It’s been nearly a week since President Trump held a rally in Wasilla campaigning for Republican candidates up and down the ballot. He urged supporters to vote for Republicans in the races for House and Senate and unveiled his pick for governor: business owner Bernadette Wilson.
And since the president’s visit, conservatives have been struggling with one particular question:
“Did he help, or did he hurt?” wondered talk radio host Michael Dukes on his weekday morning show on Oct. 14, a day after Trump spoke in Wasilla.
While conservatives — including Trump — were hoping the president’s visit would provide a boost to Republican candidates, some say they’re not so sure it did.
It would have been an unthinkable idea two years ago. Trump won Alaska by 13 points in 2024, his third time in a row winning the state by double-digit margins.
And for a state with less than a million people, the president talks about it a lot. He has sought to boost oil and gas drilling. He’s offered support for a pipeline connecting North Slope natural gas with customers further south. And Alaska, as conservatives are quick to point out, was the only state with its own executive order issued on Trump’s first day back in office.
As Republicans urge supporters to rank, Trump offers solo endorsement
At the rally, Republican officials urged the crowd to rank all three conservative candidates for governor: small business owner Bernadette Wilson, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson and ex-Attorney General Treg Taylor.
“There are three of them. I need you to vote for each one of them,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy, the outgoing Republican term-limited from seeking reelection.
Trump, on the other hand, forcefully rejected Bronson and Taylor. On Truth Social, he said Bronson “begged” for his endorsement and then went back on a promise to drop out. And Trump said he had “never heard of” Taylor, despite his work on Trump’s Alaska executive order.
Instead, Trump put his support exclusively behind Wilson.
“She’s the one that won the primary. She’s the one that should be able to run singly, one-on-one,” Trump said.
And he didn’t exactly endorse ranking the others.
“You have that ranked choice voting, which is a phony rigged deal,” Trump said. “So, lots of luck, Bernadette. But I’m with you all the way.”
Taylor and Bronson have both declined to drop out, and they’ve disputed some of the president’s claims.
But on conservative talk radio, some hosts are worried the damage might be done. For one, Dukes says Trump’s harsh words for Bronson and Taylor might lead the president’s most dedicated supporters to “bullet vote,” voting only for Wilson.
“There’s no way that they’re going to rank Bronson and Treg Taylor,” Dukes said. “Because Bronson’s a liar, according to the president, and Treg Taylor’s a nobody that he’s never heard of.”
Some worry impact could extend to Senate race
Joe “Crash” Albrecht, the producer of the Mike Porcaro Show on KENI, called Trump’s comments about Taylor and Bronson “counterproductive.”
“If people are influenced by him, as you say, taking a whack at them, and that deters them from voting for them, that whole thing is hurting the Republican Party as a whole in the state of Alaska,” he said.
The worries extend beyond conservative talk radio. Taylor’s campaign manager, April Gettys, said in an interview Friday that she was worried the president’s detour into the governor’s race might dampen turnout among Republican-leaning voters wary of Wilson. Gettys said she was concerned that could hamper Republicans’ chances of winning the closely watched Senate race.
“Those statements made many voters feel that they just don’t even want to vote,” she said. “They feel that those statements just handed the race over to the Democrats.”
Some 57% of Alaska’s registered voters are independents, who list their affiliation as “nonpartisan” or “undeclared.” And pollster Ivan Moore of Alaska Survey Research said voters across the board have soured on Trump. Recent polls show far more Alaskans disapprove of Trump than approve of him, Moore said.
“He’s at a minus 21, meaning his disapproval is 21 points higher than his approval,” Moore said ahead of the president’s rally.
To be sure, not all conservatives think the president’s visit hurt Republicans’ chances. In an interview after Trump’s visit, Bronson himself said he didn’t buy the idea.
“I can’t say I agree with that narrow assessment of it,” he said.
And Wilson, appearing on KVNT’s Amy Demboski Show the morning after Trump spoke, said she thought the rally had lit a “firestorm” of enthusiasm.
“There were so many Alaskans feeling like they were confused in this governor’s race. ‘My gosh, what do we do?’ They were feeling defeated by it,” Wilson said. “Yesterday gave this shot in the arm, and they realized, all right, now I see where to go.”
Wilson did not respond to interview requests
Trump’s visit at least got Republicans talking, which might translate into better turnout, said Brett Huber, a former Dunleavy adviser who now hosts the political podcast “On Air with Brett Huber.”
But Huber hopes the president’s foray into the governor’s race fades quickly from voters’ memories, he said.
“I hope the impact over time ends up being no impact,” he said.
