Scathing new reporting spotlights how Self-Serving Sullivan has voted to drive up healthcare costs for Alaskans, and why it’s a major vulnerability that will cost him his seat in November.

“Again and again, Self-Serving Sullivan has slashed the healthcare that Alaskans rely on and voted to spike our monthly healthcare premiums,” said Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft. “Alaskans won’t forget: when it mattered most, Dan Sullivan put special interests and billionaires first and Alaskans last.”

The report details how, after Sullivan voted multiple times against extending ACA subsidies, “raise health insurance premiums in Alaska by more than $1,800” and 3,000 Alaskans dropped off the insurance marketplace rolls entirely, with that number “expected to rise as enrollees struggle to keep up with higher premiums.” Sullivan’s deciding vote to slash $2 billion from federal Medicaid payments to Alaska is now threatening the “overall health system and the state” with “trickle-down effects for the broader economy.” 

Lastly, the piece unmasks Sullivan’s election-year attempt to obscure his Alaska-last record with a few show-votes: 

• “Given how many times he has voted for legislation or amendments that would either reduce healthcare subsidies for Alaskans or otherwise increase healthcare costs, the damage has largely been done,” John-Henry Heckendorn, partner at the cross-partisan campaign management firm Ship Creek Group, said.

• Six months out from Election Day, Heckendorn said Sullivan’s recent votes presented a new political danger: being perceived as changing his mind for political expediency.

• “Alaskans can’t get the dollars back in their wallets that they’ve had to spend on inflated healthcare costs as a result of his votes,” he said. “All that damage is done, but now he’s kind of admitting that those votes were never about principle in the first place.”