The 2026 AlaskaVoter Guide is here! This year, the Alaska Beacon worked with Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Public Media and KTOO to bring you all the information you need on candidates, races, and important dates.
Creating this free guide requires significant resources. If you’ve found our journalism valuable, consider a donation today.
A group of pro-democracy demonstrators gathers Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Juneau on the first day of early voting for the 2026 Alaska primary election. (James Brooks photo/Alaska Beacon)
By James Brooks
Early in-person voting began Monday at 10 locations in the Railbelt, Juneau and Nome for Alaska’s Nov. 18 statewide primary election. As of July 31, just under 10,000 voters had requested absentee ballots for the election, and hundreds of absentee voters had already mailed in their votes, according to figures from the Alaska Division of Elections.
The front page of Alaska’s 2026 primary election ballot is seen on Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, the first day of early voting in person. (James Brooks photo/Alaska Beacon)
By James Brooks
Since 1994, the Alaska Republican Party has sent absentee ballot applications to registered voters across the state, urging voters to cast their ballot by mail.
The party continued the process this year, despite denunciations of mail-in voting by President Donald Trump, who has called voting by mail “cheating.”
(ADN image)
By Claire Stremple and James Brooks
The Alaska Beacon, Alaska Public Media, KTOO and the Anchorage Daily News worked together this year and have created a voter guide to help Alaskans make informed choices when they vote.
The 2026 Alaska Voter Guide won’t replace debates, forums and public statements. Instead, it’s something extra, aimed at informing voters about what candidates believe and providing a tool to hold them accountable once elected.
A super PAC listing this Wasilla office space as its address is boosting a Green Party and fringe Democratic Party candidate in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race. (Amy Bushatz/Mat-Su Sentinel)
By Nathaniel Herz, Northern Journal-Anchorage Press
Richard Grayson lives in Arizona and has been a fringe candidate in a number of federal elections. That includes in New York, where records show he’s established campaign committees named “The Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party Supports NY-21 Write-In Candidate Richard Grayson,” and “Write In Richard Grayson New York’s Cutest Communist.”
This year, Grayson is on the ballot in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race, where two heavyweights, Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola, are running in a contest that could help decide control of the chamber.
A bumblebee visits shooting stars on June 21, 2023. These early bloomers flower along coastal meadows and sea cliffs. Note the pollen sac on the bee’s hind legs. (Photo by Lisa Hupp/USFWS)
COMMENTARY
By Tim Bundy
On an August evening in Interior Alaska, the sun hangs low over the hills as a bumblebee makes its final foraging trip of the season. The fireweed is fading, the nights are cooling, and the bee will soon retreat underground to overwinter. Moments like this — quiet and easy to overlook — capture the delicate balance that defines life for Alaska’s pollinators.
As the state continues to warm and ecosystems shift, the future of Alaska’s bees will depend on how well they can adapt to rapid environmental change — and how well Alaskans understand and support the landscapes these insects rely on.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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Alaska providers say childcare gap is growing | Corinne Smith
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