While Republican US Rep. Nick Begich has downplayed his connections to President Donald Trump as he heads into this year’s election, he began his term as a diehard supporter who tried to sell Alaskans on the massive cuts made by Elon Musk’s DOGE.
Begich, who originally ran for office on concerns about out-of-control federal spending, was one of the first to join the Congressional DOGE Caucus and told lawmakers during his 2025 legislative address that fears that it would cut too fast, too deep, and without enough consideration of its real-world impacts were overblown.
“Elon Musk may be running that effort, but everything that gets done has to be approved and signed off by the President,” Begich said at the time. “The process for government reductions in spending is not going to be a perfect one, and I’m not here to represent to you that it will be, but we want to make sure that Alaska’s interests are protected.”
He also downplayed concerns from lawmakers and businesses that the cuts would have an outsized impact on Alaska, which has some of the highest per-capita federal spending of any state. He excused the rushed process that relied heavily on AI to root out words like “diversity,” “equity” and “inclusion” as innovation and argued that he could advocate for critical projects.
“I recognize the process won’t be perfect. But I know that I want to make sure that we’re advocating for the right kinds of people and programs that we need in Alaska,” he said. “We realize that Alaska is unique and different.”
A year later, it’s abundantly clear that Alaska’s unique interests were not protected.
Alaska lost more than 10% of its federal workforce in a year, which amounts to about 1,600 fewer jobs statewide, according to analysis by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, bringing the state’s federal employment level to a 35-year low. It makes Alaska the second-hardest-hit state in terms of federal job losses.
The US Department of Defense’s civilian workforce was hit particularly hard by the cuts, with major cutbacks in services provided around the state’s network of military bases. Federal cutbacks were blamed for Fort Greely struggling to feed its soldiers for months on end, including a period when they had to rely on ready-to-eat meals (MREs). The situation raised concerns that it could impact the readiness of the base’s missile defense system.
Other cuts have had far-reaching impacts on the state’s economy, according to the state’s analysis, including cuts to the Forest Service, which lost 180 jobs, and NOAA, which lost 101. Those cuts had major impacts on the quality of weather forecasting, fisheries management, and tourism.
At the time, several state legislators—who would be saddled with much of the cuts handed down by the federal government—warned that Begich’s assurances were nothing but empty promises.
“Don Young and I had our disagreements, but I’ll say this: there’s no way he would have tolerated this sloppy, corrupt DOGE bullshit,” state Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, who ran against Young in 2014, wrote in a social media post in Feb. 2025. “Elon Musk and his cronies are being given access to Americans’ personal data, while illegally firing people with oversight of their own companies.
“And they’re doing it explicitly to partially finance (most of it will be in debt) an upper-income tax cut for people like Nick Begich III. No wonder he’s part of their caucus. Putting Alaska last.”
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.
