Alaska Fisheries • 2026 Election

Trawling Isn't a Left Issue — Alaska's Own GOP Candidates Prove It

A recent post making the rounds on X claims "The Left wants to make this entire election about trawling." It's a tidy talking point. It's also flatly wrong.

Opposition to industrial trawling in Alaska is not a partisan issue — it never has been. It's an Alaskan issue. And in the 2026 governor's race, the candidates making the strongest anti-trawl arguments aren't Democrats. They're Republicans.

"Republicans appear to have sensed their own political opening, and are levying unusually strident criticism against one of the natural resource industries that are, typically, closely aligned with the party's agenda."

— Alaska Beacon, April 2026

Republican Adam Crum, a former state revenue commissioner, has called for a "swift and firm" response when trawl bycatch threatens Alaska's fisheries. He's not alone. Multiple GOP gubernatorial candidates have taken anti-trawl positions — because their constituents, regardless of party, are watching salmon populations collapse while industrial trawlers haul in hundreds of thousands of bycatch fish per season.

The STOP Alaska Trawler Bycatch Facebook group has 55,000 members. Those aren't all Democrats. They're fishermen, Alaska Native community members, small-boat operators, and families who've fished the same waters for generations. This is about Alaska's identity — not political tribalism.

Calling opposition to trawling a "left" conspiracy is a strategy, not a fact. It's designed to protect industry interests by turning neighbor against neighbor along partisan lines. Don't fall for it.

When Republican candidates and 55,000 Alaskans across the political spectrum agree on something, that's not a left-wing agenda. That's Alaska speaking.