In Alaska’s most sweeping voter guide to date, newly released survey answers reveal where dozens of candidates stand on key issues related to abortion, religious liberty, parental rights, ranked-choice voting, LGBTQ policies and much more.
With the primary election now underway through Aug. 20, Alaska Family Action has published its Values Voter Guide in order to give voters a better idea of where candidates stand on critical social issues.
Thanks to ranked-choice voting, Alaskans must use a “jungle primary” system, which has eliminated the traditional party primaries. That means the top four vote-getters in each primary contest will move on to the general election in November.
The voter guide is broken down into five geographical regions across the state – Anchorage, Mat-Su/ Kenai, Fairbanks/ Interior, Western/ Northern rural, and Southeast/ Homer/ Kodiak. Each area has its own guide that can be downloaded and shared. All the guides, however, include the U.S. House race.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
U.S. House candidates were asked about their positions regarding abortion, IVF, social media restriction for youth, biological males competing in girls’ sports, mandatory DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) training, religious liberties, child tax credits, ranked choice voting and school choice.
Questions posed to candidates running for State House or Senate focused on abortion, parental rights, transgender surgeries, LGBTQ bathroom policy, sex education in schools, state funding for homeschool and private education, banning biological males from girls sports, religious freedom and whether a candidate would join a coalition majority in which the opposing party was in power.
The survey was sent to all 116 candidates running seats in the State Legislature, with a total of 33 total responses. Notably, only one self-identified Democrat chose to respond – Anchorage resident Dustin Darden, who is most known for tirelessly opposing leftist policies pushed by the Anchorage Assembly.
Of the 12 candidates running for Alaska’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, five agreed to answer the survey, but not a single Democrat responded, nor did most other non-Republicans. GOP candidate Matthew Salisbury was the only Republican running for U.S. House who decline to answer the survey.
In a few cases, more conservative-minded candidates did not respond, but the reasons for their decision were not included in the voter guide.
With Democrats almost unanimously refusing to participate, the survey serves mostly to highlight the differences among those who claim to be Republican or something other than Democrat, a strategy a number of Alaska candidates employ in order to increase their election chances in more conservative leaning districts.
In far fewer cases, more conservative minded candidates will occasionally run as something other than Republican when vying for seats in more liberal districts.
In viewing the guide, voters can click on the region where they reside and then compare the candidates’ answers, or non-answers.
Click here to access the voter guide.
11 Comments
Well good for them for not responding to that ridiculous survey. Rather than focus on critical issues like sovreignty, economic colonialism, infrastructure, combat mega-tourism, the Alaska Marine Highway, Canada – US fisheries it seems the religious kooks are sidestepping important things to allow their narrow-minded, divisive Sharia laws to suck the political oxygen out of the room. Shame on them!
Values are important to people who actually have them; you obviously do not.
Csiki. You’ve identified one of the many weaknesses in the low education Christian Nationalist calculus, and that’s laziness. Much easier to squawk about drag shows and prayer in public places than address the concepts you listed.
David Eastman’s opposition to amending the state constitution is unquestionably because THE PROTECTIONS FOR THE UNBORN CHILD ARE ALREADY THERE.
We need to stop pretending that we need to waste political capital and valuable time trying to pass an unnecessary amendment. See Article 1, Sec. 1 of the state constitution: “This constitution is dedicated to the principles that all persons have a right to life …” That is why he is in favor of a bill recognizing personhood from conception. And this is why the usual Republican conservatives are light years behind him in understanding how to actually read a constitution properly.
It is important to point out that in Alaska, unlike many other states, a constitutional amendment can only be proposed by the legislature. At a minimum, you need more than two-thirds of all legislators (41) to support it being placed on the ballot before the public ever gets a chance to vote on it.
In Alaska, more than one-third of all legislators are currently endorsed by Planned Parenthood. This makes a constitutional amendment an impossibility (not just for abortion but for any conservative cause). A constitutional convention only requires the support of 32 legislators, which is at least mathematically conceivable. Luke 14:28-30 asks “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”
From where I sit, Alaska legislators who encourage voters to support and get behind constitutional amendments on conservative topics like abortion are not behaving in a conservative manner. Support for Constitutional amendments on abortion is the refuge of legislators who are unwilling to confront Planned Parenthood and their allies. It costs nothing for RINO Republicans to publicly support a constitutional amendment because they know there is zero chance of it passing. They can virtue signal to conservative voters without ever violating of exposing their true convictions. More to the point, instead of blaming the constitution for our state’s problems and saying that voters must mount a Herculean effort to change it, legislators need to accept responsibility for their part in allowing judges to trample all over our constitution and reinterpret it at will. A liberal judge can always reinterpret the constitution faster than conservatives can pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the reinterpretation.
Dahlstrom’s answers are very telling. She is a Republican in name only. She should not be the lt. governor AND she should not be running for a congressional seat.
HOWEVER, with that said, Rank ALL Republicans whether you like them or not. Do not rank any others. The only way to get Peltola out of that seat is for Republicans/conservatives to rank Begich #1, Dahlstrom #2.
Again, on the ballot, you want to vote for one person only. Do not rank. Leave all other spaces blank. Vote one choice and that is how it will be counted.
Great questions and so appreciated! Mistake under District 30 – Doyle Holmes not Doyle McCabe.
Noticed also Nancy Dahlstrom will not step down if she does not come out ahead in the primary. Very telling. I would deduce not really a statesmen mindset. Stubborn pride?
Or, is she being paid good money to throw the election and this has been going on since she and Dunleavy started their latest term?
Don’t forget – vote next Tuesday, August 20th in the Primary! We need ALL Alaskans (legal Alaskans) to get out and vote in this election AND in the November election. People need to care enough to VOTE or we are going to lose our state and our livelihoods!
Joel: I appreciate you allowing dissenting voices like mine on your forum.