Alaska's top two Senate candidates both campaigned in Fairbanks on the same day

On June 24, the two leading candidates in Alaska's U.S. Senate race were both posting about campaigning in Fairbanks. Within hours of each other, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola each took to social media to talk about their time in the Golden Heart City, a near-simultaneous show of attention that says something about where this race may be fought.

Fairbanks and the surrounding Interior are exactly the kind of turf that decides a close statewide contest — and this one is close. Alaska Survey Research, a state polling firm, has shown Peltola with a narrow lead, about five points in its Senate tracking. But the race is young, Sullivan is an incumbent who has won statewide twice before, and the prediction market Polymarket has the contest close to even money, with Peltola only a slight favorite among traders. National money is already flowing in — hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wagered on the outcome — a sign of how closely the country is watching.

Sullivan, seeking a third term, tied his re-election to the weekend's Midnight Sun Festival. A participant in the solstice run, he reached for the obvious metaphor: "I ran again in the midnight sun run, but this year it's not the only race I'm running in," he wrote, casting his campaign as a continuation of "fighting for you."

Peltola, the former at-large U.S. House member, spent her Fairbanks time on what she called "incredible conversations about our shared fight for Alaska." "Always a blessing to be in the Golden Heart City," she wrote.

Separately, she marked the fourth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision by centering part of her campaign on abortion access, saying she would "always protect the right to choose."

The dueling Fairbanks stops underscore a simple strategic fact: with a top-four primary in August and the general election in November, neither campaign can afford to treat the Interior as anyone's safe territory. Both showed up the same day because both had to.