Two prominent Republicans will make the long trek to Alaska in the final week before Election Day, underscoring the importance of the state to the party’s hopes to win control of the Senate.
Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Sen. Ted Cruz will both visit Alaska to campaign on behalf of Dan Sullivan, the Republican who is challenging Sen. Mark Begich, the Democratic incumbent.
Cruz will travel the state with Sullivan on Saturday and Sunday, while Romney will join Sullivan for a rally in Anchorage on Monday, the Washington Post reported.
Fewer campaign surrogates have traveled to far-flung Alaska than to some of the other marquee Senate races, but the last-minute push from Romney and Cruz could help Sullivan galvanize voters in key areas, including population centers Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Mat-Su Valley. Begich, meanwhile, will rely on support from much of the state’s rural population.
Sullivan has polled strongly in the race, but public polling in Alaska is notoriously volatile. Meanwhile, scores of new early voting locations across the state, 128 in total, present another element of unpredictability in the race.
Early voting began in Alaska on Oct. 20.
