The records at the Alaska Public Offices Commission and the Federal Election Commission show that congressional candidate Nancy Dahlstrom, a Republican, made a campaign donation to then-president of the Alaska AFL-CIO Vince Beltrami, when he was challenging a Republican for Alaska Senate.
Beltrami, now retired as a Big Labor leader, had vigorously opposed nearly every Republican who ever filed for office in Alaska, and even opposed Sen. Cathy Giessel when he ran against her, before the two became solid political allies.
The Beltrami donation occurred in 2016. It came three years after another donation Dahlstrom made to an Anchorage Democrat, when she cut a check to then-Sen. Johnny Ellis.
In 2012, Dahlstrom made 30 contributions to the presidential race of Mitt Romney, who is considered by many conservatives to be Utah’s version of Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Romney is the only presidential candidate that Dahlstrom has ever supported. Her Republican opponent Nick Begich has donated $1,500 to the Trump campaign.
Dahlstrom doesn’t have a long record of political donations, and most of the candidates she has supported have been Republican — with some interesting exceptions, including Big Labor leader Don Etheridge.
At the same time, Dahlstrom has enjoyed tremendous support from Big Labor during her various campaigns for elected office.
Thirty percent of Dahlstrom’s support for her House campaign in 2018 came from Big Labor groups. A handful of them are shown here:
