President Donald Trump is set to headline a campaign rally in Wasilla on Tuesday afternoon, in an effort to boost Republican incumbents in Alaska’s U.S. Senate and U.S. House races.
It’s part of a busy campaign schedule for the 80-year-old president, who in recent days has held events in Nebraska, Texas, New York, Tennessee and Ohio as he seeks to bolster Republicans ahead of the midterm elections.
The Wasilla rally, which is set to begin at 3 p.m. at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, comes on the heels of a similar campaign event in Fairbanks last week that featured Vice President JD Vance.
The events were planned in large part to shore up support for Alaska’s U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is locked in a heated race that could help determine whether Republicans retain control of the Senate after the midterm elections.
Sullivan, a Republican, faces a challenge from Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola. She received more votes than Sullivan did in Alaska’s open primary in August.
Trump is set to be joined onstage in Wasilla by Sullivan, along with Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich.
Begich faces a challenge from independent candidate Bill Hill, a commercial fisherman and retired public educator who trailed Begich in the primary.
Not on the agenda for the rally are the candidates in Alaska’s open race for governor. Three Republican candidates — Bernadette Wilson, Dave Bronson and Treg Taylor — have all praised Trump’s policies, but none have received his endorsement. The three are set to face a single Democrat, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, in a ranked choice contest in November to succeed current Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Trump-endorsed Republican who is termed out from seeking reelection.
Trump’s arrival in Alaska follows a controversial Alaska-focused event he hosted in the Oval Office earlier this month. Trump, surrounded by a cadre of cabinet members along with Sullivan, Begich and Dunleavy, announced that South Korea had agreed to invest $54 billion to construct a long-sought natural gas pipeline in Alaska. South Korean officials promptly denied that they had made such a commitment.
During the White House event, Trump showered praise on Sullivan, calling him “a great senator who is totally responsible for this pipeline.”
The rally will be held in Wasilla, a GOP stronghold, in a district Trump carried with more than 75% of the vote in 2024. The venue has a capacity of up to 3,500 seats. It’s a change from the rally Trump held in Alaska in the summer of 2022, when he stumped for Alaska candidates on the campus of the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Trump’s 2022 rally was a lesson in the limits of his influence on Alaska’s election results. Trump traveled to Anchorage to boost Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka, who was running against the more moderate Republican incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski defeated Tshibaka. Trump also campaigned for former Gov. Sarah Palin, who was running for Alaska’s U.S. House seat. Palin lost the race to Peltola, the Democrat.
Trump won Alaska’s presidential elections in 2016, 2020 and 2024, but recent polling indicates that his popularity in the state is waning.
Several groups have planned counter-rallies and protests in conjunction with Trump’s visit, including the campaign of Hill — Begich’s challenger — who is scheduled to speak at the Delaney Park Strip near downtown Anchorage at 10 a.m. about gas prices, and Trump policies that have contributed to their rise.
The Wasilla Police Department and Alaska State Troopers cautioned drivers that streets around the Trump rally venue will be closed between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday, including Clapp Street, Beacon Street and Aviation Avenue. Pedestrian access to the Menard Center will be curtailed for security reasons.
Drivers can expect delays along the Glenn and Parks highways between Wasilla and Anchorage much of the day, according to law enforcement.
