The first round of fundraising reports in the 2026 governor’s race were released Tuesday, shedding some light on a crowded field.
Altogether, candidates raised more than $4.3 million by the beginning of February, according to the first batch of campaign finance reports in the race.
Anchorage podiatrist and Republican Matt Heilala accounts for more than a quarter of the total. Heilala contributed nearly $1.3 million to his own campaign, accounting for more than 94% of his fundraising. In an interview, Heilala said self-funding his campaign means he can turn down contributions from donors or groups that don’t jive with his values.
“I'm not in desperate need of big money from big, influential donors. There's a quid pro quo, and that's a major problem,” Heilala said. “Not to say I'm not going to take money from some big donors as we keep going, but I'm going to be able to be very, very selective.”
Heilala has also accumulated hundreds of smaller donors, raising more than $60,000 from just shy of 350 donors.
Former Attorney General Treg Taylor is another Republican candidate relying on self-funding to an extent. He’s the No. 2 fundraiser in the race so far, with roughly $880,000 in total contributions. About a third of that comes from Taylor himself.
Taylor leads in external fundraising by a significant margin. He’s raised more than $592,000 in outside funding from nearly 250 donors, including $100,000 from Anchorage anesthesiologist John Morris and several five-figure checks from business and medical professionals in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
Former state Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum is in third with roughly $350,000 in contributions, much of it from himself and family members. An uncle of Crum’s wife, Charles McGarrity of Florida, was the largest single contributor at $40,000, and Crum kicked in an additional $60,000. Another notable Crum contributor is state Education Commissioner Deena Bishop, who donated $5,000.
Crum said he’s expecting more money to come off the sidelines and head to candidates as the August primary draws closer.
“Knowing that there's a handful of us that are kind of out in front on the money side, I think that fundraising is going to ramp up,” Crum said.
Tom Begich was the top Democratic fundraiser in this round of reports. The former Anchorage state senator has also taken in roughly $350,000 from a wide range of donors. He said fundraising ramped up in earnest when Mary Peltola announced she’d be running for U.S. Senate rather than for governor.
Begich is “not a wealthy person,” he said in an interview, and he said he’s proud of the fact that 92% of the funding for his campaign has come from Alaskans.
“Buying your way to the governorship is just not — I just don't think that's good for Alaska,” he said. “What I want to see is people reaching out to regular donors, getting people who are regular Alaskans engaged and involved in their campaign. And that's certainly what I'm doing.”
Among Begich’s largest donors are Anchorage wealth manager Justin Weaver, donating $75,000, Anchorage attorney Robin Brena, who kicked in $50,000 and attorney Mark Choate of Anchorage, who contributed $15,000. Chicago-based Jennifer Pritzker, a cousin of billionaire Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, donated $10,000. Begich said he’d never met her but appreciated the support.
Another Democrat in the race, former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, didn’t join the race until after the reporting period had ended. But according to his campaign, he’s raised $750,000 in his first two weeks in the race. That’s more than twice as much as Begich, who has been in the race since August.
Including Kreiss-Tomkins, 10 candidates reported raising six-figure totals. Those include Republicans Shelley Hughes, Bernadette Wilson, Click Bishop and Dave Bronson, in addition to Democrat Matt Claman. Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who won Trump’s endorsement in the 2024 House race, raised just over $17,000.
“It's a little bit like being a venture capitalist,” said Scott Kendall, an attorney and occasional campaign operative. “When you're a candidate, you're selling a product — and if no one's investing, that's a bad sign.”
But with strong early fundraising, quite a few candidates have a real shot at winning, Kendall said.
“For probably the most important race in the state, we have a level of competition maybe we've never seen,” Kendall said. “Yeah, there were 48 candidates in the special election for Don Young’s seat. But really, there were only, like, four or five, six serious candidates. Here, there's really 10 legit candidates, and it’s pretty exciting.”
The top four vote-getters in the nonpartisan blanket primary in August will advance to the general election in November.
