Alaska Republican US Rep. Nick Begich III has not only figuratively stood by a Republican state lawmaker accused of grooming a teenager in the 1990s, but he’s stood by her literally.
State Sen. Cathy Tilton (R-Wasilla) is accused of pursuing a manipulative, sexual relationship by the family of a Wasilla man who died by suicide in 2023, in what an Oct. 13 report by the Anchorage Daily News described as “an open secret in Mat-Su for years.” Tilton has not addressed the allegations. She continues to campaign for her seat and attend Republican campaign events, where she often shares center stage with party leaders.
That includes church-organized candidate events at King’s Alaska on Oct. 4, where she was photographed standing alongside Begich, and at an Oct. 18 event at Church on the Rock near US Sen. Dan Sullivan and his family.
What are the allegations against Tilton?
The allegations began circulating in earnest earlier this year, according to interviews by the ADN, and were explicitly detailed on an anonymously hosted website that included several on-camera interviews with family and friends of Luke Whaley, who died in 2023 at the age of 47.
In a nine-minute video, they describe a long, troubling history that allegedly began when Whaley was in high school and working for Tilton, and continued for decades into his adulthood. According to several interviews with the ADN, friends and family attribute his suicide to what Tilton put him through.
Melissa Faustino, a classmate of Whaley’s who attended the same church, told the paper she remembered him confiding in her after she caught Tilton sitting very close to Whaley as a teen.
“It looked inappropriate to me from a teenage perspective,” she said. “He expressed even then that he felt like it was wrong and she had taken advantage of him, but he’d also fallen in love during that time period. He was like, ‘I know it’s wrong, but I just can’t stop.’”
Faustino added that part of what made it so difficult for Whaley was that Tilton was older than him and held the power and influence that come with being a well-connected politician.
Tilton takes partial credit for Begich’s win
Tilton has many campaign photos with big names in Alaska Republican circles, where she has continued to campaign despite the allegations. One photo shows Tilton and Begich together in 2022 at a campaign rally, when Begich was running for the U.S. House and Tilton for the Alaska House.
While Begich lost that race, Tilton won hers, and a slim Republican majority made her Speaker of the House, where she had strong control over the flow of bills and scheduling.
And heading into the 2024 election, Tilton claimed she used that position to help Begich in his race against Democratic US Rep. Mary Peltola.
On a conservative talk radio appearance in Oct. 2024, Tilton took credit for killing an election bill because one provision “would have leaned the election towards Mary Peltola.” She complained that reforms aimed at reducing the rate at which ballots from rural, predominantly Alaska Native communities are rejected for procedural errors, such as a missing witness signature, would help Peltola, who is Alaska Native.
The admission angered Alaska Native leaders, with the Alaska Federation of Natives issuing a statement calling the action to kill the bill an effort to disenfranchise rural Alaska Native voters—who are often stereotyped as monolithic Democratic voters by conservatives (they’re not). Voters in rural, mostly Alaska Native districts see their ballots disqualified at a far higher rate than in urban, mostly white districts.
Begich ultimately won his race in 2024, but thanks in part to Tilton’s efforts as Speaker of the House, voters in rural communities are still facing higher ballot disqualification rates than the rest of the state.
According to an Alaska Beacon analysis of this year’s primary election, nearly 40% of the mail-in ballots in House District 40, which covers the North Slope and Northwest Arctic Borough, were rejected, while the statewide rejection rate averaged 3.4%.
In Tilton’s legislative district, the ballot rejection rate was less than 2%, with 15 ballots rejected out of nearly 850 cast.
While Republicans seem willing to ignore or dismiss the allegations against Tilton, Begich hasn’t forgotten what she did for him in the 2024 election and endorsed her in August—a relatively rare move in state legislative races.
“I am proud to support my friend, Senator Cathy Tilton,” Begich wrote. “Cathy has dedicated herself to serving Alaska with integrity, conviction and strong conservative leadership. … I am grateful for her friendship, her service and her continued commitment to the people of Alaska.”
This year, Begich faces independent candidate Bill Hill, who, like Peltola, is Alaska Native.
Tilton faces a three-way race against Democratic candidate Pat Chesbro and Republican Ryan Berry. Tilton led in the state’s open primary, with 42% of the vote, while Chesbro received 31% and Berry got 24%. When asked about the allegations, Berry stopped short of confirming them, but didn’t exactly deny them.
“It’s a small town. I grew up here, went to high school here. There were rumors. But I don’t have any facts or anything like that,” said Berry.
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 newsletter on the Alaska Legislature, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
