Gottshall challenges Warfield for Alaska GOP chair after blistering critique of party leadership

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Zack Gottshall, a former vice chairman of the Alaska Republican Party and a retired US Army intelligence officer, has announced he is running for chair of the Alaska Republican Party, mounting a direct challenge to incumbent chairwoman Carmela Warfield, who has held the position for less than two years. He made the announcement on the Amy Demboski Show on KENI radio on Tuesday morning.

Gottshall’s candidacy follows the release of a sharply worded column in which he accused current party leadership of failing to enforce Republican Party rules and platform standards against elected officials who have diverged from conservative principles.

In the column that ran in The Alaska Story, Gottshall argued that Alaska GOP leadership ignored repeated formal actions taken by local House District Committees seeking accountability for Republican officeholders, including US Sen. Lisa Murkowski, state Sens. Cathy Giessel and Kelly Merrick, and Rep. Chuck Kopp. He said those district-level actions were not symbolic protests but formal processes authorized under party rules.

House District Committees form the backbone of the Alaska Republican Party’s governing structure. Together, they make up the majority of the State Central Committee, which governs the party between conventions. Gottshall argued that when party leadership fails to respond to district actions, it undermines the authority of the party’s grassroots and weakens the party’s institutional credibility.

According to Gottshall, leadership’s reluctance to act has now created a damaging precedent, allowing future officeholders to argue that party rules are optional and that discipline is rarely enforced. He warned that this pattern has already begun to erode trust among Republican voters, driving activists and volunteers away from the party.

Gottshall pointed specifically to the ongoing controversy surrounding Sen. Rob Yundt, saying that leadership’s prior inaction has made it easier for party officials to avoid accountability even when concerns are raised through proper channels. He argued that inconsistent enforcement invites claims of favoritism and political convenience, weakening the party’s moral authority.

The former party vice chairman also took aim at what he described as a shift in the role of party leadership away from stewardship of Republican principles and toward political calculation, access, and personal advancement. In his view, leadership’s job is to protect the party’s platform and governing structure, not to act as a political shield for elected officials.

Warfield had inherited a party that had already been riven by internal battles over loyalty, discipline, and the direction of Alaska Republicans following years of high-profile clashes involving moderate GOP officeholders. Under her leadership, the party has sought to balance maintaining a broad coalition with addressing repeated grassroots demands for sanctions and censure.

Gottshall is presenting his candidacy as a corrective to what he sees as a drift away from principle-based leadership. He says the party must recommit to enforcing its rules evenly and honoring the authority of House District Committees and the State Central Committee if it wants to remain a serious political institution.

Beyond party politics, Gottshall brings a résumé that includes military service and current service on the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights. He is also a small business owner based in Anchorage.

The chairmanship race is expected to sharpen long-running divisions within the Alaska GOP between activists who want strict enforcement of the party platform and those who argue flexibility is necessary to win elections in a politically diverse state.