Vice President JD Vance campaigned Monday evening in Fairbanks for U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and Congressman Nick Begich, telling a crowd at Fairbanks International Airport that Alaska is a must-hold seat if Republicans are to keep the Senate. It was Vance’s first visit to Alaska.
He praised Sullivan – a fellow Marine Corps veteran locked in a tight race with Democrat Mary Peltola – and Begich. He then attacked Peltola’s House attendance, energy votes, and post-Congress work. He also tied the race to a military buildup in Alaska and to energy projects, including the Alaska LNG line and a $400 million Railbelt transmission announcement covering more than 200 miles of new line. The following highlights of Vance’s speech were taken from a C-SPAN recording of the event.
EXCERPTS FROM VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE’S SPEECH
First time in Alaska
A couple weeks ago I was talking to my dear friend Dan Sullivan. I said, “Dan, you’ve got a very big state, famously a very big state, and this is my very first time visiting. Where do we start?” And without missing a beat, he said Fairbanks. This is the city where his beautiful wife, Julie, calls home and where the two of them first settled to raise their family. In my short time here, I’ve learned that it is an incredibly special place … You’ve got the northern lights. Hell, you even got people who will ski to work when it’s 60 below zero.
I understand Fairbanks has its city elections tomorrow. So, before anything else, let me encourage all of you to get out there in the morning and make sure to vote, and vote the right way.
Congressman Nick Begich’s historic work ethic
Alaska is a remarkable culture. You’re tough. You’re self-reliant. You feel pride in your past and confidence in a great Alaska future. It’s an attitude exemplified by the two men I am proud to stand here with today. First of all, Congressman Nick Begich. Give it up for Congressman Nick Begich. And of course, the great Senator Dan Sullivan.
I want to say a few words about each, and I’m going to start with Nick. This is a guy who amazingly doesn’t need an introduction, which is unbelievable for a first-term member of the U.S. House. Nick Begich is a machine for the state of Alaska. In just a year and a half on the job, he’s already got 14 bills passed out of the House, and six pieces of legislation have been signed into law by the President of the United States. That’s actually the most by a freshman in the history of the United States House of Representatives. How has he gotten that done? Because he has taken that great Alaskan work ethic and brought it to Washington, D.C. Every single day. Nick cares about one thing, and that’s delivering for each and every person in this room and in the state of Alaska.
Sen. Sullivan ‘does not let up’
But when we talk about a guy who shows up to get things done, who doesn’t care whether he’s popular in Washington, who doesn’t care how many hits he gets on TV, who cares about whether he fights for the men and women of this state, that is Marine Corps veteran and your great Senator Dan Sullivan.
He simply does not let up. Even when I want him to, as vice president, he is always the guy calling saying, “What can we do for the people of Alaska?” This is a man who has spent his life, not just as a United States senator, but most importantly as a United States Marine. As a fellow Marine, Dan is the kind of Marine who kind of terrified the rest of us, because he’s driven, he is relentless, and he will let nothing get between him and his goal. As a senator, he has devoted that same determination to the well-being of each and every person of this state.
I don’t think there’s a single person in the Trump administration cabinet who hasn’t gotten texts from Dan in the middle of the night making sure Alaska gets what it needs. When you become vice president, you get flown around in this amazing plane right behind us and you get this beautiful house in Washington, but what nobody tells you is that Dan Sullivan is going to text you at 3:00 in the morning with lessons about commercial salmon fishing … The problem for anybody who stands between the best interests of this state is that they’ve got a senator who just doesn’t quit. Nobody can out-hustle Dan.
Mary Peltola ‘doesn’t show up for work’
Unfortunately, you do not have a great person running on the other side. The same woman Alaskans kicked out of Congress in 2024 when Nick Begich ran. Her name is Mary Peltola. I had to practice saying that because, even though I’m the vice president, this is a person who just doesn’t show up. Doesn’t show up to work. Doesn’t show up for you. Doesn’t show up to do her job. She is the opposite of Dan Sullivan.
Peltola couldn’t get one bill passed
In contrast to Nick and Dan, Mary Peltola couldn’t get a single bill signed into law over her two terms in Congress. Not a single piece of legislation. In part, it’s probably because she had one of the worst attendance records in the history of the United States Congress. Her sole job was to support Alaskans in the House of Representatives. Yet she couldn’t be bothered to show up for one in five votes. I was a senator for all of two years. It’s not that hard of a job. You show up. You fight for your people. At a bare minimum, just show up and cast your vote. I see a lot of kids in this room. How would your teachers grade you if you didn’t even show up for class one in five days? If you didn’t turn in one in five of your homework assignments, you would fail.
Peltola serves ‘far-left activists’
Despite that, she always managed to show up when the far-left activists needed her. She was there to vote to keep the Mexican border wide open, flooding our communities with fentanyl and drugs. She was there to vote to allow boys to compete in girls’ sports. She was there to vote to give illegal aliens the ability to participate in American elections. When the far left calls, Mary answers, and she does exactly what they tell her to do.
Peltola bent her knee to Nancy Pelosi
I think back to 2023, when she was in the House, and Mary Peltola did something good for once. I’ll give her a little bit of credit. She co-led a bill to roll back radical Biden administration policies banning new oil and gas leases across America. But when Nancy Pelosi called and said, “Vote against your own bill. Vote against the people of Fairbanks,” she bent the knee to Nancy Pelosi and did exactly what that far-left radical told her to do. If you can’t be bothered to vote for your own piece of legislation, then you do not deserve to be a United States senator for the great people of Alaska.
Peltola ‘sure did like the perks’
I don’t think she was ever interested in serving the people of the state, but she sure did like the perks of being a politician. Over the course of a year, she turned a campaign committee into a personal slush fund, spending nearly $200,000 on fancy hotels, on nice restaurants in D.C. and beyond when she wasn’t even campaigning for office. She spent thousands of dollars on Grubhub, on DoorDash. I have nothing against Grubhub or DoorDash, but I want you to spend your own money on them, not taxpayer dollars. And while she was using campaign money and taxpayer money to support a very lavish lifestyle, she was working as a lobbyist making almost half a million a year.
Sullivan championed Alaska as vital to national defense
When Dan Sullivan got into office … the Department of Defense treated Alaska as a strategic backwater, something to forget and ignore. Dan looked at the situation and said, “Alaska, it’s not just good economics for my state. It’s great national security for the people of America.” As a result of his vision and his hard work, Alaska is seeing the largest military buildup since World War II … So much of what’s happening right down the road: home to two squadrons of F-35s. I don’t know if Ohio has two squadrons of F-35s. The historic 11th Airborne Division, and billions of dollars of new missile defense investments through the Golden Dome…
What this means for Alaska – one, it makes your state safer. For a very long time America’s enemies looked at Alaska, with your natural resources and strategic opportunities, and the enemy saw a territory that was undefended. We changed that … By investing in Alaska’s national security, we made Fairbanks a military powerhouse.
Speaking of fish
Mary Peltola will talk a lot about fish. I have already seen her advertisements about how much she cares about commercial fishing in this state. But what did she do when she was in office? … never trust a politician by what they say. Judge a politician by what they did when they had the chance. And what did Mary Peltola do for Alaska’s fishermen when she was in office? Not a damn thing.
Dan Sullivan is the exact opposite. He banned fish imports from Russia. He’s guaranteed fishermen have a voice in USDA programs by securing funding for the Office of Seafood. And it’s thanks to Dan that our Coast Guard is now patrolling the waters, ensuring that Alaska’s fish go to Alaska’s fishermen, not to foreigners who are trying to steal from our fisheries. When you see those fancy TV advertisements about Mary Peltola, remember that when she was in office, she didn’t pass a single piece of legislation. And Dan Sullivan has been fighting for Alaska’s fishermen every single day.
Sullivan is a national leader on energy independence
There’s nowhere he’s been more of a leader in the United States Senate than on ensuring energy independence and energy dominance, not just for this state, but for the whole country. You have boundless natural resources in the state of Alaska. For too long, politicians told you that you couldn’t have an amazing Alaskan environment while also exploring the incredible resources of this state. Dan knows the exact opposite is true: that if we invest in Alaska’s energy dominance, we can have a proud Alaskan environment and also make sure America stays ahead of the curve on energy. That’s why he has fought tirelessly to open up ANWR and advance drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve … the infrastructure projects happening right now in Alaska aren’t some abstract debate in Washington. They’re a paycheck. They’re a career. They’re dignity, and they’re the means to provide for your families. When Washington bureaucrats and environmental groups delay these projects, or when Alaskans don’t have fighters standing up to them in Congress, it’s people like John and all of our great energy workers who suffer. But thanks to Dan Sullivan, thanks to Nick Begich, and thanks to President Donald J. Trump, Alaska is finally rebuilding energy again. That’s the promise of developing Alaska’s resources. We got good jobs. We have an amazing environment. We got cheaper energy. And we have a stronger economy.
Announcing $400 million to build out Alaska’s power grid
Today we’re taking another major step toward making that promise of energy dominance a reality, which is why I am especially excited to announce the Alaska Railbelt Transmission Project, which is going to devote $400 million to building out your state’s power grid. And we got it because of Dan. With this project, the Trump administration will help develop more than 200 miles of new transmission line, lowering costs and strengthening grid reliability for 75 percent of the population of this state.
Alaska gasline project – ‘we are going to get it done’
No talk about energy would be complete without talking about the incredibly important Alaska LNG project. Everybody in the Trump administration has known about this project for a very long time, because Dan won’t shut up about it. What he will tell you is that the Alaska LNG project is the single greatest priority for energy dominance in the United States of America. And we’re building it right here. What the president has said is that you’ve got a ton of countries all over the world that are desperate for Alaska natural gas, desperate for Alaska energy. So, we’re making them a very simple proposal. You have easy access to that fuel, you have easy access to that energy, but you’ve got to help us build it. And if you’re not going to help us build it, then you’re going to pay a big fat tax for the energy that you’re bringing in. Bring it in from Alaska. And we’re going to help you do that.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
You’ll hear a lot of people say, “We’ve been talking about this project for 40 years and it hasn’t got done.” You’ll hear a lot of people who almost have a sense of learned helplessness. But Dan will never stop fighting for this project. President Donald J. Trump will never stop fighting for this project. And we are going to get it done. I promise you that.
‘Democrats are obsessed with this state’
My friends, the Democrats are obsessed with this state this cycle. AOC and Kamala Harris and the rest of them, they see the last frontier as their last best hope to take America in a far-left direction, to impeach Donald J. Trump, to turn off the energy projects that we’re building all across this state, and to throttle this state and this country’s incredible progress. They are ruthless. They will do whatever they need to do, right up to cheating and right up to lying, right up to putting somebody on the ballot who has no reason to be there other than to help them steal an election.
