A food drive outside Begich’s office featured fiery condemnations of the Republican and his party.
After Democrats ran up the score in Tuesday’s elections around the country with messages based on affordability and the economy, that same call to action was echoed in Alaska by groups seeking to unseat the state’s two Republican congressmen.
Several progressive political groups and unions joined together on Thursday for a food drive outside the office of GOP U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, who, along with fellow Republicans, hasn’t been in session for more than a month as the party continues to refuse to meaningfully engage on ending the government shutdown. The shutdown has become the longest in the nation’s history, throwing everything from social safety nets like food stamps to air travel into uncertainty.
“We are currently in a government shutdown, and this man is on vacation, a seven-week paid vacation … and SNAP benefits are on hold,” said Stand Up Alaska organizer Erin Jackson to the crowd as volunteers handed out soup and collected food bank donations. “We are talking about people’s food security. We are talking about children going hungry. We are talking about elderly people scared about how they’re going to feed themselves. We are talking about disabled folks who have a hard enough time getting to the store, now they don’t have the money to pay for what they need. And this man sits on vacation, paid by us. Now, I don’t know how he looks at himself in the mirror, but I know that he is not representing me. He is not representing us, and he is not representing Alaskans. So we are here to feed our community while he starves our community.”
Funding for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, has been one of the most severe consequences of the shutdown. The Trump administration’s initial refusal to tap contingency funds for the program meant more than 66,000 Alaskans would not receive benefits starting in November. Though a later court ruling ordered the Trump administration to tap those funds, the administration put forward a plan to pay reduced benefits — down from about $10 per person per day in assistance to $5 — which could be delayed by weeks.
A ruling today orders the president to fully fund the program.
Still, the uncertainty and shutdown have created enormous pressure on the state’s network of food banks, which were already seeing sharply increased need over the last year. Anti-hunger advocates, however, warn that the food bank system cannot replace the roughly $25 million in monthly food assistance Alaskans receive through SNAP.
Instead, many say the best solution is to reach a deal to reopen the government.
Democrats have blocked Republican efforts in an attempt to lower health care costs, but Trump and his Republicans have refused to engage. Trump, with the support of Republicans like Begich and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is also up for election in 2026, has argued that they should first reopen government, then address health care costs. Democrats say they can’t trust Trump, a point that even Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski — the lone Republican not up for election in 2026 — said she understands.
Yet, Sullivan defended his position to KTUU, noting that he stopped collecting his paycheck from his $174,000 annual congressional salary during the shutdown.
“Look, what I did when the paycheck stopped, I stopped getting my paycheck,” he said. “I’m trying to, you know, show empathy with what’s happening to our federal workers.”
Sullivan’s net worth is estimated to be about $9.8 million.
The position — along with everything else the Trump administration has been doing — was credited with a slew of Democratic victories across the country in Tuesday night’s elections. That included Zohran Mamdani’s victory as Mayor of New York City, as well as two gubernatorial races and several legislative races.
The common message throughout was that Trump’s policies weren’t working for working-class people, and Alaska’s progressives hope that will translate well in Alaska.
“People are working their ass off to pay the bills, to buy groceries, and they can’t,” said Alaska AFL-CIO head Joelle Hall. “It’s getting harder and harder and harder, and so what is this? This is the government adding one more thing on top of you, making your life even harder.”
Earlier this week, Data for Progress released polling that showed that economic anxiety is a particularly motivating issue for Alaska’s voters heading into next year’s elections. That poll also showed that U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan could be vulnerable to a challenge from Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola.
The message also paired well with what Anchorage Assemblymember Erin Baldwin Day told the crowd was Alaska’s spirit of watching out for one another. The Municipality of Anchorage, which has a progressive mayor and assembly, has played a key role in aiding hundreds of Alaskans displaced by flooding in Western Alaska. She said the city is working on contingency plans for the Women, Infants and Children food assistance program because federal funding for that program is expected to run out in mid-December.
“So here’s the deal, y’all, I need you to also step up. I need you to please give to your local food bank, just like we are doing here today,” she said. “Please continue to show up. Stand up, and let’s continue to put pressure on our elected officials to do their work and to remember that Alaskans take care of each other no matter what.”
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.
