By the numbers: Alaska’s US Senate race approaches record spending as new $2 million ad blitz begins for Sen. Sullivan

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Aug. 6, 2026 – If Alaskans think the political advertising is already overwhelming, just wait.

Senate Leadership Fund launched a summer advertising blitz in Alaska on Thursday and announced another $2 million investment in the race, bringing the Republican-aligned super PAC’s total commitment in the state to $17 million, on behalf of Sen. Dan Sullivan.

The new spending comes with Alaska’s Aug. 18 primary 12 days away and nearly three months remaining before the Nov. 3 general election.

By the time it is over, the contest between Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola could approach, or possibly surpass, the record-setting sums spent during Alaska’s 2014 Senate battle, when Sen. Sullivan took on former Sen. Mark Begich, the Democrat who had unseated Sen. Ted Stevens and the 2020 spending, when Al Gross lost to Sullivan.

Senate Leadership Fund’s new advertisement features Peter, a retired US Army colonel from Eagle River, explaining how Peltola camouflaged her liberal voting record by presenting herself one way to Alaskans and voting differently in Washington.

The advertisement points to Peltola’s votes against House legislation that included military pay increases and funding for veterans’ medical care, disability benefits and pensions.

“Mary Peltola betrayed Alaska’s veterans and service members when they needed a voice in Washington, voting against military pay raises and veteran healthcare, disability benefits, and pensions,” Senate Leadership Fund Communications Director Chris Gustafson said. “Senator Dan S. Sullivan, a Marine Corps veteran, has always stood up and fought for Alaska’s military community and delivered the support that Peltola tried to deny them.”

But the new ad is only one piece of an extraordinary flood of campaign money pouring into a state with fewer than 800,000 residents.

Peltola’s campaign, Alaskans for Mary, reported raising $15.58 million through June 30, according to Federal Election Commission figures. It had spent about $9.48 million and retained $6.09 million in cash.

About $13.6 million of Peltola’s money came from donors outside Alaska. Direct contributions from political committees made up a relatively small portion of her campaign’s receipts, but that does not include the millions being spent independently by national Democrat groups.

Peltola raised about $8.9 million during the first quarter alone, which her campaign described as a quarterly fundraising record for an Alaska Senate candidate. She followed that with another $6.9 million in the second quarter.

Sullivan’s campaign reported total receipts of $11.1 million through June 30. It had spent approximately $3.53 million and entered July with $8.3 million in cash, about $2.2 million more in reserve than Peltola.

That means the two principal campaigns have already raised nearly $27 million and spent roughly $13 million, before accounting for the much larger wave of outside advertising money now arriving.

On the Democrat side, Senate Majority PAC initially reserved $10.6 million in Alaska television advertising and added another $2 million in July, bringing its announced Alaska commitment to about $12.6 million.

Add the two major super PAC commitments together, and national Republican and Democrat groups have reserved or committed nearly $30 million for Alaska, all separate from the candidates’ own spending and from expenditures by other political committees and nonprofit advocacy organizations.

The $17 million Senate Leadership Fund commitment is the group’s largest ever in Alaska. It spent approximately $6.4 million in the state during Sullivan’s 2020 campaign against Democrat-backed Gross.

Still, the $17 million commitment does not by itself establish a new Alaska record. That distinction belongs to the 2020, the candidates’s campaigns spent over $30 million and outside groups spent over $27, with all spending totaling $60 million.

In 2014, the outside groups had spent $43 million Sullivan and Begich spent about $18 million through their campaign committees. It was the most expensive political campaign in Alaska history and one of the costliest Senate races in the country on a per-capita basis.

The 2026 race is now on a trajectory that could challenge those marks.

Between the two campaigns’ $26.7 million in reported receipts and the nearly $30 million committed by the two largest Senate super PACs, more than $56 million has already been raised, reserved, or committed to the contest. Those categories illustrate the scale of what is coming at Alaskans in messaging.

For both Peltola and Sullivan, inclusive of outside groups, the campaigns have spent $35 million on television so far. Another $3 million has been spent on Meta (Facebook.) The spending totals have approached $40 million before the primary.

This doesn’t include what outside groups are spending on mail and text messages. They also do not include every outside organization, future candidate fundraising report, direct-mail campaign, digital operation, or late advertising purchase that will emerge during the coming weeks.

Control of the US Senate could turn on only a handful of seats, and both national parties now consider Alaska part of the battlefield.