ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The two major candidates in Alaska's competitive U.S. Senate race are set to debate before a statewide audience Thursday, just days after President Donald Trump visited the state to help rally support for two-term Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.
Sullivan's main challenger in the Nov. 3 election is Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman. The debate isn't the first between the candidates but will perhaps be the highest-profile.
Visits by Trump Tuesday to conservative Wasilla and by Vice President JD Vance the week before to Fairbanks — the hometown of Sullivan's wife — underscore the stakes involved as both parties seek control of the chamber. Alaska last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 2008.
The race also includes two Republicans who have done virtually no campaigning, including another Dan Sullivan. To participate in Thursday's debate, candidates had to win at least 5% of the vote in August's open primary.
Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher who dominated attention ahead of the primary and was called a sham candidate by the senator and his allies, including Trump, finished third with about 2.5% of the vote. Dan J. Sullivan said he received no invitations to any candidate forums.
The incumbent, whom Trump repeatedly called the “real Dan Sullivan,” said the energy and enthusiasm generated by the rallies can be important in turning out his voters.
Sullivan finished second to Peltola in the August primary, in which the top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advanced to the ranked vote general election. Sullivan, a retired Marine, said the race comes down to record, vision and character.
He said Peltola was ineffective during her time in Congress. But in an interview Wednesday, Peltola said she worked well with Sullivan as part of Alaska’s three-member congressional delegation and said he was engaging in “kind of revisionist history.”
“Our delegation worked so well together the two years that I was there,” she said, citing as accomplishments the approval of the major Willow oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Peltola won special and regular elections for the state’s only House seat in 2022 before losing reelection in 2024.
Sullivan also has sought to align Peltola with “Lower 48 liberals” who oppose expanded oil and gas development. Oil is a crucial part of Alaska's economy, and Sullivan has said Peltola would “empower” Democrats seeking to roll back lands available for leasing.
Peltola called that claim a diversion from issues such as the war in Iran and high fuel and other costs. Peltola has said she is not beholden to party interests and would work with Trump to advance more oil and gas projects.
“We can’t afford this war in Iran and talking about nonsense things, fake things, fear tactics, fear-mongering — that doesn’t solve our problems,” she said. “We need to be cooperating and working together and finding solutions to our actual problems.”
