ANCHORAGE, Alaska — For Alaskans who rely on federally funded services ranging from ferries to weather monitoring to energy projects, the first year of the second Trump administration was riddled with anxiety. Budget cuts, canceled grants and frozen funding streams became the norm, causing many Alaskans to wonder whether critical federal services would continue.

But as the midterm elections have approached, the tide has turned. The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is gone, along with its unfulfilled promises of savings. And in recent weeks, Alaska has benefited from funding announcements totaling hundreds of millions of dollars that are set to subsidize internet infrastructure, energy transmission and a long-sought rail link.

In at least one case, the funding — announced at events that have doubled as campaign stops for Alaska’s U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich — is just the awaited release of federal grants that were created and approved by Congress years ago, then halted for review by the Trump administration.

“Don’t you think it’s more fun to push the money out the door and see the benefits to communities?” U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the only member of Alaska’s congressional delegation not up for reelection this year, said after an event Wednesday marking the release of formula funding from the Department of Energy. “Maybe the administration just kind of woke up to the fact that, ‘Hey, this is actually the good part of the job’ — delivering on what Americans are hoping their government is going to do.”

Whatever the motivation, President Donald Trump’s embrace of federal funding streams that he previously questioned is fortuitously timed for Alaska’s Republican incumbents, who are locked in competitive races that could help determine whether Congress remains under GOP leadership after the midterms.

Elsewhere across the country, the Trump administration is also turning to promises of massive payouts for Republican-leaning constituencies to help sway voters.

Sullivan has denied that the latest grants are a political maneuver intended to bolster his campaign, as he faces a heated challenge from former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat.

“My advocacy and ability to deliver and relentlessness for Alaska knows no season,” Sullivan said at an event this week in Palmer, attended by Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, to discuss a new grant for a rail project in the region. “I don’t stop during election season or non-election season. I’m all go, all the time, and that’s what this is a result of.”

However, when Trump’s cuts threatened a slew of federal programs last year, Sullivan was not quick to publicly push back against the administration. Nor was Begich, who welcomed last year’s funding freeze, saying Trump “intends to deliver on his promises to ensure American tax dollars are reasonably deployed.”

Begich faces challenger Bill Hill, an independent commercial fisherman and retired educator who is backed by the Democratic Party. Early voting started Monday across Alaska.

Both Sullivan and Begich have applauded Trump’s policies and banked on his support as they seek reelection, a strategy that will be tested as Trump’s popularity wanes across the country.

Trump and members of his administration, in turn, have showered the Republican incumbents with praise during their trips to Alaska. In recent weeks, that praise has been accompanied by grant announcements.

The slew of recent federal awards from the Trump administration began during Vice President JD Vance’s rally in Fairbanks earlier this month, when he said that Alaska would benefit from a $150 million investment in an electrical intertie between Southcentral Alaska and the Interior. The project, years in the making, is not expected to be constructed until 2030, the Alaska Beacon reported.

It continued when Trump held a rally in Wasilla, where the president brought the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, onstage to reveal a new $162 million investment in Alaska’s broadband infrastructure. Carr cited Sullivan’s advocacy in explaining the reason for the funding.

Then came the $250 million grant from Duffy this week, followed two days later by an announcement that the Department of Energy would make more than $30 million available to Alaskans for new electric grid resilience projects, through a program created under President Joe Biden.

Murkowski drew a distinction between the latest announcements and Trump’s repeated campaign promise to send every American adult a $5,000 check if Republicans keep control of Congress.

“That’s not going to happen. That’s just crazy,” Murkowski said about Trump’s dividend promise.

The federal grant funding, on the other hand, has “been in the works” for years, she said, referencing the congressional legislation that authorized it — which Trump has previously sought to ignore or subvert.

“I think that they have speeded things up, and I’m OK with that. I don’t want to wait any longer. And if it means that it comes a couple weeks before the election, bring it on, because Alaskans need it,” said Murkowski.

‘No administration has done more’

Trump easily carried Alaska in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections. But recent polling indicates his popularity in the state is diminishing, as voters focus on the cost of living and the impact of Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran on energy costs.

Despite concerns from voters, Sullivan and Begich have done little to distance themselves from the president. Sullivan said during the Trump rally in Wasilla this month that “no president, no administration has done more for our great state than the Trump administration.”

Federal funding regularly came to Alaska under Biden, Trump’s Democratic predecessor, including hundreds of millions for broadband, ferries and renewable energy projects.

Still, Sullivan and Begich have portrayed Democratic leadership as antithetical to Alaskans and to the state’s resource development agenda.

“We have the capacity to do big things and the courage to do big things. What’s been missing is a federal partner to allow us to do that work. Well, we have a partner right now in Washington, D.C., and it is unlocking Alaska,” Begich said at the event in Palmer this week.

Both Hill and Peltola have contended that if elected, they would work with the Trump administration to secure funding for the state, even as they sharply criticize some of his policies, including his tariffs, and called for an end to the war in Iran.

Peltola said she wants to follow a playbook laid out by Don Young and Ted Stevens. The two former members of Alaska’s congressional delegation developed a reputation for successfully securing federal investments in the state.

“They did it through bipartisanship and working with everyone and anyone on their agenda,” Peltola said in an interview Wednesday.

Sullivan and Begich have hewn closely to their party’s agenda, cheerleading Trump’s pursuit of resource development projects in Alaska and sidestepping the effects of his efforts to shrink programs that are popular among Alaskans, like Medicaid.

It’s a sharp contrast from Murkowski, who has regularly criticized Trump, calling his cuts to the federal workforce “traumatizing” and saying she felt “cheated” by the administration’s elimination of renewable energy project funding.

Asked during a debate about times he broke with his party, Begich described an instance last year in which he asked the Trump administration not to cancel a building lease held by the Alaska Volcano Observatory, which maintains equipment used to monitor the dozens of active volcanoes in the state. Begich pushed for the funding to be maintained, in an unusual public rebuke of Trump’s funding cuts.

‘Back on track’

After the Department of Energy said Wednesday that funding for grid resilience would be available to Alaska applicants in the coming months, leaders of Alaska utilities welcomed the opportunity, even as they acknowledged that it came on the heels of a move by the Trump administration to freeze previous grants distributed under the same program.

Clay Koplin, who previously led the Cordova Electric Cooperative, said it received federal grants from both the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency to boost its infrastructure, only to have those projects frozen when Trump took office last year. After reaching out directly to members of the Trump administration, the funding was restored so the projects could proceed, Koplin said.

Deputy Energy Secretary James Danly, who visited Alaska this week to tout the funding, said his department is working hard to release funding approved by Congress after spending months reviewing the funds.

“Our objective has been to get as much funding out as quickly as possible,” said Danly. “The reason why this is happening now is because we are able, we are in a position now, after pushing, pushing, pushing to get this money available, to make it available now.”

Murkowski credited the Trump administration for listening after members of the Alaska delegation pushed back against funding freezes during the first year of the Trump administration.

“After they heard from the members of the delegation about the concerns with pausing many of these very worthy projects, we were able to get them back on track,” Murkowski said. “Is it longer than we would want to have waited? Yeah, because we’re always in a hurry. But the fact of the matter is that the reviews have happened, the formulas have been adhered to, and Alaskans will receive the benefit.”

—Daily News reporter Alex DeMarban contributed.

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