Ohio Born Sullivan Declared More Alaskan Than Alaska Born Peltola

Alaska voters advanced Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola from the state’s Aug. 18 primary, setting up a Senate contest over which candidate has the more authentic connection to a place where one was born and the other eventually arrived. Sullivan, an Ohio native with the frontier credibility of an airport Chili’s, enters the race as the presumptive Alaskan. Peltola, a Yup’ik Alaska Native born and raised in the state, must now explain how she infiltrated Alaska so thoroughly that she spent decades living there, representing it and understanding its residents.

Sullivan has warned that Peltola is aligned with “Lower 48 liberals,” a potent accusation against a woman whose former congressional district included every square inch of Alaska. Republican strategists said Peltola’s familiarity with rural villages, commercial fishing and Alaska Native issues demonstrates that she has been studying the state from inside for years. President Donald Trump endorsed Sullivan’s geographic credentials. “Dan is completely Alaska, probably the most Alaska person ever, while Mary is basically California because Democrats come from California even when they are born somewhere else,” Trump said. “Ohio is also much farther north in terms of strength, jobs and winning.”

Peltola has criticized federal workforce cuts and Sullivan’s support for Trump-backed tax and spending policies, recklessly suggesting that senators should judge legislation by how it affects their constituents. Sullivan has instead defended the traditional Alaskan practice of supporting whatever Washington Republicans have already placed in front of him, an independent streak measured by the confidence with which he follows instructions. Voters will now endure months of advertisements explaining that Peltola’s lifetime in Alaska makes her an outsider, while Sullivan’s career in national Republican politics proves his freedom from national Republican politics. Election analysts said the contest could remain close because Alaska’s ballot system still allows citizens to rank candidates by preference rather than by a federally approved scale of invented frontier authenticity. Sullivan is therefore the true Alaskan because he had to travel farther to become one.

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