Trump urges Alaska Republicans to unite behind Wilson in crowded race

Donald Trump has urged Alaska Republicans to unite behind Bernadette Wilson for governor, after a primary in which she led her party’s contenders but finished third overall. She now faces two Republican rivals in the November contest.

In a Truth Social post dated 13 October 2026 and reproduced by the Trump’s Truth archive, the president announced a rally for Senator Dan Sullivan, Congressman Nick Begich and Wilson. He said Wilson had beaten her two Republican opponents in the primary and warned that three Republicans facing one Democrat made winning harder: “threesomes always make it hard to win — Very unfair!”

In a separate post, dated by the archive three minutes later, Trump explicitly endorsed Wilson and urged Republican unity. He also wrote, “She easily won the Race” — broader wording that did not specify whether he meant the overall primary or the comparison among Republicans.

The Associated Press reported Wilson’s third place overall and first place among Republicans, with about 10% of governor-primary votes. Its account describes the main field as Wilson, former Anchorage mayor Dave Bronson and Treg Taylor for the Republicans, and Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. Alaska Public Media described the 18 August primary as a combined, nonpartisan contest whose top four advance, rather than one selecting a single Republican nominee.

The field changed after Democrat Tom Begich suspended his campaign on 28 August. KNBA reported that his withdrawal moved Taylor into fourth place. According to AP, his campaign said remaining in the race would require millions of dollars and that the best route was to unite behind one candidate.

Trump’s rally went ahead in Wasilla on 13 October. Local broadcaster KTUU reported that he spoke for nearly 90 minutes.

Two Republican strategies

Alaska uses ranked-choice general elections, according to AP. On 8 October, five days before the rally, Trump had criticised the same three-Republican field in another post reproduced by the archive. That earlier post also expressed hope that ranked-choice voting would be repealed in November.

The Alaska Republican Party also opposes the system. But its undated letter for the 2026 election recommends choosing a favourite Republican, ranking the remaining Republicans and leaving Democrats blank. It offers a strategy for a ballot with several Republican contenders, without requiring the field to be narrowed to one. AP notes that not all voters use the ranking system.

Wilson had made the case for consolidation more than a year earlier. In a campaign statement on 24 September 2025, she pledged to withdraw if she was not the top Republican primary vote-getter and asked other Republicans to do the same. She cited the previous two congressional election cycles.