools in Angoon, Gustavus, Tenakee Springs and Klukwan.

Langford and Bishop testified that a former Wasilla Republican Senator, Mike Shower, approached Langford to run both districts. Langford said he considered only with the permission of the Chatham School board, and then accepted both roles.

Bishop said at first she was skeptical of the arrangement, but changed her mind. “I initially said, ‘Yeah, no, thanks. This is, we’ve got big, big issues to solve.’ Then they started talking to me, and I said I would not go and poach someone else’s superintendent.”

She said she was convinced by Langford’s experience in education consulting, and his history with Mt. Edgecumbe, starting as a teacher in 1985. She said he has valuable leadership experience as a superintendent and running district finances.

Langford said the board of the Chatham School District is conducting quarterly reviews of his performance, and the State Board of Education conducts annual reviews on his tenure at Mt. Edgecumbe. He said while there are disadvantages of not being on the ground in the Chatham School District, he has access to DEED officials to the benefit of both districts.

He said so far, the arrangement is going well. “I think it’s very exciting to work with you and all the staff at Mount Edgecumbe,” he told lawmakers. “To try to remake Mt. Edgecumbe and bring it back to the greatness that I think it once was.”

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, in his annual address to the Alaska Legislature, slammed national Democrats as bent on ruining Alaska.

“Now, I’m not being partisan here. These are just the facts,” he said at one point during his speech Wednesday. “And Alaskans should know who wants to help us and who wants to hurt us.”

As in past years, he blamed the Biden administration for trying to shut down Alaska. But under President Trump, he said, Alaska is in the midst of a comeback, with renewed emphasis on military expansion, resource development, Coast Guard icebreakers and a new rural health care fund.

“Our state will receive from this fund approximately $1.4 billion over the next five years to transform our health care system,” Sullivan said, to resounding applause in the state House chamber.

As he describes it, though, Democrats are still targeting Alaska. Sullivan referred to the U.S. Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, at least nine times.

Sullivan spoke for about 50 minutes and took questions from half a dozen legislators and then from reporters at the Capitol.

He doesn’t often take challenging questions in large public forums, so his yearly address to the Legislature is closely watched, especially now that he’s running for reelection, aiming to serve his third six-year term.

Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, who chairs the health committee, challenged Sullivan on the $1.4 billion achievement. She said she’s discovered that Alaska isn’t allowed to use the health care fund to help self-employed people cope with rising premiums, on clinic expansions or to build housing for health care workers, among other priorities.

“You helped shape the Rural Health Transformation Program Funds. Why are these funds so difficult for us to use to address Alaska’s core issues?” she asked Sullivan. “And how will this finite fund help address the thousands of Alaskans who will lose their health insurance?”

She cited a new analysis finding that up to 12,000 Alaskans risk losing their Medicaid insurance coverage because of another provision in the same bill.

Sullivan said wasn’t aware of the report or of all the restrictions on how Alaska can spend its share of the health care fund.

“This is not going to be a panacea that solves everything,” he said, though he also said that the government might be able to remove some of the limits.

Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, contrasted Sullivan’s negative take on Biden with his positive stance on Trump and asked how far his loyalty goes.

“You’ve said yes to Trump many times. I’m wondering if you’re willing to say no,” Dunbar said. “For example, if we saw a deployment of federal forces to Alaska, like we’ve seen it seen in Minnesota, or if the federal government demands we purge our voter rolls, will you say no to Trump?”

Sullivan seemed irritated at Dunbar.

“I think you were the guy who asked me last year about Medicaid,” Sullivan recounted, and he began his answer there.

“You know who cut Medicaid for Alaska? Chuck Schumer, right? That’s a fact,” Sullivan said. “So I wish that you and others could have gone to Schumer and said, ‘Hey, why are you cutting Medicaid for Alaska?'”

Schumer didn’t cut Medicaid funding for Alaska, but Sullivan had tried to get an increase in the Medicaid payment rate for the state. Opposition was bipartisan.

As for Dunbar’s current question, Sullivan said he goes after Trump administration officials when they deserve it, sometimes publicly.

“You want to put out a tweet smashing them on certain issues or criticizing them? Sometimes that works,” Sullivan responded. “But sometimes, if you want results, that’s not always the best way to get results.”

Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, said the speech was “par for the course” for Sullivan. Still, she said, the tone was jarring in the House chamber.

“His hyper-partisanship really showed in the speech today, and it does present a sharp departure from Alaska’s bipartisan coalition governance and the spirit of Alaskans to not affiliate with parties as often as not,” she said.

She found it “surprising” that Sullivan suggested Alaska legislators lean on Schumer.

“We don’t really have that authority to, you know, make demands of those that are not our senators,” she said. “And the insinuation that it’s only Democrats in the United States Senate that are holding back progress is a mischaracterization of some of the biggest and most challenging problems that we have.”

It takes bipartisan solutions to solve the complex disputes facing the country, she said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski is scheduled to address the Legislature late next month.

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.