President Donald Trump plans to hold a rally in Wasilla next Tuesday to promote U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s reelection, according to the Republican National Committee.
Trump is scheduled to speak at 3:30 p.m. at the Menard Sports Center. Doors to the venue open at noon.
“President Trump's rally on Oct 13th will highlight exactly why Senator Dan S. Sullivan is the firewall to defend Alaska's future from the Lower 48 left," RNC spokesman Nick Poche said by email.
It’s the second White House campaign swing to Alaska in just over a week. Vice President JD Vance rallied for Sullivan in Fairbanks on Monday.
Polls have shown the Republican incumbent faces stiff competition from Democrat Mary Peltola. One poll released Wednesday, by Alaska Survey Research, has the former congresswoman ahead by two percentage points in the first round, with just first choices counted, and winning by the same margin after ranked choice tabulations.
“The race continues to be consistently close, with Peltola leading each time,” pollster Ivan Moore said in a social media post. His latest poll was fielded a week after a New York Times story described Peltola as prone to angry outbursts directed at staffers and using derogatory slurs. Moore said the story did not have a major impact.
Alaska’s race is one of seven Senate contests now considered a toss-up. Democrats would have to win four of them, and hold their advantages in other states, to gain control of the Senate.
Wasilla is one of the most Republican parts of the state. Sullivan won the area by wide margins in the August open primary, despite finishing 8 percentage points behind Peltola statewide.
The venue is small for a Trump rally. The City of Wasilla’s website says the arena seats 3,000 for hockey games, or 3,500 for concerts.
Trump held an event at Butler High School in Vandalia, Ohio, last weekend. The student activity center has a listed capacity of 4,500.
The Wasilla event will be Trump’s second political rally in Alaska. His first, at the 5,000-seat Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, was to promote Kelly Tshibaka for U.S. Senate and former governor Sarah Palin for U.S. House in 2022. That November, Tshibaka lost to Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Palin lost to Peltola.
