Anchorage’s local election is April 1. To find a ballot drop-off box, visit here.
A year after Anchorage voters sent right-wing Mayor Dave Bronson packing in the 2024 election, a new round of conservative candidates are seeking office, and some are generating a lot of concern over their extreme comments and dubious connections.
While conservative candidates like Jared Goecker, Mark Anthony Cox and Daniel George share similar views on education and local government, much of the alarm in this upcoming election is focused on Anchorage school board candidate Alexander Rosales, who has espoused extreme and sometimes violent rhetoric on his X account ‘Tears of Valhalla.’
Rosales has presented himself as a typical far-right candidate primarily motivated by culture war issues swirling around the public school system. But on X, he’s made posts attacking Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Alaska Natives, liberals and trans people.
The posts have been documented by progressive-leaning activists Ivan Hodes, who beefed famously with now-former right-wing Wasilla Rep. David Eastman, and Betsy Peratrovich, the granddaughter of Alaska civil rights icon Elizabeth Peratrovich. Hodes was one of the first to link Rosales to his X account, reposting comments on his Bluesky account:
“Babe, wake up, new Anchorage School Board candidate just dropped,” he wrote in a Bluesky post in January, “Meet Alexander Rosales, aka ‘Tears of Valhalla,’ candidate for Seat A. He’s a white nationalist and heinous transphobe masquerading as a compassionate conservative.”
In the thread, he explained how while Rosales’ campaign has focused on much of the standard right-wing talking points about parental choice, patriotism, “biased curriculum,” and his opposition to Common Core, his posting on X has revealed far more extreme views.
In one post that has drawn particular attention, Rosales wrote, “Ban trans kinds. Make the penalty jail time and castration for the parents” in a response to conspiracy entertainer Alex Jones. Hodes even attended a candidate forum where he asked about the post. After denying it, Rosales says Hodes was overlooking context and it was really about protecting children from violence.
“It just comes down to, if somebody’s going to harm a child, there should be some kind of consequence,” he said at a candidate forum, according to the ADN, also claiming that the “school board has been complicit in transitioning kids and not notifying parents … So, of course, I’m going to be abrasive about it. But do I want to castrate anybody? No.”
Right-wing media has reflexively circled the wagons to defend Rosales, with conservative radio personality Dan Fagan penning an op-ed on Must Read Alaska in early March, defending Rosales and calling Hodes a “race-baiting troll.” It even attacked Rosales’ opponent, Margo Bellamy, for not condemning Hodes’ “unfounded and vicious attacks.”
Hodes said in an interview this week that he’s undaunted by the attacks and believes it’s important to call out and respond to the rising extreme-right.
“I feel called to shed light on the extremism of Rosales and others because the increasing acceptance of candidates with this kind of rhetoric is a threat to the basic fabric of the country I love,” he said, adding that all too often, candidates like him float under the radar. “To me, someone like him running with the support of conservative institutions was a five-alarm fire, and I responded with urgency.”
He said that in the past, candidates like Rosales would have faced complete shunning by fellow conservatives, but in the modern political landscape, they’re more likely to reflexively circle the wagons and write off progressive concerns.
“Even ten years ago, establishment Republicans – even right-wing ones – would have been stepping over each other in a rush to get away from a candidate obsessed with castration, who defended Hitler, who disparaged Alaska Natives as corrupt and ignorant, and who mainlined antisemitic conspiracy theories, who thought it was sometimes appropriate to call people the n-word,” he said. “And yet Rosales is being pushed forward in local Republican circles, defended in writing and on the air by prominent conservatives like Dan Fagan, because it seems nowadays anyone is deemed ‘one of us,’ and therefore to be supported and defended, simply because they oppose what they see as the liberal status quo.”
That said, as election day has neared, some candidates have tried to put distance between themselves and Rosales.
Fellow conservative school board candidate Mark Anthony Cox, who has run three times for school board and also shares many conservative views on public schooling, such as giving top-performing schools more funding than underperforming schools, wrote that he has walked back his support of Rosales.
“As a school board member, I want to make decisions based on data or facts with sources I can share with the community, and since receiving new information, I have to reevaluate my choice for Seat A. Margo Bellamy is objectively the better candidate,” he said in a Facebook comment. “I want to thank those who respectfully gave their reasons paired with facts so that I could have this objective analysis.”
Cox is running against Kelly Lessens, who has been a long-time ally of Bellamy.
Other candidates have had a harder time distancing themselves.
Hodes also pointed out that Jared Goecker, who’s running for the Eagle River assembly seat after losing to moderate Republican Sen. Kelly Merrick by more than 10 points in the 2024 state elections, has more than just a passing connection to Rosales. Rosales helped doorknock for Goecker during the 2024 election and was a key volunteer, something Hodes hasn’t let slide.
“Seems like Anchorage Assembly candidate Jared Goecker would prefer people not to know about his ties to white nationalist school Board candidate Alexander Rosales,” Hodes wrote in one post. “So please DO NOT SHARE these embarrassing photos of the two of them together.”
When Goecker eventually distanced himself from Rosales, Rosales took to X to write, “Disclaimer: EVERYTHING I said about #JaredForAlaska was (likely) wrong” and called him a RINO (Republican in Name Only).
Other candidates are facing scrutiny for their connections beyond Rosales. In a post, The Blue Alaskan writer Matthew Beck documented conservative assembly candidate Daniel George’s close far-right connections that include working as a legislative aide for then-state Sen. Mike Dunleavy and other conservatives like U.S. Rep. Nick Begich and former U.S. Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Similar to Rosales, Beck argues that George is trying to adopt a more standard conservative identity while having some pretty questionable connections.
“And it’s a record that makes one thing clear: Daniel George is not running merely to represent North Anchorage. He’s here to promote the same regressive policies that have left the city in a financial mess,” Beck wrote.
For progressives in Anchorage, the specter of extreme-right politics is all too real. The narrow election of former Mayor Dave Bronson saw the city government swerve to the right, empowering racists, fraudsters, and generally poor public services as allegations of a hostile workplace also spread.
To them, Rosales may be the most out in the open, but the concern is those views are increasingly coming out of the shadows.
Betsy Peratrovich said she first learned about Rosales’ views from Hodes but was even more alarmed as she started doing her own digging. On Facebook, she’s put together an exhaustive album of Rosales’ social media posts and written at length to call out his views. She said she’s met people who’ve already voted, only to find out later about Rosales’ views. She says she hopes they’ll at least help spread the word as more people cast their ballots.
“It just really struck a chord in me. It’s just so hard to believe that the climate in our country allows somebody like that to run for office but for other people to think that’s OK in spite of the things he’s said,” she said. “It’s just incredible to me. I think back to the discrimination my grandparents faced. And it’s just pretty unsettling to hear people saying the quiet parts out loud again.”
A sampling of Rosales’ posts
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
