There is a simple test for whether a candidate respects the people they are asking to lead: Do they show up?
Not to fundraisers. Not to friendly rallies where every face in the crowd already agrees with them. Do they show up to forums where they might hear something they did not expect, face a question they were not prepared for, or have to defend a position in front of voters who have not already decided to support them?
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The answer, for many candidates running for office today, is no. They script their appearances. They speak to rooms assembled for agreement. They skip forums, decline invitations, and let social media clips say what they should say in person. When challenged on a position, they redirect. The intended audience for their ideas is not you. It’s not even their donors. It is the donor list that could fund the next ad buy.
I am running for governor of Alaska in a field of 17 candidates. The primary is Aug. 18. I have made it a priority to show up to forums across this state because these events are risky, because Alaskans deserve to see what candidates are actually made of when someone pushes back. Voters across Alaska have asked hard questions. Those exchanges made me sharper. That is the point. Policy positions are starting places that should improve when they meet reality. A candidate who walks into a forum with every answer preloaded and walks out without having updated a single assumption either learned nothing or was not listening.
Leadership requires being tested. A leader who has never had their ideas challenged in public has never proven that those ideas can survive contact with reality. That is not a credential. It is a liability.
When a candidate skips a forum, they are not being strategic. They are making a statement. They are saying the risk of being challenged outweighs the value of the voters in that room and the value of standing up for your beliefs. That calculation reveals something important about how they would govern. A politician who will not submit to accountability before the election will not invite it after. The habit of avoidance does not disappear when you take office; it turns into a feature.
We have a growing class of candidates running for validation. The office matters to them. The work it requires does not.
OVER 3,000 ALASKA VOTERS ASKED TO VERIFY CITIZENSHIP BEFORE MIDTERM ELECTIONS
Integrity in public life is not just about telling the truth on your preferred stage. It is about showing up to stages you did not choose, in front of audiences that did not come to cheer for you, and making your case anyway. It means accepting that your plans are provisional, that voters are not obstacles to work around but the primary source of the information you need to do the job, and that every question you refuse to answer is a voter you have already written off.
I do not have every answer. I have changed positions when the evidence demanded it. I have been in rooms in this campaign where I walked out thinking differently than when I walked in. That is not a weakness to apologize for. That is what being accountable to voters actually looks like. It is also, not coincidentally, what governing actually looks like.
Adam Crum is an Alaska businessman, former commissioner of the Alaska departments of Health and Social Services and Revenue, and a Republican candidate for governor. His organization, Adam Crum for Governor, is the campaign supporting his candidacy in Alaska’s 2026 gubernatorial election.
