Alaska is halfway through another legislative session where the Democratic minority in both houses is setting the agenda. They can do this because seven Republicans joined with them to form governing caucuses. Fortunately, this is an election year, and conservative voters can correct the situation by voting the seven out of office, but that will only be possible if they get Republican challengers. Unfortunately, no one has yet stepped up to run against them.
If the voters were able to remove the seven from office, it would not only turn the next legislature more conservative, but it would also be a powerful lesson to future GOP officeholders not to subvert the will of the voters.
However, no conservative has yet decided to mount a challenge against them, which made me wonder if the seven RINOs might actually represent relatively liberal districts, and their defections to the Democrats aligned with the will of their voters. To answer that question, I used the most reliable liberal/conservative indicator I could find, which is how their districts voted for president in the 2024 election. That data can be seen in Table 1.
The pink cells in Table 1 show House districts that Donald Trump won. The blue cells are districts that Kamala Harris won. An overwhelming 10 of the 12 House districts represented by one of the RINOs also supported Donald Trump in 2024, indicating that their districts have a strong conservative voter base. This tells me that the seven RINOs are defying the will of their voters when they joined the Democrat caucuses, meaning they must have had some other reason for doing so.
I spoke off the record with one of the Alaska GOP district chairs, and he indicated that the decision some Republicans made to join with the Democratic majority was, in his opinion, made for personal benefit or career advancement.
A perfect example of this is Rep Louise Stutes of Kodiak. As the price for selling her soul (joining the Democrat caucus), she was able to trade her party loyalty to become chair of the powerful House Rules Committee, which plays a crucial role. This position is the primary gatekeeper for all bills in the State House. No legislation advances unless the chair of the Rules Committee allows it. Meaning any House member who gets on the wrong side of Louise Stutes will never get their bills acted on. With Louise in control, good luck if you are a Republican in the minority.
Rep. Stutes is not only enjoying this powerful position, but she also intends to parlay it into a Senate seat. She has filed to run for the Senate seat in District C, which will be open when fellow RINO Senator Gary Stevens retires at the end of the current term. Stutes has received the endorsement of Stevens, who would like her to take his place in upper chamber. Evidently, there are benefits to being a well-connected crony in Kodiak.
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Another thing my conversation with the Alaska GOP chair revealed is that the GOP district leadership in most districts is not actively recruiting people to run against the RINOs. The individual I talked to identifies as a conservative. He disagreed in principle with the legislator in his district who defected to join the Ds, but he wasn’t actively trying to recruit a primary challenger to run against them. He was taking a relatively hands-off approach and waiting to see if anybody volunteered to run, which I found disappointing, but not unexpected from Alaska’s weak Republican party.
With or without the help of the AK GOP, Alaska needs bold conservatives willing to step up and primary the seven RINOs. For anyone considering doing so, time is of the essence. The filing deadline is June 1st, which is less than 60 days away.
If we don’t get good candidates to run against the feckless seven, then we will end up with the same results in Juneau that we have now. The RINOs will be emboldened if they are not held accountable, and will take the lack of challengers as a validation of their treachery. Future legislatures with this mindset will find new ways to tax you, take even more of your PFD check, and advance their woke liberal agendas.
For conservatives who are still undecided about whether to run for office, consider that when the only people who run for office are snakes, we shouldn’t be surprised that we end up with a nest of vipers down in Juneau. Conservatives, your state needs you. Now is the time to step up and answer the call.
The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.
