The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has targeted Alaska for the 2025-2026 election cycle.
“Democrats must focus our attention and resources to strengthen our firewall in state legislatures and counterbalance the MAGA extremism of Donald Trump and the Republican Congress in Washington,” the DLCC announced this week.
“This is an extremely competitive map. Five of our battleground chambers were each decided in the last election cycle by a single seat, directly impacting the lives of 40 million Americans. Majorities in many states will likely come down to just a few districts and hundreds of votes. The DLCC’s efforts to bring attention and resources to this fight will make all the difference,” said the organization, which is the arm of the Democratic Party that focuses resources on winning state races.
Alaska appears in the top five, along with the Pennsylvania House, Virginia House, Minnesota’s House and Senate, Michigan’s House and Senate, and Wisconsin’s Assembly and Senate.
In Alaska’s House of Representatives, Republicans are in the minority because of defectors Rep. Louise Stutes and Rep. Chuck Kopp, who caucus with the Democrats to form a Democrat majority.
In the Senate, there are a majority of elected Republicans, but five Republicans flipped to join the Democrat-led caucus: Sen. Gary Steven, Sen. Bert Stedman, Sen. Kelly Merrick, Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, and Sen. Cathy Giessel. These turncoat Republicans will make it tricky for the DLCC, since attacking them may not work well in the slippery arena of ranked-choice voting.
These Senate seats will be on the ballot:
| District A, Bert Stedman, Republican caucuses with Democrats |
| District C, Gary Stevens, Republican caucuses with Democrats |
| District E, Cathy Giessel, Republican caucuses with Democrats |
| District G, Elvi Gray-Jackson, Democrat |
| District I, Loki Tobin, Democrat |
| District K, Bill Wielechowski, Democrat |
| District M, Shelley Hughes, Republican |
| District O, Mike Shower, Republican |
| District Q, Robert Myers, Republican |
| District S, Lyman Hoffman, Democrat |
In 2026, all House seats will be up for election. The current 21-member House majority consists of all 14 Democrats, all five so-called independents, and two turncoat Republicans. The 19-member minority caucus has 19 Republicans.
With Alaska being a national priority in 2026, money and staff assigned by the DLCC may also impact other races on the ballot — the governor’s race, which is an open race with Gov. Mike Dunleavy term-limited, and the Senate seat of incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican. The high-profile 2026 ballot will also likely have the second effort to repeal ranked-choice voting on it.
In addition, the DLCC has put a few other states on a “power building” list to expand their strongholds.
“Majorities are rarely won in a single cycle. These states represent our best opportunities to gain seats in tough chambers and check MAGA extremism, including by defending the veto power of Democratic governors,” the DLCC said.
The 2025-2026 power building states are:
- Arizona – The DLCC will target key districts in the Arizona House and Senate to put majorities in play before the end of the decade.
- Georgia – Over the past five cycles, Democrats chipped away at the GOP’s hold on the Georgia House, “putting us in our strongest position in two decades.”
- North Carolina – Democrats are currently protecting Democratic Gov. Stein’s veto power by a single seat, “and our work to defend our ground will continue this cycle.”
- New Hampshire – Democrats will have many opportunities to flip seats and gain ground in the nation’s largest legislative chamber. “This is our best opportunity to break the GOP trifecta before the end of the decade.”
The party has put the state of Maine on its “watch” list to determine if further action is necessary. “The DLCC helped defend Maine’s Democratic trifecta in 2024 by narrow margins, and we’re not taking a single seat for granted this cycle.”
Alaska is the cheapest state to campaign in. Our advertising rates are the lowest. That’s why they target us.
Alaska’s oil production declined every year since 1988 when the Trans Alaska Pipeline peaked at two million barrels of per day sadly in 2024 production was down to 464,784. The Policy of unlocking Alaska’s oil by getting away from red tape and unreasonable oil and gas Agency decisions. It is time to clean House and increase oil production as a priority to ensure national security and more money for all Alaskans.
That’s because Biden shut us down. And yes we need to clean House.
It’s because we have a small population and it will cost a lot less to buy our elections. It’s the cheapest way to get 2 Senators. Since USAID has been shutdown, their endless money pipeline from our pockets to theirs has stopped flowing. We need to not allow outsiders to influence our beloved state.
They want to drain the PFD of what it has in it and funnel the money to themselves.
Yeah right! After everything they have done to this State and Country, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!
Get ready for another flood of manure in the form of dark-money hit ads
Will the AK Republicans primary these milquetoast senators and representatives and replace them with conservatives with backbones, or will the continue to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Past performance is indicative of future results.
These Democrats have a rich hunting ground here in Alaska, what with all the RINOs that are thick on the ground.
Talk about targeting Alaska is easy.
Actually making a difference up here is not particularly easy.
The three aspects of campaigning in Alaska regarding electoral politics are pretty much the same as most other jurisdictions in America: Message, Messenger and Money.
Dan Sullivan isn’t going to lose. He’s an adequate messenger with a decent message that resonates with a majority of Alaskan voters and plenty of money.
Actually, money isn’t all that important in a minuscule media market like Alaska anyway.
The D’s May pour in a lot of money into Alaska during the next election cycle but won’t matter if they fail to come up with a weak message or promote via a flakey messenger.
The best thing the the Republican Party can do is find really good messengers who articulate a reasonable message and do so with adequate funding.
Time will tell if the R’s follow this winning route.
As long as we have the AK GOP, a Democrat takeover would be redundant.
Seems like running candidates as Independent or Unaffiliated is how they’ve seen their biggest gains here, add to that running candidates as Republicans when they are anything but and the Democrats have had an oversized share in our legislature for years.
Alaska is the last standing West Coast state. It’s been in the crosshairs for some time now and all it will take is a Democrat governor like Newsom or Insley to do us in.
Meanwhile the state Republican party will continue with disorganization, no focus of resources and massive flag waiving and balloon blowing while never once wondering why the dems win with half the registered voters and never wonder why their candidates performed WORSE than president Trump without his baggage. Any extra time they have will be spent on purity tests and Mexican firing squads.
What are you talking about Joe.?? Your wonderful city of Anchorage. ??