Dan Sullivan “Bristled” at “Hit Piece” Questions About His Support for Price-Hiking Iran War As Gas and Fuel Prices Soar in Alaska

GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, when confronted about policies impacting high gas and diesel prices: “I thought you were asking me campaign stuff […] Is this like a hit piece or what?”

In a new interview with POLITICO, Senator Dan Sullivan “bristled” after being questioned about rising gas costs – and about his staggering 14 votes in favor of the Iran war that has caused “economic pain” and has “hit Alaska hard.” 

When asked about policies impacting rising gas and diesel costs, Sullivan bemoaned that the interview was a “hit piece” after he “repeatedly denied chances” to distance himself from his price-spiking record, even though Alaska voters are now paying up to $26 a gallon for gas in some parts of the state thanks to the Sullivan-backed war – and with “nearly all goods” shipped in by plane or barge, Alaskans are paying more for everything.

After landing in “the top quarter of most-absent senators” and tripling his wealth while in D.C., “mediocre,” “vulnerable” Sullivan is “tied with or trailing former Rep. Mary Peltola, ” who is “capitalizing on voters’ frustrations with the high cost of energy and goods,” and even Republicans admit they’re “not the position [they’d] love to be in,” with one lifelong Trump voter conceding he “think[s] Alaska’s turning blue.”

See for yourself:

POLITICO: ‘Is this like a hit piece or what?’: Dan Sullivan’s MAGA balancing act

• Dan Sullivan isn’t running away from President Donald Trump like so many other vulnerable Republicans. 
• During a candidate debate, speaking at an economic forum and in an interview with Playbook this week, Sullivan repeatedly denied chances to put distance between himself and Trump’s most unpopular policies and positions.
• Has the economic pain from the war with Iran been worth it for Alaskans? “The real economic pain is when Democrats get control,” Sullivan told POLITICO, sitting in the shadow of a well-antlered taxidermy moose head, next to a roaring fire, at a ski resort tucked up in the mountains off the Turnagain Arm southeast of Anchorage.
• What about the $5,000 dividends Trump has promised voters if Republicans hold control of Congress, as he did at a rally for Sullivan in Wasilla on Tuesday? “I’ve got to look at the legislation. I don’t know,” Sullivan said. “That was the first time I heard it from him, and I would just evaluate that if and when it happens.”
• Does he want to see data centers — which Trump has pushed for further development despite some pushback from local communities — pop up on Alaska’s undeveloped land? He’s not putting his foot down. “They definitely got to pay their own way in terms of energy,” Sullivan said. “They have to have local input and approval, and we’ll see.”
• In light of Trump’s decision to import Russian diesel, did Sullivan think the Trump administration was being too friendly with Russia? “I thought you were asking me campaign stuff,” Sullivan replied. “Is this like a hit piece or what?” […] Sullivan didn’t sign a bipartisan letter calling on the president to reverse the decision […] 
• But Trump, for better or worse, is a centerpiece of races like Sullivan’s. The president has pleaded with voters at rallies to “pretend I’m on the ballot” — just as he did alongside Sullivan on Tuesday.
• He’s proud to have the president campaign alongside him, plus Vice President JD Vance, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
• “I’m bringing up my people,” Sullivan said. “I’m not afraid of that.”
• Polls show Sullivan tied with or trailing former Rep. Mary Peltola, one of Democrats’ top hopes to help flip the Senate. 
• “It was Trump plus-13 two years ago, so it is not the position we’d love to be in […]” said Kevin Greene, the state director for Americans for Prosperity-Alaska, which has knocked on tens of thousands of doors for Sullivan.
• On one such door-to-door trip with Greene in Anchorage on Thursday morning, voters across approximately a dozen houses were about evenly split between supporting Sullivan or Peltola. Only one agreed to speak on the record to POLITICO: John Baker, a 67-year-old retiree who said he used to be a Republican but would be supporting Peltola this year.
• What happened? “Donald Trump happened,” Baker said. He added that his support for Peltola was 70% because he wanted to see Democrats take the Senate and 30% because he liked her as a candidate.
• “Dan Sullivan has tripled his wealth in the Senate and voted fourteen times for the war in Iran that is raising costs on everything from gas to groceries, Mary has been talking with Alaskans in every corner of the state about her plan to take on the rigged system in DC, lower costs, and put Alaska first,” Harry Child, a campaign spokesperson, said in a statement to POLITICO.
• Trump’s approval rating here, like the country at large, is underwater. The war with Iran has hit Alaska hard, where nearly all goods are imported by plane or barge, with urban gas prices hovering around $5 per gallon and prices in the bush often double that. In a year when Republican voters may be more likely to stay home without Trump on the ballot — Democrats eye an opening.
• “We have a golden opportunity with a fantastic candidate on our end and a really mediocre one on theirs,” said Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft. “I think we’ve been coming that way for a long time, and this is our chance to pump through.”
• “Very conservative MAGA voters can’t vote for you harder,” said Scott Kendall, a veteran political strategist who worked on two of Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaigns and was chief of staff to former Alaska Gov. Bill Walker. “Donald Trump’s support in this current climate is both a blessing and a curse,” Kendall noted.
• Even some reliable Trump supporters at the rally acknowledged the outlook appeared bleak.
• “I think Alaska’s turning blue,” Matt Niessink, a 45-year-old general contractor from Wasilla, said at the rally. He said he had voted for Trump three times and planned to support Republicans this year.