Sen. Dan Sullivan walks through a crowd of demonstrators to the Alaska House chamber to give his annual address to the Legislature on March 20, 2025. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
A Republican Senator serving in a solid red state is contending with an unexpected threat to his seat in the upcoming midterm elections, per The Hill, as President Donald Trump's agenda hits his state in particularly brutal fashion, and the Democrats field a notably strong opposition candidate
Dan Sullivan is a two-term Republican senator for Alaska, seeking reelection to a third in the 2026 midterms. While Alaska is far less staunchly conservative than places like Florida and Alabama, it has still consistently elected Republicans to statewide office in recent years, and Sullivan's seat might have once been seen as safe from an upset — until, that is, Trump returned to office.
According to a Monday morning report from The Hill, Alaska has "been hit hard by the healthcare cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and lapsed ObamaCare subsidies," causing prices and premiums for residents to skyrocket at a time when seemingly everything else is getting more expensive by the day. Because of this, Democrats see a rare opportunity for a surprise upset in The Last Frontier, viewing Sullivan as a "prime target" on their increasingly probable quest to flip the Senate in November.
"A Democratic ad campaign released late last month accused Sullivan of voting to raise health insurance premiums in Alaska by more than $1,800 on average, referring to his votes against Democratic bills that would have ended the government shutdown in exchange for extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax subsidies," The Hill explained in its report.
Sullivan is also staring down a Democratic challenger that observers have called that parties best option for flipping the seat: former U.S. Representative for Alaska Mary Peltola. Peltola's odds are helped by the fact that Alaska only elects one at-large representative to the House, meaning that her successful 2022 campaign helped establish her profile statewide.
"When former Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola (D) launched her Senate campaign earlier this year, her announcement took a swipe at Sullivan’s support for the GOP megabill, pointing to a think tank’s projection that it would take healthcare coverage from millions of Americans," The Hill added.
The report continued: "Sullivan appears well aware of his vulnerability on the issue. In the past month, he has broken with the GOP twice to side with Senate Democrats on health provisions. The Alaska senator voted for an amendment sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) opposing any funding bill that failed to lower out-of-pocket healthcare costs. Sullivan also voted for another amendment sponsored by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) that will address insurers delaying or denying care."
John-Henry Heckendorn, a partner at the campaign management firm, the Ship Creek Group, told The Hill that these late-breaking votes in the face of Peltola's campaign are likely to be too little, too late for Sullivan to right the ship.
“Given how many times he has voted for legislation or amendments that would either reduce healthcare subsidies for Alaskans or otherwise increase healthcare costs, the damage has largely been done,” Heckendorn explained. “It’s one thing to vote on your principles. It’s another thing to follow the party line until you feel like you’re in danger and then try to cover your tracks."
Heckendorn also argued that, with Alaskans already pinched by higher costs, Sullivan's latest votes run the risk of making him look like a flip-flopper "changing his mind for political expediency."
"All that damage is done, but now he’s kind of admitting that those votes were never about principle in the first place," he said.