Even with a Republican governor, a Republican lieutenant governor, an all-GOP federal delegation, and nominal GOP majorities in both legislative chambers, Alaska has been labeled a “purple” state by the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC).
In a national legislative map published by the RSLC, Alaska appears alongside just three other battleground states: Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — states with divided or weakly held Republican legislatures. The designation stands in sharp contrast to Alaska’s apparent political profile on the surface, where Republican officeholders dominate the executive and congressional branches.
The RSLC’s analysis doesn’t hinge solely on who holds seats, but rather on how those seats function. In Alaska, a coalition of Democrats, independents, and moderate Republicans currently holds effective control of the State House, and the Republican-led Senate often parts ways with the governor on fiscal matters. In the House, there are 22 Republicans out of 40 members; in the Senate, it’s 11 out of 20, and yet the Democrats are running the show because some members, such as Sen. Gary Stevens of Kodiak and Sen. Jesse Bjorkman of Nikiski, do not ally with Republicans, but with Democrats.
Even as Gov. Mike Dunleavy called lawmakers to Juneau for a special session starting Aug. 2, tensions remain high over anticipated legislative efforts to override his recent partial education funding vetoes, a move that signals the limits of GOP influence in the Alaska Legislature.
The RSLC, which played a major role in defending and expanding Republican state legislative power in 2024, did not include Alaska on its priority list for investment or strategic targeting. Instead, it focused on battlegrounds where clear gains were achievable. That strategy proved fruitful: the organization reports it helped Republicans gain seats in deep-blue states like California, New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont, while flipping the Michigan House and breaking the Democrat trifecta in Minnesota.
By the end of the 2024 cycle, Republicans controlled 57 of the 99 state legislative chambers nationwide and gained three new supermajorities. Twenty-three states have a Republican trifecta — both houses of the legislature and the governor are Republican. Alaska is a trifecta state, but is the color purple, even though its GOP governor won outright without having to go into the ranked-choice voting roulette wheel.
Alaska’s unique ranked-choice voting system and open primaries may play a role in this classification. The electoral structure has frequently empowered leftist candidates, or Republicans who caucus or conspire with Democrats in the Legislature, weakening party cohesion and making GOP victories at the ballot box less meaningful once the Legislature gavels in.
Whether the RSLC has written off Alaska due to its internal political structure or simply sees its Legislature as too fractured to be strategically viable, the omission from the national Republican strategy map speaks volumes.
As lawmakers return to Juneau this week for the special session, their actions may once again reinforce the perception that, beneath the Republican-in-name banner, Alaska’s governing reality is no longer red.
C’mon Suzanne. Be honest: “…an all-GOP federal delegation….” I think Princess spells the lie to that statement. Otherwise, I think you’ve captured the nuts of what I’ve observed during the last few years. The population is conservative, but isn’t given a voice because the representatives, ‘don’t’ (represent us).
Truth!
Murky is a defacto democrat.
Sullivan is a RINO
NBIII is the only conservative we have in DC.
It’s because of illegals, minorities, migrants, immigrants and foreigners.
Purple is very generous.
Considering the best democrats in AK have an R behind their names,
well, duh.
2 party politics is a poison to a mass consciousness. We are one country, one people.
The only people who benefit from the divide are not the batteries of society, but the parasitic draw of the system called politicians.
I am not red, blue, or purple. I, like my brothers and sisters are various shades of wheat.
We need to run all the Looney leftist out of state. We don’t want those Looney Tunes, fascist, commie, Nazi, socialist destroying our state.
Alaska is the color purple because the our political party’s are nothing but two sides of the same coin. We also have a judiciary that unconstitutionally and regularly refuses to recognize the will of the people.
The Republican Party Candidates in Alaska are TOO INFILTRATED WITH LIARS. GIESSEL, MERRICK, STUTES, STEVENS from Kodiak, Kopp, Underwood (Deadwood), Moore, YUNDT, on, and on, and on. If all the LIARS where replaced with honest Republicans we would see better education for kids, full PFD Checks to infuse cash flow to families and small businesses. RCV would be NULLIFIED by so many people voting Republican. Instead all the above politician’s have Pledged Loyalty to the Union Uni Party. Liars should not be returned to office. NEVER.
In Alaska, a coalition of radical leftist extremists, spineless fence sitters, and Republicans-In-Name-Only (RINOs) currently holds effective control of the State House.
Fixed it for you
PS: I am having great problems trying to post on MRAK once again in the last few days, constantly getting that damnable “403 Forbidden” message almost every time I try to post; when I do manage to get a comment through, it is only after trying 6, 8 or 10 times. It is becoming exhausting to try posting comments under these conditions, and if they continue I will eventually stop even trying.
The reason isn’t that the democrats were elected the majority, it the fact that the new Republicans lack ethics, honor and loyalty.
I’d say they called it wrong. We are a leftist state run by the uni-party who is “elected” by our broken system.
Sounds like a movie, The Color Purple.
We have traitorous Lisa Murkowski. We have a left-wing majority legislature. We have a very liberal state supreme court. We have multiple newspapers with left-wing agenda, spewing untruths and wacko propoganda. And, we have a state full of government workers who vote Democrat.
Red is the predominant color in the classic purple mix; red comprising 60% and blue comprising 40%.
It’s a Murky color.
SAD that all these leftists moved here and destroyed us. But voters deserve blame also. Let alone of the hundreds of refugees that have been shipped here to mess with our census data. We have Hope with Trump opening us back up. No more rank choice crap and you have to be a citizen to vote.
Given that the Alaskan Republican Party cannot be bothered to publicly and loudly condemn their turncoats, why should the national party bother with us?
Never thought of Alaska as a “red” state. It’s always been a very centralized, oversized state, federal and local government run state in more of a corrupt dysfunctional manner, with a few idiosyncrasies as relatively less onerous infringements on firearm rights than a traditional Democrat state.
On federal level we have the same old Neo Con politicians who serve the defense contractors and are on board with endless wars and federal agency control of most of our State.