Before Anchorage voters elect two new school board members next month, one candidate for Seat C sent screenshots of their opponent’s social media posts out to voters last week.
Rachel Blakeslee said she mailed screenshots of Alexander Rosales’ X account as an attempt to educate voters who were unaware of his posts, which have disparaged the school district, women, religious groups and the LGBTQ+ community in the past.
Blakeslee said Rosales’ posts inform the public of these personal views that may influence his decisions, and wanted even voters who don’t closely follow local campaigns to have that information.
“It is really important to understand if a candidate does not believe that all kids and families deserve access to a high-quality public education, and it is very clear that my opponent believes that some families are deserving, and some are not,” Blakeslee said in an interview Monday. “Putting that on the mailer is a way to show a stark contrast in our beliefs about the very institution that we are running to be an elected leader for.”
Blakeslee included a pair of 2-year-old screenshots from Rosales’ X account in her mailer. Rosales said the Anchorage School District was “garbage” and called for the district to be shut down in one post. The other asks, “Did you know that Hitler pulled Germany out of economic hardship, potentially saving millions of people?”
Blakeslee’s mailer said Rosales’ posts “Called for ASD to be ‘shut down’” and “Praised Hitler on social media.”
“About the Hitler post, there are a lot of extreme posts, but I think it’s important for voters just to understand how extreme some of his views are,” Blakeslee said. “And I think that post speaks for itself, and I think gives a lot of context for voters about how extreme his views are.”
Blakeslee and Rosales are both second-time candidates for school board. Blakeslee, a nonprofit leader from South Anchorage, ran unsuccessfully in 2021. Rosales, who spent 20 years in the Air Force and worked as a substitute teacher, ran unsuccessfully for school board last year. The two are running to replace Dave Donley, who is term-limited in the upcoming April 7 election.
Rosales’ social media posts have become a topic of discussion at campaign events and school board candidate forums for the second year in a row.
At a Hillside Area Landowners Organization forum this month, one attendee disrupted the event after they felt audience-submitted questions about Rosales’ views that quoted his social media posts were unfairly edited by moderators.
Rosales’ X posts have called for the castration of parents of trans children, said “Islam is not compatible with the West,” as well as that “Israel is our third branch” (of government). He has published derisive posts about women, Holocaust jokes and other since-deleted disparaging comments about marginalized groups.
Rosales responded Thursday on his campaign website to a post praising Blakeslee’s mailer.
“They label me as ‘TOO EXTREME’ for our schools. Ok, let’s look at the facts. First claim: Called for ASD to be shut down. Yes I have said that (Probably… their posted date does not match up),” Rosales wrote.
Rosales said on his website that without dramatic improvement, ASD should shut down. He also responded to a line in Blakeslee’s mailer that said he called for criminal punishment of parents he disagrees with, referring to his now-deleted post about transgender children.
“We need to ban trans ideology,“ Rosales said. ”Alaska’s own medical board has come out saying gender mutilation needs to stop. Protecting children at all costs is not extreme. It should be the norm. Real men stand up for vulnerable kids.”
Rosales claims that he did not praise Hitler in his post.
“No. That is a flat-out distortion,” Rosales said. “Look at the actual tweet and context. I made a narrow historical observation about early economic policies pulling Germany out of collapse, which is factually true before the atrocities began.”
Rosales’ posts on X have drawn criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. Kelly Tshibaka, former commissioner of the state Department of Administration and 2022 U.S. Senate candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump, shared her own reversal of support for Rosales after reading screenshots from his social media.
Tshibaka posted a Monday morning picture of her ballot with the bubble next to Rosales’ name filled in. A few hours later, Tshibaka changed her mind.
“I went and looked myself,” Tshibaka wrote. “Some of what was alleged wasn’t accurate — but some of it was. I’m concerned about racial comments I saw, including a post normalizing racial slurs. I believe in accountability — including my own. When new information changes the picture, you say so. So I’m saying so: I’m withdrawing my support.”
Conservative Anchorage politicos haven’t reached consensus on Rosales’ campaign.
Alaska Family Council President Jim Minnery said he doesn’t equate an absence of explicit endorsements with a lack of overall support. Minnery’s organization has produced a voter guide since 2006 that is intended to inform voters about where candidates align with his organization.
“We just felt like the best way for us to provide information was, ‘here’s the candidates’ responses’ and we’re just going to let the answers speak for themselves,” Minnery said.
Rosales agreed to each of the Alaska Family Council’s nine questions in their voter guide, which mostly asked candidates about gender identity issues and sex education. Blakeslee did not respond. Among the Seat D candidates, Dustin Darden agreed to eight of the nine questions, Paul McDonogh disagreed with eight of the nine, and Sharon Gibbons did not respond.
Minnery said AFC has issued endorsements in the past, but aren’t doing so this year because he said they lack familiarity with the candidates.
“We don’t always endorse every candidate that aligns with every issue that we have, we just haven’t ever done that, but we’re very grateful that Rosales and Gibbons and Darden have all three responded in a way that we think is in alignment with the values that we endorse,” Minnery said.
Unlike school board elections in years past, Republican Party groups have not endorsed school board candidates in this election cycle. Democrat and progressive-leaning groups have supported Blakeslee.
Blakeslee has maintained a substantial fundraising lead over Rosales in their most recent finance reports to the Alaska Public Offices Commission. Blakeslee has raised a total campaign income of $55,970 while Rosales reported $4,069, according to their individual reports.
Ballots have been mailed out, and Anchorage voters can return their signed ballots at one of 18 secure drop boxes across the city up until Election Day on April 7. Learn more about who’s running in the Anchorage Daily News-Alaska Public Media candidate interviews at on.adn.com/2026citycandidates.
This story was originally published by the Anchorage Daily News and is republished here with permission.
