Alaska election could affect which party controls U.S. House

Seattle has more power in the U.S. House of Representatives than the state of Alaska.

And yet, ahead of this year’s congressional elections, there’s as much at stake with Alaska’s race than all four of the House seats in Seattle’s King County combined.

The vast majority of the 435 seats in the House are firmly Democratic or firmly Republican. Alaska is among a dwindling number of exceptions that could go in any direction.

More than that, it’s one of just five places in the country that voted for Donald Trump as president in 2020 yet elected a Democrat to the House in 2022.

The House is almost equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, and in a series of interviews and speeches throughout this year, current and former candidates for Alaska’s House seat have said the race could help decide which party controls the House.

In turn, that could affect the country’s direction on issues ranging from abortion to oil development to international affairs.

“We are down to the tiniest margins we’ve ever seen, like three or four people in the House and one in the Senate,” said Rep. Mary Peltola, the incumbent Democrat, in a January interview.

Control of the House will affect whoever wins the presidential race. A Republican-controlled House would support Donald Trump or act as a brake on Kamala Harris. The opposite is true if Democrats control the chamber.

“That’s exactly how I see it,” said Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, a Republican candidate for House this year.

“I have President Trump’s endorsement. And so what that tells people is that when President Trump needs to talk to a congressperson from Alaska, he wants to call me, and he’s going to pick up the phone and call me, and he knows that we can work together, and we’re going to get things done together,” she said.

Candidates for the House include the Democratic incumbent, four Republicans, three nonpartisan candidates, one who didn’t declare a party, an additional Democrat, a member of the Alaskan Independence Party and a member of the No Labels Party.

Election Day is Aug. 20. The four candidates who get the most votes will advance to the November general election.

Republican challenger Nick Begich said he thinks Alaska is at a “pivotal point” in its history.

“There’s really two camps as I see it,” he said in February. “There’s one camp that believes that Alaskans have a role as guardians of the state, that development should be diminished or eliminated. There’s another group of Alaskans who believe that our responsibility in Alaska extends to increasing development and that we have a role to play in our nation … as a source for critical minerals, base metals, energy in the form of oil and gas.”

Peltola was elected twice in 2022: Once in a special election to fill the remainder of Republican Rep. Don Young’s term after his sudden death, and then again for a two-year term of her own.

Through March, she voted with her fellow Democrats on 88% of the votes in the House, a figure that appears to be high, but is the fourth lowest among House Democrats.

Since Harris replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, Peltola has declined to endorse her, in part because the congresswoman isn’t sure that Harris would support oil drilling within the state.

Peltola has also bucked her Democratic colleagues by voting against gun control measures and this year became the first Democratic member of Congress since 2020 to be endorsed by the National Rifle Association.

Speaking in January, Peltola said that in places where one member of Congress represents an entire state, “it doesn’t give the one representative for the entire state much latitude to be championing issues that aren’t directly Alaska-related.”

“Alaska is so big and so young that whoever is in the position that I’m in — in Congress — we are up to our eyeballs in issues,” she said.

That’s why, she said, she’s focused on fisheries issues, on energy topics and on consumer issues like her opposition to the grocery-store merger of Albertsons and Kroger.

Peltola differs from her principal Republican competitors on reproductive issues. Since entering office, she’s co-sponsored bills that would prohibit restrictions on abortion, birth control, and in vitro fertilization.

Some Republicans have expressed interest in using a 19th century law to restrict birth control and abortions, and Republican control of the House or the presidency may cause a significant change in existing federal policy.

Dahlstrom said in an interview that she is “pro-life with exceptions of rape, incest and life of the mother,” but that abortion is “best left up to the states.”

Begich has said that while he supports the idea of allowing states to restrict abortion at a local level, he also would eliminate Medicaid funding for the practice and stop pharmacies from distributing mifepristone, a drug used in many abortions.

Begich and Dahlstrom both have expressed similar views about the state’s need to be allowed to drill for oil and mine for minerals in order to grow its economy and benefit its residents.

While Peltola may support oil drilling in Alaska, her Democratic counterparts in Congress and the White House generally do not, Begich and Dahlstrom have said, and regardless of Peltola’s views, electing her could result in further restrictions on development here.

Both Begich and Dahlstrom have expressed hopes that Donald Trump will be reelected as president. During his first term in office, Trump signed the bill that opened parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, and he has pledged to renew that program, which was stopped by the Biden administration.

Begich has received support from members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of more conservative Republicans who are sometimes at odds with the House’s current Republican leadership. Dahlstrom, meanwhile, has received support from the Republican House leadership and has Trump’s endorsement.

At the state Republican convention and in local meetings since, Republican officials within Alaska have thrown their support behind Begich, endorsing him for House even if it puts them at odds with Trump.

Dahlstrom, during an interview in late July, said she doesn’t think those local officials speak for all Republican voters in the state.

The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com.