By SUZANNE DOWNING
Nov. 7, 2026 – Less than a week after telling CNN that Alaskans “know to bring a gun to a gunfight,” Alaska Democratic Party Chairman Eric Croft returned to the network with another peculiar comparison: Counting Alaska’s votes is like sex, he said. You don’t want to finish first and early.
The latest remarks came Thursday during an interview with CNN’s Pamela Brown about the unresolved US Senate race between Democrat Mary Peltola and Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan.
“We take a kind of different approach. We treat this process more like sex. Finishing first and early is not the main goal. We prefer to take it slow, kind of do it right. And hopefully at the end everybody involved is satisfied,” Croft said.
Brown laughed and acknowledged that the comparison had caught her off guard.
“I was not prepared for that analogy,” she said.
Croft kept going.
“Well, yeah, we think Florida finishes a little quick. But we have a process and we know something about it.”
The exchange followed a question about President Donald Trump’s demand that votes cast for the other Dan Sullivan on Alaska’s ballot be assigned to the incumbent. Croft defended Alaska’s existing election process and its ranked-choice system.
But his explanation took a detour into sexual innuendo as Alaskans waited for the outcome of a closely contested election.
It was Croft’s second conspicuous analogy in less than a week, both delivered to the same CNN interviewer.
‘Bring a gun to a gunfight’: Alaska Democratic Party chair Eric Croft laughs off ‘Decoy Dan’ controversy on CNN
As The Alaska Story previously reported, Croft appeared with Brown on Oct. 30 to discuss allegations that Peltola allies had recruited a same-name challenger to draw votes away from the Republican senator.
Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., the Petersburg candidate known by Alaskans as “Decoy Dan,” has denied running at Democrats’ behest. Peltola has denied any involvement by her campaign.
During that earlier interview, Croft dismissed the legal concerns and portrayed the controversy as the sort of hardball politics Alaskans understand.
“There’s no legal issue to it,” he said. “And, on your sort of dirty tricks thing, I think Alaskans have a different take there, too. We know to bring a gun to a gunfight.”
Croft said Alaskans wanted representatives who would push hard and use every available tool, adding that he was not hearing the level of outrage Brown described.
When Brown asked whether he supported the tactic, Croft replied: “No, I think it’s funny.”
He contrasted the same-name candidacy with the case of jailed candidate Eric Hafner, whose threats against elected officials he called “disgusting.” The Sullivan controversy, he suggested, was something Alaskans might joke about around a coffee table.
The earlier interview concerned allegations of deliberate voter confusion. Thursday’s concerned the pace of counting ballots. Across both appearances, the state Democratic Party chairman turned questions about Alaska’s election into occasions for jokes and provocative comparisons.
2 thoughts on “From gunfights to sex, Alaska Democratic Party chair delivers another awkward CNN analogy”
Even for a huge juicy bone, my dog wouldn’t have sex with this Democrat freak. And an ugly looking man too.
Eric has never been particularly bright. His dad was a dyed in the wool leftie too, but he had a few brains. Eric just likes the spotlight, and then makes a bit of a fool of himself when he has it. I know he takes credit for the forward movement of lefties in Alaska, but I suspect the brains behind the operation lie elsewhere.