Wilson, Crum lead Republican field in fundraising reports

By SUZANNE DOWNING

July 21, 2026 – Alaska’s main Republican candidates for governor reported more than $2.1 million in receipts on their latest campaign disclosures, but that headline number substantially overstates how much actual new money they raised.

Nearly $430,000 of the reported total consists of money transferred from some candidates’ earlier campaign accounts into joint governor-lieutenant governor accounts. Another $397,000 came from two candidates financing their own campaigns.

Businesswoman Bernadette Wilson emerges as the Republican field’s strongest fundraiser from actual contributors, once those amounts are separated out.

Wilson raised $395,985 in new money, all of it from donors and not herself. She reported $172,283 in cash on hand and no campaign debt.

Adam Crum reported the largest amount of new receipts overall, at $441,105. Yet, $197,000 came from his own pocket. Excluding that self-funding, the Crum campaign raised $244,105 from other contributors.

Alaska’s campaign reports can be confusing when a candidate begins with an individual campaign account and later names a running mate, a new scenario that developed with the Ranked-Choice Voting scheme now in place in Alaska. Money accumulated in the original account is then transferred into a new joint account for the governor-lieutenant governor ticket.

That transfer may appear among the receipts on the new report, but it is not actually new fundraising. It is the same campaign money moving from one account to another.

Some candidates , such as Wilson, entered the race with running mates already in place early on. Others did not announce their lieutenant governor selections until after the Feb. 1 year-start reporting deadline, making their latest filings especially susceptible to double counting and skewing.

Across the six leading Republican campaigns reviewed by The Alaska Story, the reports show $2,118,574 in total receipts. Of that, $429,918 was transferred from previous campaign accounts.

Subtracting those transfers leaves $1,688,656 in genuinely new receipts. After also removing the $397,000 provided by Crum and Matt Heilala to their own campaigns, the six candidates collectively raised about $1,291,656 from outside contributors.

Here is what the reports show:

Wilson’s report puts her at the front of the Republican field in demonstrated donor support. Her $395,985 exceeds Bishop’s outside fundraising by about $66,000 and Crum’s by nearly $152,000.

She also has the most cash available among the candidates whose campaigns are primarily donor-financed, with $172,283 on hand and no debt.

Bishop ranks second in donor fundraising. But he is not completely considered a Republican since he has a non-Republican running mate.

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Crum can accurately say that his campaign brought in the most new money overall, at $441,105. Nearly 45% of that came from Crum himself. His $244,105 from contributors places him third in donor fundraising. He reported $119,764 in cash and no debt.

Crum’s report lists $591,981 in total receipts, but that figure includes the $150,876 account transfer. Counting the transfer as new money would give voters an inflated impression of the campaign’s fundraising.

Bronson raised $188,101 in new money from contributors. His report lists $318,166 in total receipts, but $130,065 — about 41% of that total — was transferred from his previous account. He reported $103,006 in cash and $28,061 in debt.

Hughes raised $115,376 in new contributions. Her reported total of $199,558 includes an $84,182 transfer from the earlier account. She reported $61,041 in cash and $17,438 in debt.

Heilala’s campaign reported $218,099 in new receipts, but $200,000 came from Heilala himself. That leaves just $18,099 raised from other contributors, the lowest outside fundraising total among the six major Republican candidates.

Heilala nevertheless reported the largest cash balance, at $377,420, along with $79,116 in debt. His cash position reflects money already accumulated by the campaign as well as his substantial self-funding; it should not be mistaken for evidence that he raised $377,000 during this reporting period.

The reports reveal three different measures of campaign strength.

Wilson leads in money raised from donors and has the strongest debt-free cash position among the donor-supported campaigns. Bishop is second in donor fundraising. Crum leads in total new money when candidate contributions are included. Heilala has the largest bank balance but the weakest fundraising from outside supporters.

Transfers are legitimate accounting transactions and self-funding is a legal source of campaign money. But neither should be confused with new financial support from voters and donors.

That makes “total receipts” one of the least useful numbers for comparing this particular Republican field.

The clearer measurement is how much genuinely new money each campaign attracted, where it came from, and how much remains available for the final weeks before the Aug. 18 primary.

The filings reviewed are available through APOC for Bernadette Wilson, Shelley Hughes, Dave Bronson, Adam Crum, and Matt Heilala. Click Bishop is included here as a Republican but his running mate is not a Republican, so he is an unusual problem for the Republican Party.

One major Republican candidate was missing from this filing deadline: former Attorney General Treg Taylor. No required report from his campaign appeared by Monday night’s filing deadline. That report has just been filed on Tuesday morning, about 10 hours after the legal deadline. Taylor raised $149,000 and less than $1,000 in the past month. Most donations were $5,000-$10,000.

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