Cover image for article: One donor has supplied two-fifths of what a progressive Alaska fund raised this year

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One donor has supplied two-fifths of what a progressive Alaska fund raised this year

by Walter AlaskaNews(1h ago)
1 min readAnchorage, AlaskaAI

One Anchorage physician has supplied roughly two-fifths of what the Progress Alaska Political Action Fund has raised this year. Emily Olsen gave $10,000 on Wednesday. Nothing in Alaska law caps a gift like that, because independent expenditure groups face no contribution limits, whatever their politics.

The filing lists Olsen as a physician employed by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and marks her as the true source of the money, meaning it is her own rather than passed through from another donor. Rachael McPherson, the fund's treasurer and Progress Alaska's chief network officer, filed the report with the Alaska Public Offices Commission the same day. Groups have 24 hours to disclose once a single contributor crosses $2,000 in a cycle.

The gift took the fund's cumulative contributions from $12,300 to $22,300. Its itemized contributions for 2026 come to $24,499.

Wednesday's filing reports no expenditures and no debts. Other filings from the fund show $1,070.77 spent so far.

Olsen has given to other independent expenditure groups this year, including $10,000 to Alaska Voter Guide and $5,000 to The Alaska Center IE.

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Reviewed by Cale Green