One Nation launches $6 million Alaska ad campaign thanking Sen. Dan Sullivan

By SUZANNE DOWNING

June 3, 2026 – Although the Democrats have pulled a fast one by putting a fake Dan Sullivan into the US Senate race in Alaska, they have have outsmarted themselves. Now, a major conservative advocacy group aligned with Senate Republican leadership has launched a $6 million issue-advocacy campaign in Alaska, featuring Alaskans thanking the real US Sen. Dan Sullivan for his work on behalf of military families, veterans, energy development, and working families.

The first television advertisement in the campaign features former Alaska state Rep. Laddie Shaw, a retired Navy SEAL, Vietnam veteran, and former director of the Alaska Office of Veterans Affairs, who credits Sullivan with fighting for military pay raises and support for service members and their families. Shaw served two tours in Vietnam and spent more than two decades in uniform.

The campaign is being funded by One Nation, a Washington, DC-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit that advocates for conservative policies such as tax relief, domestic energy production, border security, and limited government. One Nation is widely viewed as the nonprofit counterpart to the Senate Leadership Fund, one of the largest Republican-aligned super PACs in the country.

Because One Nation is organized as a social welfare nonprofit, it can raise unlimited funds. That means the trick the Democrats played on the Republicans may have backfired by making this race even more high profile and forcing Mary Peltola’s team to spend more money than they have.

The organization generally focuses on issue advocacy rather than direct campaign contributions, allowing it to spend heavily in key Senate races while avoiding the restrictions placed on candidate campaigns and political action committees.

The Alaska campaign comes as Sullivan prepares for what is expected to be a closely watched reelection contest.

Democrats have rallied around former Peltola in hopes of unseating the two-term Republican senator. At the same time, Republicans are raising concerns about the voter-confusion strategy involving Petersburg resident Dan Sullivan, who entered the race with the same name as the incumbent senator and even changed his voter ID to Republican to further confuse voters.

The $6 million advertising effort is one of the earliest major outside expenditures of the 2026 Alaska Senate race and signals that national Republican organizations consider Sullivan a priority incumbent to defend.

The ads focus on Sullivan’s record rather than electoral politics, highlighting his work on military readiness, veterans’ issues, health care access, and Alaska’s resource-based economy.

Sullivan, first elected to the Senate in 2014 and reelected in 2020, serves on the Senate Armed Services, Commerce, Veterans’ Affairs, and Environment and Public Works committees. Those assignments have allowed him to become one of Alaska’s most influential voices on national defense, Arctic security, fisheries, and energy development.

The $6 million may just be the beginning. One Nation campaign is expected to run statewide over the coming weeks and will likely be one of several outside spending efforts aimed at defending Sen. Sullivan before Alaska voters begin focusing on the August primary and November general election.

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