Protests draw hundreds as Alaska congressional delegation diverges in response to Trump policies

Yahoo

22-03-2025

Mar. 21—In events across the state in recent days, crowds of Alaskans have demanded that U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan do more to hear from constituents and oppose actions by President Donald Trump, including efforts to vastly shrink the size and scope of the federal government.
At an event organized Thursday by 907 Initiative, a progressive advocacy group, roughly 600 people showed up in Anchorage to protest the firing of federal workers, a freeze on federal funding sources, President Donald Trump's efforts to shut down the U.S. Department of Education and USAID, tariffs on Canadian goods, and cuts to Medicaid that could be needed to help offset Trump's plan to extend tax cuts.
Similar events in Juneau and Fairbanks also drew crowds exceeding 100.
The protests come as a chasm has emerged in Alaska's three-member, all-Republican congressional delegation — with Begich and Sullivan on one side, and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski on the other.
Murkowski is one of the few Republican members of Congress who has openly defied Trump since he began his second term. In comments earlier this week, Murkowski said she would not be "cowed" by an administration that has largely shut down internal dissent.
"Everybody else is like, 'Well, how come nobody else is saying anything?' Well, figure it out. They're looking at how many things are being thrown at me and they're like, 'Maybe I better just duck and cover.' That's why you've got everybody just zip-lipped, not saying a word. They're afraid they're going to be taken down, they're going to be primaried, they're going to be given names in the media," Murkowski said earlier this week. "We cannot be cowed into not speaking up."
The National Republican Congressional Committee instructed Republican lawmakers earlier this month to refrain from in-person town halls in order to skirt backlash over the cuts undertaken by the Trump administration. Trump dismissed contentious town halls, saying they were attended by "paid 'troublemakers.'"
Murkowski said her opposition to the Trump administration may mean that Elon Musk, a billionaire who has taken a prominent role in the Trump administration, "is going to decide to take next $1 billion he makes off of Starlink and put it directly against" her. But that shouldn't stop lawmakers from voicing dissent, she said.
The divide between Murkowski and Sullivan came into sharp focus this week when both senators delivered their annual addresses to the state Legislature.
In Murkowski's view, Trump was not "staying in the executive lane," and his moves to abruptly and vastly shrink the size and scope of the federal government could hamper the state and harm its residents. She said Congress has a duty to assert its role when Trump sought to usurp it.
According to Sullivan, Trump is fulfilling a promise to boost Alaska's natural resource industry, compared to Democratic administrations that prioritized environmental conservation. Federal employees may lose their jobs and funding may be cut, but in Sullivan's portrayal, those impacts would largely be overshadowed by the economic opportunities heralded by the Trump administration.
As protests popped up in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks and other communities across the state, Murkowski said she wanted to hear directly from disgruntled Alaskans.
"Maybe I can't fix anything, but I am — by God — going to listen to you," Murkowski said in a press availability this week. "I'm not going to be afraid to go into your protest and say, 'Let's sit down and let's talk.'"
Sullivan, meanwhile, broadly dismissed questions about his lack of recent engagement with constituents worried about Trump's actions. He said that he regularly meets with Alaskans and that recent invitations to town halls came too late for him to fit them into his schedule.
"My No. 1 priority has always been constructive and meaningful engagement with my constituents," said Sullivan. "Maybe it's not in Anchorage or Fairbanks, but a town hall in a small Native village or Kotzebue, which I did the summer a couple times, that's a town hall, right? So there's a little bit of arrogance, saying 'If you're not doing a town hall in Anchorage, it's not a town hall for Alaska.'"
(More than a third of Alaskans live within Anchorage city limits.)
"There's an element of theater to some of this," Sullivan said. "People stand up and they're looking for that viral moment, and they're yelling and screaming."
"If there's constructive engagement, I'm all for it. If it's all about screaming and yelling and a viral moment that they want to send out to their colleagues, you know, it's not necessarily the most constructive way," Sullivan said.
Aubrey Wieber, executive director of the 907 Initiative, which led planning for the Anchorage event, said Sullivan's response is "a lie."
"There is zero evidence that he's talking to constituents. He is staying in very friendly places," said Wieber, who was a reporter for the Daily News in 2019 and 2020. At the Anchorage town hall he organized, some speakers said they had attempted to speak with Sullivan to no avail.
"The idea of, 'I don't want to go into that uncomfortable place' — maybe you shouldn't be a U.S. senator. That's the job," said Wieber, whose organization does not disclose its donors.
Anchorage's town hall organizers had viral moments in mind. The organizers handed out posters that read "Chicken Nick" and "Doormat Dan." People in chicken costumes roamed the filled-to-the-gills venue at the Loussac Library, as organizers repeatedly encouraged protesters to post about the event on social media.
The event also drew Alaskans who had personal stories to share on the impacts of Trump's 2-month-old administration.
Michael Macans told the crowd that he previously worked on disaster preparedness for the Small Business Administration, a job he found meaningful and that put him in position to help Alaska businesses prepare for scenarios like volcano eruptions or glacial flooding.
Amid Musk-led efforts to cut the size of the federal workforce, Macans was fired from his job last month, then rehired, then fired again, only to be rehired and placed on administrative leave.
"I just may set the record for being fired from the same job the most times. Does that sound efficient?" Macans said. "Elon's 'oopsie' means an Alaska family goes without a paycheck, goes without health care, goes without the critical government services they rely on."
The event — featuring empty chairs on a stage for Begich and Sullivan, and long lines of Alaskans with prepared remarks to deliver to the absent lawmakers — brought together Anchorage residents with a variety of experiences: a nurse who worried about cuts that would diminish her patients' access to health care; parents of children with disabilities who worried their access to education would be curtailed with the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education; veterans with fears about Trump's openness to Russia.
A poll conducted earlier this month by Data for Progress found that Trump is viewed favorably by a majority of Alaskans. In a survey of 1,000 Alaskans, 51% had a favorable view of Trump, 49% had a favorable view of Murkowski, 47% had a favorable view of Sullivan and 44% had a favorable view of Begich.
Betsy Baker, an Anchorage-based attorney, said she was part of a group that had met with Sullivan to convey concerns about the Trump administration's actions. She thanked the organizers of the Anchorage town hall but said it was publicized using "humorous but disparaging nicknames for our elected officials" that "have the effect of turning away some folks who might have come had the event been publicized somewhat differently."
Baker said future events should appeal to a wider circle, including to people who voted for Trump. "Find the Trump voters who have remorse," she said.
Wieber, the event organizer, said "the time for being polite is gone."
"This is not a moment for pleasantries. This is a moment to grab people's attention," he said.
None of Alaska's congressional delegation members announced town hall events in Anchorage during the current recess. Begich appeared at an invitation-only event in Anchorage on Tuesday hosted by Commonwealth North, but organizers of the event declined to allow a Daily News journalist to attend. Sullivan was scheduled to appear at a $100-per-seat fundraiser in Fairbanks on Friday hosted by a local Republican group.
Sullivan spokesperson Amanda Coyne said Friday though none of meetings in Fairbanks were open to the wider public, Sullivan also met with a group of high schoolers, the mayor of North Pole, the North Pole Fire Department, members of Air National uard, and the Greater Fairbanks Board of Realtors.
Begich, who delivered his annual address to the Legislature last month, has declined multiple interview requests from the Daily News in recent weeks, including one sent earlier this week.
Begich spokesperson Silver Prout said in a statement that Begich had spent "countless hours on the ground talking to Alaskans."
"He has taken his message directly to Alaskans and has invested time in hearing their concerns and aspirations as he advocates in D.C. for a stronger Alaska," Prout wrote.
The renewed interest in town hall events harkens back to 2017, when the first Trump presidency elicited strong reactions from voters. When Sullivan held a town hall at Bartlett High School in May 2017, he was met with boos that intensified when he signaled his support for Trump policies, including efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Sullivan said Thursday that his speech before the Alaska Legislature was "the ultimate town hall." Following his address, he took questions from lawmakers, including ones from lawmakers who conveyed concerns about Trump policies and the lack of pushback from congressional Republicans.
Sen. Forrest Dunbar, an Anchorage Democrat, said "there are many Alaskans who believe that we are now in a constitutional crisis. They worry that Congress has abdicated your spending authority, that the Trump administration is now openly defying court orders, and that Elon Musk is illegally firing people, destroying programs mandated by law, delaying contracts and impounding funds that Congress has appropriated. They worry that you have no red line when it comes to Trump or Musk." Dunbar asked Sullivan if he would commit to oppose cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
Sullivan did not directly respond to Dunbar's remarks. Instead, he held up a printed copy of Trump's executive order to boost Alaska's resource development industry. "This is really important," Sullivan said.
The next day, all 19 members of the House Republican minority caucus signed on to a letter apologizing for what they said was "discourteous treatment" of Sullivan by majority legislators in the House and Senate.
"The tone and manner of certain inquiries — preceded by what can only be described as unnecessary grilling and regrettable rhetoric— fell far short of the respect and decorum you deserve," the House minority wrote.
Coyne, a Sullivan spokesperson, said Sullivan "appreciated the letter."
"Others can assess whether or not some of the exchanges were discourteous. But Sen. Sullivan has experienced a lot more stressful events in his life than a few aggressive questions from Democratic members of the Legislature. He wasn't bothered by it all," Coyne said.
While Sullivan saw "aggressive questions" from Democrats, Murkowski said this week she was contending with pointed questions from the right.
"I'm going to have to stiffen my spine and take the slings and arrows when people say: 'Why aren't you a better Republican?'" she said.
"I'm going to speak up for the institution," Murkowski told reporters. "Some might interpret that as I'm pushing back on Trump, I'm poking a finger in the eye of Trump. But I am not. I am standing up for my role as a duly elected senator and a member of the congressional branch."
Daily News reporter Sean Maguire contributed from Juneau.