The legislative addresses by Alaska U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan earlier this month painted wildly different pictures of how they’re standing up – or not – to the Trump administration’s haphazard cuts to critical services in the state.
The split between the two Republicans was so noticeable that it featured in a Washington Post story today, highlighting their different approaches to handling the cuts handed down by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. It’s particularly critical because Alaska is more reliant on the federal government than most other states.
Murkowski told the Post that legislators need to stop being so afraid of getting crosswise with the White House and start standing up for their constituents.
“We’ve got to stop being so anxious and looking over our shoulders and saying, ‘Oh, my gosh, am I going to offend somebody and there’s going to be political retribution?’” Murkowski said. “This is the United States of America. Political retribution should not be something that even exists.”
Murkowski – a longtime Trump critic – was not shy about her criticism of his return to the White House during her annual address to the Alaska Legislature, calling the cuts “traumatizing” for Alaskans who were fired by a federal government agency with little knowledge of the state. She also said the public criticism hasn’t stopped her from working with the federal government to protect key services in the state.
The political blowback against Murkowski from GOP diehards has long been a fact of life for Murkowski, dating to well before Trump was elected. She won a write-in campaign in 2010 after losing the GOP primary to a Tea Party challenger and handily beat a Trump-backed GOP challenger in 2022. The threat of renewed efforts to find a more pliant replacement was raised during a news conference following her legislative address.
“It may be that Elon Musk has decided he’s going to take the next billion dollars that he makes off of Starlink and put it directly against Lisa Murkowski,” she said at the time. “And you know what? That may happen. But I’m not giving up one minute, one opportunity, to try to stand up for Alaskans.”
Sullivan’s address painted a wildly different picture, filled with praise for Trump on everything from resource development to his deal-making acumen with foreign powers. Sullivan largely refused to say anything remotely negative about Trump or Elon Musk’s DOGE, instead insisting that they should take a more friendly approach with Trump.
When legislators asked about the cuts imperiling key parts of the state’s economy, such as tourism and fisheries, Sullivan directed them to fill out a form and explain why the cuts they were worried about would impact the economy, safety or Trump’s executive order on resource development. If he agreed on the need, he said he’d try to advocate for a reversal.
Inspiringly, he said they had “some success.”
The Washington Post reporting paints a very different picture of just how willing the senators are to engage with Alaskans affected by the cuts. While Sullivan has ducked public town halls, including one that drew more than 600 people in Anchorage, it doesn’t sound like he’s taking many smaller meetings either.
“He’s nonexistent in our world,” Nancy Soriano, the vice president for Region 10 of the National Federation of Federal Employees Forest Service Council, told the Post about Sullivan. “Haven’t heard a peep out of him.”
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.
