https://washingtonsun.com/alaska Alaska en-US Wed, 26 Aug 2026 14:26:14 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/campaigns/dan-sullivan-advances-alaska-senate-race-name Angie Orellana Hernandez Republicans have accused Dan J. Sullivan of attempting to confuse voters by entering the race for U.S. Senate. Wed, 26 Aug 2026 14:26:14 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/campaigns/dan-sullivan-advances-alaska-senate-race-name A retired teacher who happens to share the same name as Alaska’s incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan will advance to face him in November’s general election, the Associated Press projected Wednesday.

Dan J. Sullivan’s decision to run against a man with the same name has confounded Republicans in the state, who allege that he is engaging in subterfuge and intends to boost the chances of former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, who is also running for the seat.

Dan J. Sullivan, who is also running as a Republican, placed third in Alaska’s all-party primary, where the top four vote-getters continue on to the general election. He came in behind the Republican lawmaker of 11 years and Peltola, according to a Wednesday vote tabulation. Results were too close to call for the fourth candidate as of Wednesday morning.

Democrats have been vying to flip the seat by targeting Sen. Sullivan’s support for President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran. Sen. Sullivan and his allies, including Trump, attempted to boost his campaign by defending his record and accusing Peltola of setting up a fake candidate: Petersburg, Alaska, resident Dan J. Sullivan.

Peltola’s campaign has repeatedly denied being involved with Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign.

“Mary Peltola was in Petersburg days before Sham candidate Dan Sullivan announced his candidacy,” Sen. Sullivan wrote on Facebook in June. “Sham candidate Dan Sullivan had a left-wing political operative help him launch his campaign.”

Legal trouble arose for Dan J. Sullivan in the lead-up to Tuesday’s primary election. Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher initially deemed Dan J. Sullivan ineligible to run, saying in a letter that the Petersburg resident “filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

The Alaska Supreme Court overturned Beecher’s decision in June after Sullivan sued to remain on the ballot. He was listed on Tuesday’s ballot as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., while his rival was identified as Dan S. Sullivan.

A third Dan Sullivan — former Anchorage Mayor Dan A. Sullivan — weighed in with an endorsement for the incumbent lawmaker earlier this month. The obstacles have still not impeded the former teacher’s desire to win.

“My name is my name,” Dan J. Sullivan told the Alaska Beacon in June. “The ballot belongs to the people and not to the incumbent.”]]> https://washingtonsun.com/congress/nick-begich-alaska-legislation-bills Mark Alfred Nick Begich has shepherded more stand-alone bills to Trump’s desk than any other lawmaker this session. Wed, 19 Aug 2026 09:53:08 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/congress/nick-begich-alaska-legislation-bills The 119th Congress is on track to be one of the least productive in recent history, furthering the trend of fewer and fewer bills ever becoming law. Setting aside the renaming of buildings such as post offices, most House lawmakers have never introduced a bill that a president signed into law.

Rep. Nick Begich III, the freshman lawmaker representing Alaska, is bucking that trend.

Since he entered the House in January 2025, six of Begich’s bills have passed through Congress and earned President Donald Trump’s signature — outpacing every one of his congressional colleagues.

Begich in part attributes his legislative win streak to geography.

“We’ve received a lot of cooperation and recognition on both sides of the aisle that Alaska-specific issues really belong in the hands of the Alaskan that was sent to Congress to represent Alaska,” Begich told NOTUS in an interview.

The Begich name is synonymous with Alaskan politics: The congressman’s grandfather Nick Begich Sr. also served as the state’s at-large representative. His uncle Mark was a U.S. senator from Alaska, and his other uncle Tom is currently running for the state’s governorship. (Unlike the congressman, the other Begiches are Democrats.)

In 2024, Nick Begich III defeated then-Rep. Mary Peltola, the first Democrat to represent Alaska in the House in half a century. Begich placed first in Tuesday’s open primary, coming in about 15 points ahead of his next closest rival, independent Bill Hill. (Both will appear on the general election ballot.)

“In his first term, Nick Begich has proven to be an historically effective member of Congress,” Speaker Mike Johnson, who recently campaigned with Begich in Alaska, said in a statement to NOTUS. “Nick is a workhorse who has set an excellent example of how House Republicans are working to deliver for American families.”

Most of the bills Begich introduced that became law focus on specific issues affecting various Alaskan populations. They passed via voice vote or a near-unanimous roll-call vote before Trump signed them.

One excludes settlement trust payments made to Alaska Natives from counting against their eligibility for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments.

Another extends the window in which Alaska Native Vietnam veterans are able to claim federal land by five years, into 2030.

Yet another allows Cape Fox Corporation to claim its land settlement at a more suitable location within the Tongass National Forest.

Some of the bills had languished in committee for years. The Alaska Native Village Municipal Lands Restoration Act passed last year after decades of delay.

“That's a bill that had been brought up 11 times over 22 years, and we were able to move that bill out of the House for the first time,” Begich said of the long-stalled legislation. “Our objective was to use this political window that we have, this trifecta in government, to move this priority through, and we were able to finally do that through a lot of work by my team and a lot of work by myself and others.”

With the slim GOP majority, his perch on the House Natural Resources Committee and the backing of a president more than eager to “drill, baby, drill,” Begich has unwound Biden-era roadblocks to oil and gas production using a legislative tactic that will be immensely difficult for Democrats to counter even if they win back both chambers after November.

The Republican trifecta “really opened the aperture for Alaska, not just to develop these resources through the actions of an executive administration, but to lock in durably our ability to develop those resources on an ongoing basis, regardless of where the president is,” Begich said.
https://x.com/RepNickBegich/status/1999296590411104304?s=20 Late in his presidency, Joe Biden took a number of actions to disallow new oil and gas drilling in Alaska. One such rule shielded 21 regions of the 3.6 million acre Central Yukon region in Alaska’s interior from development. Another effectively barred new oil and gas leases in the 1.6 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's Coastal Plain, limiting activity in the refuge to 400,000 acres, the statutory minimum, most of which were subject to additional restrictions.

Begich introduced two Congressional Review Act resolutions undoing those protections. Neither was subject to the Senate filibuster, allowing Republicans to pass them with simple majorities in both chambers. The federal government is now disallowed from reinstating new restrictions that are substantially the same unless Congress passes them into law, a process that would be subject to the filibuster.

“We’ve been able to durably repeal a number of the regulatory structures that were imposed upon Alaska during the Biden administration,” Begich said.

Democrats warned of the environmental impacts of new drilling leases, and forced a recorded vote tally on both measures.

“This misguided bill would lock in oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area known to the Gwich’in people as the sacred place where life begins,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California), the ranking member on the Natural Resources Committee, said at the time of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge measure. “The 9,000-strong Gwich’in Nation, whose subsistence and culture depend on the caribou herd ... making any disruption not only a threat to biodiversity but also an assault on indigenous livelihoods and traditions.”

Begich said Democrats’ opposition stemmed from a deference to activists and donors.

“I don't go to Connecticut to try to shut their forestry down, but those same members vote against Alaska's ability to develop those same industries in our state, and it's a little duplicitous,” Begich said. “You have to look at the donor base and the activist base within the Democrat Party to really understand perhaps where those motivations come from.”

The Alaska delegation’s fingerprints are apparent on Republicans’ first reconciliation bill, which mandated new onshore and offshore oil and gas leasing and new coal mining leases. The state is set to reap “70% of federal royalties” from many of the new leases.

“Congressman Begich has been an incredibly effective partner in delivering results for Alaskans,” Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan told NOTUS. “What we do as a delegation matters — we need Alaska’s representatives in both chambers rowing in the same direction, and Nick works overtime to get practical Alaska priorities across the goal line in the House.”

One area where Begich isn’t meeting resistance to his energy policies is from once-and-future political rivals like Peltola, who has mounted a formidable challenge to Sullivan. Online, her campaign proudly touts her support for oil and gas projects over the objections of other Democrats: “Mary has always been a champion for Alaska energy, consistently standing up to anyone — including Joe Biden — to promote oil and gas development.”

Begich’s independent opponent Hill vows to “go to bat for getting the most out of our oil and natural gas.” Hill is endorsed by Democrat Matt Schultz, who suspended his campaign in July. The independent won't explicitly say which party he’d caucus with.

“Congressman Nick Begich hit the ground running in Congress and is already delivering commonsense wins for Alaska and the American people,” NRCC spokesperson Zach Bannon told NOTUS. “From unleashing energy and expanding access to housing to standing up for Alaska Natives, Begich has proven he’ll always put Alaska first. He’s delivering results, and he’s just getting started.”

The Alaska Democrats did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

“Nick Begich isn’t delivering for his constituents — he’s making hardworking Alaskans pay the price while he profits.” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Anna Elsasser told NOTUS. His “short legislative record consists of rubber-stamping a Washington agenda that’s making life brutally more expensive for Alaskans: crushing fishing, tourism, and small businesses with tariffs, gutting Medicaid, sending health care costs even higher, ripping away food assistance, and backing a costly war that’s pushed gas above $10 a gallon in rural Alaska.”

Before he was first elected, Begich decried the abrasive politics that have defined much of the Trump era.

“The political environment has gotten so caustic that we’re forgetting that we’re all in the same boat together,” he told KCAW in August 2024. “But what is different about yesterday versus today is that while we did disagree, we were able to go out afterward and have dinner together, have a drink together, and respect one another.”

Three days after taking public office, Begich dispensed with that sentiment.

“Joe Biden is a son of a bitch,” he said online after the outgoing president announced a ban on offshore drilling around Alaska and much of the United States’ coastline. The “Democrat machine is more than happy to sacrifice us all in the name of their sanctimonious, socialist-driven, climate science™ religion.”

Begich doesn’t buy into climate science writ large, although he acknowledges the state has gotten warmer.

“Things have been good; it's been probably in the 60s and low 70s, which is just at the peak of heat for us,” Begich said of the weather while on recess from Congress. “It was actually the first-ever heat advisory in Anchorage. It hit like 70-something degrees, and they decided it was too hot for people.”

The state is also “the world’s HOTTEST oil exploration target,” Begich wrote online, borrowing a turn of phrase from the president he’s closely aligned himself with.
TrumpMap (1536x1023, AR: 1.50)Begich’s votes have kept him in Trump’s good graces. Unlike his Senate counterparts, he steered clear of the outcry that followed the president’s renaming of Denali and, as a member of the lower chamber, has not had to involve himself in the bitter fight over the filibuster and SAVE America Act that has led Trump to rail against Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

“I’m against Murkowski … she’s not good," Trump said recently, a sharp contrast to his repeated praise of Begich, having called him a "warrior,” at multiple gatherings.

“Nick. Thank you, Nick. Good job. Good job. Good, good votes,” Trump said during a cryptocurrency event last year. “I just saw a great poll on you, huh? Very good. Congratulations, Nick.”

This article has been updated to include additional comments and legislative details.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/2026-election/senator-dan-sullivan-alaska-ballot-republican-challenger Torrie Herrington The newcomer with the same name as the sitting senator was trying to confuse or mislead voters, the election director ruled. Mon, 15 Jun 2026 22:04:16 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/2026-election/senator-dan-sullivan-alaska-ballot-republican-challenger Alaska’s top election official ruled Monday that only one Dan Sullivan will appear on the state’s Senate ballot after Republicans insisted a second Dan Sullivan was only running to undermine the incumbent, Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Division of Elections director Carol Beecher said in a letter to Dan J. Sullivan, the challenger, that his candidacy “was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

Sen. Sullivan’s campaign celebrated the decision as a win for Alaskans.

“Every Alaskan has the right to a free and fair election, free from deception and gamesmanship,” Billy Mackey, Sen. Sullivan’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “We thank Lieutenant Governor Dahlstrom for upholding that right and for ensuring Alaskans can choose their next senator without a sham candidate whose primary purpose was to confuse Alaskan voters, treat Alaskans with contempt, and rig the election for Peltola.”

In Alaska, candidates of all parties compete in an open primary with the top four vote-getters earning a spot in the general election, which is decided by a ranked-choice system. 

Sen. Sullivan and other Republicans have accused Dan J. Sullivan of being part of a Democratic scheme to confuse voters, even blaming his candidacy on a ruse by Democratic challenger Mary Peltola.

“Mary Peltola was in Petersburg days before Sham candidate Dan Sullivan announced his candidacy. Sham candidate Dan Sullivan had a left-wing political operative help him launch his campaign,” Sen. Sullivan wrote on Facebook last week. “He is nothing but a fake candidate propped up by Mary Peltola and her far left lower 48 cronies to confuse Alaskans and steal this election. Not a coincidence.”

Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, filed to run as a Republican for the Senate seat last month — just days before the deadline. He has 30 days to appeal the decision, though ballots in Alaska are scheduled to be printed on June 28.

Peltola's campaign has repeatedly denied being involved with Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign. Her campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday from NOTUS.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee challenged Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy earlier this month.

Dan J. Sullivan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NOTUS. However, he did write a letter on June 3 in response to the NRSC challenge.

“I wish to give the people of Alaska an alternative choice of representation in the U.S. Senate. Your office may not lawfully deny me the chance to run or Alaska voters the opportunity to vote for me,” Dan J. Sullivan wrote to the elections office.]]>