Hughes, Bishop, Begich Rank Top 3 Candidates for Governor with Highest In-State Patronage

It is hardly a secret that money plays a role in shaping a public official’s loyalties, which makes Alaskans wary of candidates who rely on out-of-state funding. How are the gubernatorial candidates stacking up in terms of Alaskan vs. out-of-state patronage?

This analysis reveals Shelley Hughes (Republican) ranks #1 for highest ratio of Alaskan dollars and Alaskan donors compared to out-of-state dollars and donors. Click Bishop (Republican) ranks #2 with less than half of Hughes’ ratio of dollars, but very close to Hughes in number of donors. Tom Begich (Democrat) ranks #3 with approximately half of Bishop’s ratio of dollars, and about one-third Bishop’s ratio of donors.

Treg Taylor and Dave Bronson ranked in the middle of the list with 4-5x more Alaskan patronage than out-of-state though varying greatly between dollars and donors. Taylor raised 5x Alaskan dollars than out-of-state dollars but with a ratio of 2 Alaskan donors to every 1 out-of-state donor. In contrast, Bronson raised only 2x Alaskan dollars than out-of-state dollars but with a ratio of 4 individual Alaskan donors to every 1 out-of-state donor.

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Matt Heilala and Adam Crum raised approximately equal parts in-state and out-of-state dollars with Heilala reporting twice as many Alaskan donors as out-of-state donors. Bernadette Wilson is the only candidate in this analysis to report more out-of-state donors than in-state donors with a ratio of 1 Alaskan to every 2 out-of-state donors. However, in terms of dollars, the analysis shows her receiving $2 in-state to every $1 out-of-state.

Alaskan Dollars Per $1 Out-of-State

1. Shelley Hughes — 64 : 1
2. Click Bishop — 25 : 1
3. Tom Begich — 12 : 1
4. Treg Taylor — 5 : 1
5. Dave Bronson — 2 : 1
6. Bernadette Wilson — 2 : 1
7. Matt Heilala — 1 : 1
8. Adam Crum — 1 : 1

Number of Alaskan Donors to 1 Out-of-State Donor

1. Shelley Hughes — 27 : 1
2. Click Bishop — 23 : 1
3. Tom Begich — 7 : 1
4. Dave Bronson — 4 : 1
5. Matt Heilala — 2 : 1
6. Treg Taylor — 2 : 1
7. Adam Crum — 1 : 1
8. Bernadette Wilson — 1 : 2

Methodology and Math

This analysis was done using recently published campaign funding analysis by Will Koeppen. The analysis looks at candidates that raised over $20,000 by the first filing deadline, February 1, 2026.

Koeppen used raw financial disclosure data downloaded from the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC). Candidate income records were processed to separate donations from individuals, groups, and self-funding and standardize addresses. A combination of automated and manual multi-field, evidence-based matching (first name, last name, address, employer, occupation) was applied to determine individual donors. According to Koeppen, “The process was conservative but may not be perfect. For example, a donor with a common first and last name who listed a street address for one donation and a P.O. Box for another could not be confidently identified as being from a single person. Sometimes employer or occupation fields could help make that determination; however, approximately 40% of records listed “retired” as the occupation of the contributor.”

Here is the data extracted from Koeppen’s analysis:

These numbers were then used to calculated percentages and ratios.