Donald Trump flew four time zones to Alaska this week to save a Senate seat he should not have to fight for.
Nobody sends Ted Cruz four thousand miles in the same week unless the race is in real trouble.
What Cruz said about oil, fishermen, and the military should have every conservative watching Alaska.
Cruz Says the Alaska Senate Race Decides Senate Control in the 2026 Midterms
With Republicans holding a 53-47 Senate majority, control of the chamber could come down to a single seat this election – and Ted Cruz is not being subtle about which one.
Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan is defending his seat against Democrat Mary Peltola in one of the tightest Senate races in the country, with prediction markets currently favoring Peltola to win.
"Of all the races across the country, control of the Senate goes through the state of Alaska," Cruz told Newsmax, after spending the day campaigning alongside Sullivan across the state.
"If Mary Peltola wins and hands control of the Senate to the Democrats, Alaska will lose," Cruz warned. "Oil and gas will lose. Alaska fishermen will lose. The military will lose. The Coast Guard will lose. And so, we've got to win."
Cruz called the November 3 election "the most consequential midterms of our lifetimes" and said Republicans have two weeks to make their case to Alaska voters.
Joe Biden proved it for four years – locking up Alaska's oil fields, freezing drilling leases, and restricting production across 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in a single 2023 decision.
Trump and Sullivan reversed every one of those restrictions after 2024.
Peltola's first vote in the Senate would be to hand the majority back to the same Democrats who imposed them.
Trump made the trip to rally for Sullivan and announce a $54 billion South Korean investment in the Alaska gas pipeline project, with Taiwan already committed to purchase that Alaskan gas.
Dan Sullivan Exposes Peltola's Anti-Energy Record in Alaska Senate Debate
Mary Peltola wants Alaskans to believe she is a pro-oil moderate who will fight for the state's energy industry.
Her record in Congress contradicts every word of it.
In 2023, Peltola signed her name to the Alaska's Right to Produce Act – legislation that would have reopened Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling and reversed Biden restrictions on oil production across Alaska.
She introduced it as a champion of Alaska energy.
Then, shortly before the House voted on it in May 2024, she circulated a "Dear Colleague" letter to fellow Democrats urging them to vote against her own bill.
She actively whipped votes to kill it.
On May 1, 2024, Peltola voted "present" on the final passage of her own legislation – not yes, not no, but the vote of a politician who cannot afford to be caught.
Not one of Peltola's pro-Alaska energy bills was ever signed into law.
At least 23 anti-oil donors poured nearly $100,000 into Peltola's campaign – the same people working to shut down the Alaska oil industry she claims to defend, and they know exactly what they are buying.
Peltola said she likes the "concepts" of the Green New Deal – a far-left agenda designed to phase out oil and gas entirely.
She said Alaska's "future is in renewable energy" and that the state needs to invest "ten times" as much in renewables as in oil.
Sullivan landed the sharpest line of Thursday night's debate: "You can't cue-card your way to the Senate."
He accused Peltola of "trying to camouflage herself" as a moderate while voting against Alaska oil and gas at every turn, and pointed out that she missed 20% of her votes in Congress and the Alaska House, and nearly 40% of Bethel City Council meetings before that.
Democrats have not won an Alaska Senate seat since 2008.
If Republicans hold this seat, the Senate stays red and the pipeline moves forward.
Hand it to Peltola and Schumer gets the gavel – along with every Biden-era energy restriction that comes with it.
The $54 billion pipeline deal Trump just secured does not survive a Democrat Senate. Neither does the energy production Trump spent two years unlocking across Alaska's federal lands.
Ted Cruz flew to Alaska because in 18 days, this race decides who runs the United States Senate.
Sources:
- Newsmax Wires, "Sen. Cruz to Newsmax: Alaska Senate Race Is Key," Newsmax, October 16, 2026.
- Brianna Herlihy, "Dem Senate hopeful vows to unleash Alaska oil — but her record tells a different story," Fox News, September 3, 2026.
- "FACT CHECK: Peltola's New 'Energy Plan' Can't Rewrite Her Anti-Energy Record," Dan Sullivan for Alaska, 2026.
- Joe Schoffstall, "'Pro-Oil' Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola Rakes in Cash From Rich Environmental Activists," Washington Free Beacon, 2026.
- "Trump went all the way to Alaska in a sign of just how close its Senate race may be," WCAX/Gray DC, October 14, 2026.