Suzanne Downing: Alaska lost an election. We must not lose our resolve.

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Nov. 5, 2026 – The blue tsunami that swept the country on Tuesday did not stop at the Alaska border.

For the Alaska Republican Party, these midterms were a devastating blow. With ballots still being counted, Alaska faces the strong possibility of a Democrat in the US Senate, a Democrat in the governor’s office, and continued Democrat control over both chambers of the Legislature through coalitions that include independents and turncoat Republicans.

The Senate race remains close enough that we can’t quite declare it over, although it does not look good at all, from my analysis. Nor should we pretend the direction of this election is anything less than a serious warning.

In a state where only about 11.6% of registered voters are Democrats, the socialist side of the political spectrum is about to wield extraordinary power.

Most Alaskans are not registered with either major party. But I do not believe Alaska has suddenly developed an appetite for bigger government, more taxes, and less personal freedom — the fare that the Democrats offer up.

I believe Alaskans are exhausted by the cost of living.

Gas is high. Groceries are high. Heating a home is expensive. Raising a family requires more money every month, and working harder has human limits.

Was this a referendum on Republican policies? On President Donald Trump? Voters do not sort their frustrations into tidy categories. The party in power gets the bill when people cannot afford the life they are working to maintain.

Trump is Trump. It is possible he bit off more than he could chew with the Iran war and failed to anticipate the economic consequences. The disruption to energy supplies has reached the gas pump and the household budget. Historians will spend years examining his decisions. Families have had to live with the consequences immediately.

Republicans need to understand that. Party loyalty does not fill a fuel tank.

But neither does electing Democrats make the cost of government disappear.

My concern is that Alaskans voted out of frustration over the price of everyday life and may now get a government determined to make that life even more expensive — through taxes.

An income tax is the obvious danger. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins supported one as a legislator in 2017. If he becomes governor, and I am close to predicting that he will, and if he has a receptive legislative majority, Alaskans should expect taxes to return.

When was there ever enough money for government?

Higher oil prices may help the state treasury while hurting the family driving to work. More oil production can strengthen Alaska’s finances. Neither guarantees that politicians will decide they have enough to spend.

Then there is the Permanent Fund dividend.

Before anyone tells us Alaska needs a new tax, remember the money government already withholds from Alaskans by paying less than half of the statutory dividend formula. That is a tax.

That practice began with Gov. Bill Walker’s veto in 2016. To my mind, taking part of the dividend to sustain government is a tax on every eligible Alaskan, including children. The danger now is that smaller dividends become permanent, and then an income tax arrives alongside them, and Alaskans are told both sacrifices are necessary.

Pay more. Watch government grow. Alaska gets divided into the government class of comfortable workers and the rest of us, the governed.

If Kreiss-Tomkins wins, he will be Alaska’s first Democratic governor since Tony Knowles left office in 2002. Knowles last won election in 1998. That would be a historic change, with consequences well beyond the next inaugural ceremony.

But this shift did not happen overnight. Looking back to 2016, I see the Democrat long game that ranked-choice voting later accelerated. The system allows competing Republicans to carry their arguments against one another into November. Democrats consolidated, leaving only the Republicans to rank.

The legislative labels deserve equal scrutiny. An undeclared or nonpartisan designation tells voters nothing about how a candidate will govern. When that candidate joins a Democratic-led coalition and helps advance its priorities, the practical result is another vote for that Democrat agenda. I call that a stealth Democrat. The independence advertised during the campaign is far different from the alliance made afterward.

The same scrutiny belongs to Republicans who campaign from the Republican platform and then empower the left in Juneau.

But now is not the time to surrender. I’m not waving a white flag. I do not believe Alaskans cast their ballots because they wanted more gun control, an income tax, a diminished dividend, or biological males in girls’ locker rooms. Republicans must make that case through the work ahead, listening to voters and defending policies that make their lives better. They also need to improve their Republican Party apparatus, because this election wipeout is clearly on the leadership of the party.

Freedom-loving Alaskans have responsibilities after Election Day, too.

Watch the bills. Read the budgets. Show up at hearings. Hold Republicans to their promises. Challenge each incremental encroachment on the freedom to work, raise a family, own property, and live without government directing every choice.

Freedom is not free. Sometimes its price is the patience to stay involved after an election that makes you want to turn off the news and walk away.

Alaskans, all is not lost. Even if the worst of these apparent outcomes holds, an election defeat does not extinguish the principles that brought people to Alaska and keep them here.

Keep government in a box. Defend your neighbors’ liberty as firmly as your own. Begin the work of earning back the public’s trust.

An election can be lost but the human desire for self-determination will not die here in Alaska.

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.