Virginia-based GOPAC gives $150,000 to Anchorage group backing House conservatives

A national Republican group has given $150,000 to Families of the Last Frontier, an Anchorage independent expenditure group backing Alaska House candidates in the Nov. 3 election, according to a report the group filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

The money came Sept. 22 from GOPAC, an Arlington, Virginia, group that trains and supports Republican state legislators and candidates. It brought the Alaska group's contributions this election cycle to $200,700. At about the same point in the 2024 election, the group had reported $322,100. Its only other contribution this cycle was $50,000 on Aug. 31 from the Republican State Leadership Committee, another national group focused on state legislative races.

Independent expenditure groups can spend for or against candidates as long as they don't coordinate with the campaigns. The group has not yet reported how it will spend the new money. On Sept. 24, it reported about $4,000 in mailers supporting six House candidates: Sheldon Prout, Sarah Vance, John Boyle, Daniel Sager, Mark Smith and Brenda Wilson.

Two of those candidates, Vance and Sager, are also among the candidates the labor-funded Putting Alaskans First Committee has reported spending against, according to that group's filings.

Steve Strait chairs Families of the Last Frontier. Christy Strutz is its treasurer, and Randy Ruedrich, a former chair of the Alaska Republican Party, is deputy treasurer.

The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election is Oct. 4.