The Battle for Alaska's Sole House Seat: Nick Begich on House Candidacy

Can Alaska's future depend on upholding conservative values? Join us on Stand as we welcome Nick Begich, a candidate for the US House in Alaska, who offers a compelling vision rooted in limited government and constitutional principles. Nick shares his concern about the radical shifts within the Democratic Party and argues for the need to protect individual rights and support the private sector. Hear how the America First agenda and Donald Trump's message continue to resonate with voters eager to see less political intrusion in their lives.

Nick Begich's journey from his upbringing in Florida to becoming an "America first" advocate in Alaska is nothing short of fascinating. Raised by conservative grandparents, he returned to Alaska to champion small government and American priorities. We'll uncover the complexities of resource development in the state, particularly Mary Peltola's inconsistent stance, and why Nick believes a clear and unwavering voice is essential for Alaska's interests in Washington, D.C.

The race for Alaska's congressional seat is heating up, and Nick Begich is ready to challenge the status quo. With insights into uniting Republican voters and navigating the ranked choice voting system, Nick shares his strategy for reclaiming Alaska as a deep red state. Discover his commitment to the America First agenda, his support for Donald Trump, and the broader implications for both the state and the nation. This episode is a must-listen for anyone invested in Alaska's political landscape and future development.

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Transcript

Kelly Tshibaka: 0:08

Welcome to Stand where we help make courage contagious. I'm your host, Kelly Tshibaka, former US Senate candidate in Alaska and the current chair of the Trump campaign in the state, and I'm joined today by my amazing husband, Niki Tshibaka. So glad that you're with us. Glad that you're here too, K elly Tshibaka. So glad that you're with us. Glad that you're here, too, K kelly. Niki Tshibaka. Glad that you're here too, N iki Tshibaka. We are so excited to have you today as one of our standouts. You can join our standout community at standshoworg. That's where you can find all of our amazing podcast stations and our social media channels. We'd love for you to hit subscribe, follow us and see all of our cool past episodes, like the one we did with Bill O'Reilly. Be amazing to have you join us. We'd see you there. Standshoworg. Speaking of amazing things, today's episode is sponsored by Lurtsema Communications. If you're looking to sway voters, build your company brand or persuade audiences, Lurtsema Communications is for you. Every project they've done for me has been awesome, and they've also done an excellent job for every single client I have sent to them. I could not recommend them more highly. Lurtsema Communications.

Niki Tshibaka: 1:13

That's right, and I'd also like to let our audience know about a really exciting event that's coming up Dershowitz Alan Dershowitz, the legal legend himself will be with us here in Alaska, in Anchorage, in person on June 27th at 730 pm. That's a Thursday. We're inviting you all to come out and hear him talk about the fight for freedom in America and in Israel and also give us his insider scoop on Trump's New York trial, because he was there and saw it all. So come on out June 27th, 730 pm. You can get your tickets on standshoworg. That is standshoworg.

Kelly Tshibaka: 1:51

We will see you there, and we've got an exciting episode for you. Today we are joined by our friend and candidate for US House in Alaska, N nick Begich. Nick was running for US House last time, in 2022, against the candidate, M mary Peltola, who is a Democrat, and ultimately won. This is one of the toss-up seats in America this cycle. The Democrats are fighting for their lives to keep this seat because we have such a narrow majority for the Republicans in the House, and in Alaska we have more Republicans than Democrats. There's a recent poll that actually shows that right now, if Alaska was to vote, ick Begich is just as likely to win this seat as Mary Peltola, our incumbent. So today we're going to jump into all the ins and outs of this race, because it's not only relevant to Alaska. It is relevant to the balance of power in the US House across America. Nick Begich, welcome to the show. We're so excited to have you on stand today.

Nick Begich: 2:51

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here, ready to dive into the topics of the day. Talk about the nation, talk about Alaska, talk about the dynamics of this race.

Kelly Tshibaka: 3:01

We're so excited to have you, so we just want to start out and ask you what do you believe and what do you stand for?

Nick Begich: 3:08

Yeah, it's a great question. Look, I mean, I believe that the JFK party of the past, the JFK Democrats, are gone. The left, the hard left, has hijacked today's Democrat party and what we see we all see it is a polarized society where there's very little overlap between the two parties because the ideologies are fundamentally different. When you think about what it means to be a conservative, what are we trying to conserve?

Nick Begich: 3:38

Well, we're trying to conserve 5,000 to 10,000 years of recorded history where we've tried different forms of governance and government and we've tried different ways to instantiate our rights, our natural rights as individuals, and we've come up with a fantastic way to do that. It's a constitutional republic. Our constitution enshrines the rights that we have been given by God right, and they protect our rights from the government. And it's the left, it's the radical left today, that is trying to deconstruct that constitutional republic, that form of government that we so value. And every time that you see the right compromise on those core values, we're taking another brick out of that wall, another brick out of the institution that protects us. And we've got to have people that will take a stand. We've got to have people that will not just draw lines in the sand. They'll chisel them into the stone, because those values are timeless and they shouldn't change.

Kelly Tshibaka: 4:39

What do you say? Those core values are Nick.

Nick Begich: 4:41

Yes, so the core values. First of all, as I mentioned, we have the rights for life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. Government should be as small as possible.

Kelly Tshibaka: 4:52

Yeah.

Nick Begich: 4:52

Government should not be controlling our lives. The private sector should be allowed to flourish. The regulatory state should be greatly diminished. I believe that people want to be left alone. I mean, when you look at the environment that we have today, regular folks out there who are working hard sometimes two and three jobs just to make ends meet, are having to take time away from their lives, from their kids, from growing their families, and focus on a political discussion that they really wish they wouldn't have to be involved in. And I think the problem that we've got is we have a religious activist left, right. They've got religion around their ideology and they will stop at nothing. They're almost missionaries going out trying to change the environment that we live in, and regular people are sick of it.

Nick Begich: 5:38

And I think that's part of why we've seen Donald Trump do so well over the last several years, because he resonates with people. He's speaking to regular people, and I think you know we talk about. What are those core values? Common sense values. It's about protecting the family, protecting kids, protecting young women from competition from men in sports. It's it's the fundamental, basic American way of life that is at stake in this election, and I think that you know it's, it's common sense values that are on the ballot in this election, and I'll tell you. Every time that you see an election cycle come up, you hear some politician tell you that this is the most important election of your lifetime. This actually is.

Kelly Tshibaka: 6:23

This actually feels like things just keep escalating right, and I agree with you on those values.

Kelly Tshibaka: 6:28

And two that I would add to the ones you mentioned and I know that you share these as well the support for law enforcement, public safety and national security.

Kelly Tshibaka: 6:37

What they're doing at the border, the invasion that the Biden administration and the far left have allowed in order to infiltrate our country and absolutely destroy our cities and communities, is a tantamount to an act of war. And then also I would add to it resource support for resource development in America, and I would say resource dominance, but I'm not sure that everyone in the Republican Party agrees with going that far, but at least we would support the development of resources here in America, rather than being absolutely dependent on foreign adversaries that can just cut us off, like some of them are currently doing, where we've now drained our strategic petroleum reserve and we're dependent on people who want to take us out as a country to supply our basic energy needs. Like to me, like you say, these are common sense. It is surprising, I agree with you, it's surprising that these are even falling on party lines anymore. We used to disagree about how to implement these principles. Now we even disagree whether these are principles.

Nick Begich: 7:41

Yes, you are 100% correct, and I tell people this all the time. I say look, if you ask the average five-year-old in a city where does milk come from? They're going to tell you the grocery store. Right, milk comes from a cow. Right. Gasoline doesn't come from the gas station. It comes from oil that gets refined, that moves through the supply chain and arrives at a gas station where you can purchase it.

Nick Begich: 8:04

We have become so disconnected, disassociated with the origin story of the resources that we have in life, that we think that they're always going to be there.

Nick Begich: 8:15

And so you get these crazy ideas that come out of the left that are anti-resource because they think somehow that that resource will be there no matter what policy they have.

Nick Begich: 8:25

Well, that's just not true. If they raise the cost of those resources, if they, when you go into your kitchen, when you go into your garage, when you go into a Walmart, tell me how much of that was made in the United States, we have hollowed out our manufacturing base and we rely on the value of that dollar. And so when we talk about some of the issues that are on the ballot, this is a critical issue that's on the ballot, and I'm sad to report that it's not just democrats that have this spending problem, it's republicans as well. We need to get people in congress who will have fiscal discipline, help balance that budget, reduce the deficit at a minimum so that we can protect the value of that dollar, because if we lose that reserve currency status the things that we, because we don't produce them, we won't be able to continue to consume them and our American way of life will suffer dramatically.

Kelly Tshibaka: 9:29

Yeah, you're right.

Niki Tshibaka: 9:30

Yeah, that's, that's absolutely right. You know, I really appreciate that picture that you gave Nick about conservatism being about those, those bricks in the wall. And there's this, there's this misconception that conservatives oppose progress. We don't oppose progress, we embrace progress, but we understand that it has to be built on something, something solid, right, and so we agree that there are fundamental principles that form a solid foundation upon which progress can be built.

Niki Tshibaka: 9:59

But what we're seeing right now, and to the points that you and Kelly have been making, is that everything is getting torn down. Institutions are getting torn down by the left, the rule of law is getting being torn down by the left. The nation's borders, nations are getting. Even the idea of a nation is getting torn down by the left. We're seeing our resources and our ability to, you know, to produce and manufacture within the country being getting torn down by the left, and they call that progress, and manufacture within the country have been getting torn down by the left, and they call that progress, and somehow they have enough people fooled that that's actually leading us into a better and brighter future, that they've somehow managed to cling to power. However, people are waking up to this and we're beginning to see to your point. As Trump's going around the country and we're seeing African-Americans go his way, I think we're seeing Democrats begin to wake up to the reality that these ideas are not progressive.

Kelly Tshibaka: 10:54

Well, they're not resulting in the outcomes they want. Nick, I want to follow up on a line that you just said the origin story. Would you share with us your origin story, so to speak?

Niki Tshibaka: 11:03

Yeah, we've got about a minute and a half in this segment.

Nick Begich: 11:05

That is a great question. That is a great question. You said a minute and a half left in this segment.

Niki Tshibaka: 11:09

Yeah, yeah, go for it.

Nick Begich: 11:10

All right, I'll be brief. So I'm from Alaska, which people automatically assume. But what a lot of folks don't realize is my parents split up when I was young and I ended up being raised by my grandparents and they moved us as far away from the activity that was happening in Alaska. We grew up down in Florida, my sister and I, with my grandparents. They are hard conservative Christians from the South and I was raised in the church. I was raised conservative. I was a young Republicans in high school. So I'm a Begich which in Alaska for those who are maybe outside of Alaska don don't realize is that it's usually associated with a Democrat name. I was raised conservative. I was raised Republican. I came back to Alaska about 20 years ago and it was a shock actually to find that many people had believed that I would automatically have been a Democrat.

Nick Begich: 11:59

But turns out, and I'm not a biologist- but it turns out that people have two sides of every family and my other side of the family is hard red. So that's how I was raised and I have endorsed and supported and adopted those values, not simply because I was raised that way, but because I think that's what makes the most sense. I think that's the closest to our founder's vision and I think that you know it's a vision we've just talked about it in a segment but it's a vision that recognizes that that America does best when government is small, kept in its lane and the people are left alone.

Kelly Tshibaka: 12:36

Yeah, I want to also pick up on the other side of this segment and talk about your big endorsements from Capitol Hill and some presidential candidates, and we all wanna talk about the incumbent's current record and how you contrast with that. So stand by and we'll come back with Nick Begich, candidate for US House in Alaska, right after this.

Niki Tshibaka: 13:07

Welcome back to Stand. We are here with none other than Nick Begich, candidate for the House here in Alaska, running against the incumbent, M mary Peltola, and we're going to pick up where we left off and talk about now some of the endorsements that you've gotten, N nick, including from somebody that many of us are very familiar with, a gentleman named Vivek Ramaswamy. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Nick Begich: 13:37

Yeah, thrilled to have his support, thrilled to have his endorsement. That was his first congressional endorsement in the country. And, look, I mean Vivek is. What I really appreciate about Vivek is that he is an extraordinarily articulate defender of the America first set of policies and he communicates to a segment of folks who really want to dive deep into the sort of the underpinnings of why we should be putting America first. And look, I'm an America first candidate. I'm proud to say that I'm America first, because I think it's important.

Nick Begich: 14:11

When we send people to Washington DC, we should expect that they put our interests before the interests of people of other nations, and that's common sense again. But it's the sort of thing that has been lost in the shuffle in Washington DC politics for decades. And so it's coming back to the idea that, look, we're prioritizing Americans, we're going to prioritize the American taxpayer, we're going to prioritize voters, but not just tomorrow's voters in the next cycle, but voters for the next 20, 50, 100 years. We got to recognize that we are making decisions in Washington DC that for some politicians may be good for their next election but are terrible for the long term interests of our country, and Vivek Ramaswamy has highlighted that in a very compelling way. He continues to be out there supporting that message and, importantly, supporting Donald Trump, who was his competitor in the election and he has been fully supportive of since Iowa.

Kelly Tshibaka: 15:09

Yeah, we have that video for that endorsement, so I want to show that at the end of this segment. So viewers make sure to watch all the way to the end so that you can see Vivek's endorsement for Nick Begich. Let's jump in and talk about the incumbent's current record. Nick, I know that you're well versed on it. I have a lot of things that I would like to bring up as well, but let's start with you. What are some of your biggest concerns with the current incumbent, which is our sole representative for the state of Alaska?

Nick Begich: 15:37

That's right. We only get one. There's 435 members of the United States House and we get one. That's less than 1%. That's less than a quarter percent of the entire representation in the House. So it's important that that person carry a story, a message about what Alaska is, what Alaska can be and, most important of all, why Alaska is important to them. Remember, every single member of the US House is going there to represent their district and try to convince the other members of the House that there are things in their district that are important. If we don't have someone there that can communicate that compelling case for Alaska, Alaska will be left out of the conversation in the House. And the challenge that we have with Mary Peltola, among many, is that she has an extraordinarily mixed record when it comes to resource development. She has been for it, then she's opposed to it, then she's not sure if she's for it or against it. And this flip-flopping activity that she has politically may be convenient for her because she is, after all, a member of the Democrat Party. She's someone who's voted for Hakeem Jeffries to be speaker nearly 20 times. But at the end of the day, it's not good for Alaska and it sends a message to DC that Alaskans aren't sure what they want when it comes to resource development, and maybe the Alaskans want to be told what to believe about resource development from people outside, and that's just not reflective of people here in the state.

Kelly Tshibaka: 17:03

One of the biggest concerns, I think, based on what you're saying, is when she's home she actually runs on a strong pro-resource development campaign. So many of the reasons why she got crossover votes people who are moderates, people who are Republicans is she runs as largely a moderate who's a pro-resource Democrat. And it's hard to not support a pro-resource Democrat who you might just disagree with on some social issues but otherwise she lines up with the Republican Party. But the fact is she's actually not pro-resource. Like there was recently the Alaska's Right to Produce Act which overturned the Biden administration's anti-energy agenda. They've been pushing so hard they have dozens and dozens of executive actions against the state in their couple years in office to shut down and kill and destroy all kinds of energy production up here and fortunately Congress actually came to our defense.

Kelly Tshibaka: 18:00

Like you're saying, the hundreds of members of Congress said this has got to stop because it's not just hurting Alaska, it's actually hurting the entire country. And for those across America who aren't familiar with what's going on, up towards the northern part of Alaska, there's two areas that are set aside by Congress Congressional Act for oil development and one is for oil drilling and production for America and then one is actually, for almost like military reasons, set aside, like for our strategic petroleum reserve, that we would have oil reserve defense, that we don't have to go to our enemies for it. Okay, well, the Biden administration has just destroyed an overridden Congress and said we're not allowing any more leases or drilling in any of those areas, and so think of it as like shutting down a Saudi Arabia worth of oil in America. We can't touch it. Now this isn't happening in other parts of America. Other parts of America are totally open for business, but not Alaska, where we actually have more. We do it cleaner, greener, better, and it's just destroyed it. So they came to a vote on this.

Nick Begich: 19:07

It turns out, Nick, you probably know this even better than me. Oh yeah, I'll tell you. Yeah, I met with. I met with the actual member who put this bill forward.

Kelly Tshibaka: 19:12

Tell us the story.

Nick Begich: 19:13

Yes, so I met with Representative Pete Stauber and his chief and I asked him permission to be able to tell this story. He's giving me the green light, but here's what happened In committee. On the House Resources Committee, representative Pete Stauber worked on this bill on behalf of Alaskans. Bear in mind, he's a member of the Minnesota delegation. He's not even he's not an Alaskan, but he's part of the mining district. But he writes the bill Alaska's Right to Produce Act and Mary Peltola in committee votes for it, says she's supportive of it. It hits the House floor and she sends a dear colleague letter to all the.

Nick Begich: 19:53

Democrats yes and says please, I urge you, vote no on the bill that she had just co-sponsored and voted for in committee. And then, when it actually came up for the vote, she didn't vote yes, she didn't vote no, she voted present. And that is a gutless decision, a gutless move from someone who is supposed to be supposedly her words, carrying on the legacy of our former Congressman Don Young.

Kelly Tshibaka: 20:18

It's a backstabbing move to say to say in committee I support this, which she can then send memos and radio ads home to Alaska I voted for this in committee and then to not have a record that anyone can point to on the floor, like all the time she has conveniently taken potty breaks during resource votes, and then to actually send a letter to hundreds of Democrats to say our position as Alaskans is against this bill of Democrats. To say our position as Alaskans is against this bill backstabs every Alaskan. That's the problem, because she will come home this year and run a pro-resource campaign which is just a lie.

Kelly Tshibaka: 20:57

Well, and that's the issue is, we need somebody who's going to take a stand for Alaska right, and that was a key, key situation in which we needed our representative to take a stand on one of the most important issues, not just for our country, but also, obviously, for for Alaska and for our economy, and she didn't actually the opposite, imagine how awesome it would have been if a Democrat, especially an Alaska native Democrat, knowing how many Alaska natives actually support responsible resource development If an Alaska native Democrat had had the courage in the middle of the Beltway in DC to stand up and say we support, as Alaskans and as Americans, we support resource development in America and we challenge the Biden administration to do the same. I mean that would have been a mic drop right.

Nick Begich: 21:47

Yes, there's a message too, that a Democrat would be rather effective at carrying on resource development gas, mineral development and you touched on it a moment ago, K kelly. You said look the resources we develop in Alaska. We do better than essentially anywhere on Earth. We're more responsible, we're more careful, we're more sustainable in the way that we develop the resources that we do have. And why, knowing that these resources will be developed around the world, why would you take the safest, most responsible jurisdiction for resource development off the table and trade it for developing world economies, for adversaries or even enemies, that don't have our best interests in mind, don't prescribe to our environmental practices?

Kelly Tshibaka: 22:36

in.

Nick Begich: 22:36

Alaska in their home nations. They don't care the way we care. So why would someone on the left want to trade the responsible jurisdiction like Alaska for an irresponsible jurisdiction when it comes to resource development? That message was totally missed, yep.

Kelly Tshibaka: 22:54

And similar question. That confuses the heck out of me. Why would a Democrat or a representative from Alaska be OK with trading our voices for preemptive veto by the federal government or, in this case, the EPA? So the story I'm telling is we have a mine called Pebble Mine that could be developed in Alaska, but it's been a source of great controversy because there's some conflicting views over whether developing Pebble Mine would jeopardize a very, very lucrative and essential fishing area up here in Alaska. I'm trying to explain this to people in lower 48. And so there's just a lot of controversy over this mine. Whether you're pro-mine or anti-mine, I understand. What I do not support is the federal government coming in with a preemptive veto, not listening to the voices of the N natives who live in the region, not listening to the voices of the people here in Alaska who've studied it, not listening to the voices of the natives who live in the region, not listening to the voices of the people here in Alaska who've studied it, not listening to the voices of the people who understand the fish in Bristol Bay. Not listening to any of them and just imposing their decree as bureaucrats from Washington DC, without even stepping foot in the area, nick, and saying no, we know better as Washington DC bureaucrats, as government officials from on high, to decide what you're going to do with your resources in DC. And Mary Peltola just introduced an act to support permanent, preemptive vetoes from the federal government on Alaska's development of resources. That is not pro-resource, nor is that pro-Alaska, nor is that pro-Alaskan voices, and that is extremely concerning, not only for Alaskans but should be for all Americans 100%.

Nick Begich: 24:31

I couldn't have said it any better and I totally agree with everything you just said. And let me just add one additional piece to that. You know, the administration, our gubernatorial administration, is actually suing the federal government because of this attempted preemptive veto of the project out in that region of our state. And they're suing for hundreds of billions of dollars because when the state selected these lands they did so at statehood because they recognized the mineral potential for this region and to preemptively take that off the table is a taking, that's a taking of the state of Alaska's resources from Alaskans. And so here we are we're suing the federal government for monetary damages for doing this and at the same time that lawsuit is going forward, we have Mary Peltola trying to take it off the table. She's trying to take hundreds of billions table. She's trying to take hundreds of billions of dollars of opportunity to take that to be rectified with the federal government because they're taking those preemptive actions and saying no, we don't need that, we don't need that.

Kelly Tshibaka: 25:37

Our people don't need that. Our people who are in poverty in that region, who are a lot of Alaska Natives, don't need that and we don't need to be restored for more land that the federal government has taken, mostly from Alaska Native peoples.

Niki Tshibaka: 25:51

That's what her vote is saying we need to move on to the next segment. We'll continue this discussion on the other side of the break.

Kelly Tshibaka: 25:59

So we also want you to watch this endorsement video for Nick Begich from Vivek Ramaswamy.

Niki Tshibaka: 26:04

We'll be right back, stand by.

Video: 26:06

I'm proud to endorse Nick Begich for Congress. He's in Alaska. One of the things I found is that you know who loves the environment more than most people you've ever met. It's somebody who lives in Alaska and you want to know who understands the importance of drilling in Alaska the Alaskans. Nick Begich gets that. He's going to prioritize the interests of Alaskans. He's going to prioritize the interests of Americans. He has signed my American Truth Pledge, which I appreciate shows that he stands for.

Video: 26:45

Congressmen need to know about and be alert to Alert to the threats of the climate change agenda, which absolutely is based on false premises and increasingly has nothing to do with the climate and everything to do with power, dominion, control and punishment the same point as central bank digital currencies. So this guy's from Alaska. He's going to represent Alaska well, but he's going to represent us well, americans well, in the US Congress, and I do think it's going to take a fresh batch of leaders to drive change, not just in our party but in this country, and so I'm going to encourage you all to vote for Nick Begich. I'm going to help him any way I can. He's going to be a great, great congressman and I have full confidence he's going to be doing a great job of representing the state.

Kelly Tshibaka: 27:37

We're back on stand with Kelly and Niki Tshiabka, so happy to have with us today Nick Begich running for US House in Alaska. Nick, why are you a better candidate for this house seat than the incumbent?

Nick Begich: 27:50

That's a great question. Look, I mean we talked about the values. I think we got to talk also about you know who's really representing who here, right? I mean you've got talk also about you know who's really representing who here, right? I mean you've got a candidate with Mary Peltola, who's raised around a million dollars and growing certainly will be well over a million, maybe a million and a half, from PACs, political action committees, in this election cycle alone. And, to put that in perspective, there were entire races where our former member, don Young, didn't even raise that much from individuals, pacs or any other groups. And so she is bringing enormous amounts of money from outside of Alaska to try to tell Alaskans who to vote for. In fact, more than 90% of the money that Mary Peltola has raised in this campaign has come from outside the state. This campaign has come from outside the state. Now, what's completely disingenuous is she sends out text messages and campaign communications suggesting that outside interests are going to tell Alaskans how to vote and they shouldn't listen. Well, she's right. Outside interests are trying to tell Alaskans what to do and they're telling them vote for Mary Peltola. Why would they do that? Why does DC so desperately want Mary Peltola to come back. Well, it should be obvious, because she's there to play ball with them, right and there I will tell you, there are 20,000 more than 20,000 registered lobbyists in DC. Now there's only 535 members of the Senate and the House combined, so you're greatly outnumbered. When you're down in DC, there are there's a lobbyist around every corner. And why does it? Now, I'm not saying all lobbyists are bad. They're there to give you some information whatever, but these are the most persuasive people money can buy worldwide, because the US government is the largest single trough of cash worldwide. So these people exist for one of two reasons Either they're there to protect their business or their industry from competition, or they're there in order to get money from the government, from the taxpayer. That's really the only two purposes for 90% of the lobbyists in DC, and they are fueling her campaign. That should tell you everything that you need to know about where Mary Peltola's loyalties and interests lie and what happens.

Nick Begich: 30:02

A lot of times in DC and we see it over and over again you see people who run for the right reasons, and maybe they're running on the left, maybe they're running on the right, but they really believe ideologically what they're running on at the beginning. And what occurs is they get there as a freshman and they realize, oh no, I can't. I don't have the power that I need, I don't have the ability to do what I need. And so they start to compromise, they play ball Right Politically in these bodies and they think, ok, it's worth it, because in 10 years and 20 years I'll be a chair, I'll be able to dictate policy and then we'll do what's right. Well, for those who finally make it they've made so many compromises for so long they don't even recognize themselves when they get there. And this is the problem with DC and it's the problem that we have with our current representative in office. She's following that path. She's allowing outside interests to control her messaging, control her campaign and control her votes in the Congress.

Kelly Tshibaka: 30:58

Yeah, I was really concerned about some of those early compromises, like she ran as a so-called moderate. I mean, we all knew that wasn't the case, because the Democrat Party worked so hard to strong arm Al Gross off the ballot, who was their endorsed candidate for Senate the previous cycle, so they could put her on. So I knew she must be just a much more extreme political candidate. And then she was propped up with outside money last time. I remember that when you ran against her in the last cycle. But then she staffed. You'll remember this she staffed with a moderate staff in the beginning, a lot of Alaskans, a lot of people who were Republicans or moderate Republicans, and those people are nowhere to be seen now. It's a graveyard of them. I mean, we've gone through I don't even know how many staff members. It's a revolving door of staff members. She's in the top five rated of toxic work environments on the Hill and and they're replaced with all these extreme liberals that are all DC insiders. I'm sure you know more of the story. Tell us what you know.

Nick Begich: 31:57

Well, you know, initially she had hired on a number of Don Young's former staff, including his chief, and had brought on staff that had previously worked for him, and so it really looked like to the public oh, here's someone who's going to be working with both sides, that's going to take these people on and she's going to split the difference and go down the middle like she ran her campaign. But over the ensuing months she turned all these people over. She replaced them, as you said, with with hard left progressives that certainly aren't from Alaska and don't represent the people of Alaska. She has one of the highest staff turnovers in the entire Congress. I think she's definitely in the top five. She may be in the top two. I think at one point she was in the top two for staff turnover.

Nick Begich: 32:43

And look, a state like Alaska is complicated. It's very complicated. When you think about California or Texas. They have 40, 50 members or more from their state in the Congress. They can split up what they call the portfolio right. So you've got maybe one person takes healthcare, another person takes resources, another person takes another issue or another issue, one person's on judiciary, so they have the ability to sort of divide and cover an entire portfolio. We don't have that luxury. We have a complicated state and we have to cover all of the portfolio on behalf of the state in the Congress.

Nick Begich: 33:18

So if you've got continuous turnover in your office, there is no way you can do it, and it's unfortunate she hasn't recognized that bathrooms were, knew how to get around the hill, understood the portfolio that Don Young had been working on and got rid of them all and replaced them with, you know, sort of the stamped progressive folks, and that's not good for Alaska and I think it probably is why we've seen. You know her voting record be what it is. I mean she crosses the aisle occasionally for a political reason, but 90% of the time she's voting with Nancy Pelosi, 85% of the time Ilhan Omar she's voting with. And I can tell you, if there's anything that I'm certain of when it comes to Alaskan political ideology, it's that we would never hire Nancy Pelosi to be our representative. She is a San Francisco Democrat. We have nothing in common with her. She has no interest in seeing Alaska grow or develop. And yet here Mary Peltola is voting in virtually lockstep with her.

Kelly Tshibaka: 34:24

That's our voting record, yeah.

Niki Tshibaka: 34:28

Well, you just also referenced, Nick, that she's voting about 85 percent of the time with Ilhan Omar, and I found that really concerning. Something I was going to say was it's almost like she's an extended member of the squad and one of the issues with her campaign is it's funded by some of the same people who have been funding these anti-Semitic protests that we're seeing across the country. So you look at some of the people who are funding her campaign and you look at her votes 85% of the time with Ilhan Omar, who is an avowed anti Semite I mean clearly with the comments and the things that she has said publicly and then she's also being funded by these anti-Semitic folks who are funding these anti-Semitic protests. What are your thoughts on that? Because that, to me, is actually very concerning, because that is not Alaska.

Nick Begich: 35:19

That's not Alaska, it's not American either. I mean, you know, I israel has been our longstanding ally in the Middle East. They are the regional counterweight to terrorism throughout the Middle East, specifically in Iran, but, of course, throughout their region. And the problem is, if you don't support Israel, their right to exist, defend their ability to defend themselves from terrorism, what message are you sending the rest of our allies Right? If we're not going to stand with our allies when they need us. What makes us think that our allies will stand with us when we need them? Right and you know. When you're taking money, gladly accepting cash from all corners, including people who are fueling this anti-Semitic push that we see on the hard left, it just demonstrates that you have no principles, right, I mean, she will take money from anyone who's willing to write a check. She won't denounce any of this. She hasn't denounced any of this and look, words are one thing but actions are another. And if she's not willing to write a check, she won't denounce any of this. She hasn't denounced any of this. And look, you know words are one thing but actions are another. And if she's not willing to refund that money or to disavow those resources coming into her campaign, it's tacit acknowledgement that she's OK with it. And you know, we need to be clear about this. Americans, whether you're find yourself, you know, on the Democrat side or the Republican side, or if you're, like most Americans, probably somewhere in the middle you got to recognize that again. Going back to the first segment, we talked about those values that do not change. This is one of those values that we can't compromise on. We've got to stand strong. In the aftermath of 9-11 9/11 israel I gave us tremendous intelligence about where things were coming from, what we needed to do in order to fight the war on terror, practices that we need to implement in the wake of those attacks, and to abandon that ally and that strategic relationship at their most important moment of need. It's beyond the pale.

Niki Tshibaka: 37:15

Well, it is, and it's more than just being supporting, you know, anti-semites and being against Israel. It's being pro-terrorist. That's the I mean. You're standing up for Hamas, you're standing up for a terrorist organization, and so to be a member in Congress, just to be an American anybody who says I support Hamas and I support you know what they're doing. Oh my goodness, how could we possibly want somebody representing any state or any district in the country who would support a/ terrorist organization and a terrorist?

Kelly Tshibaka: 37:53

funded organization. You know something people were asking me last time when you and I were campaigning together, you know about who was I going to vote for and all that and we had to thread those needles because of the ranked choice voting. One of the things that I would say that's relevant to this election is, when you only have one person in the House with 435 people, you need someone who's going to get attention for Alaska, who's going to be able to take that stand and captivate the room, be able to persuade people behind closed doors. Get on the media, be able to speak articulately like you're speaking with us right now, and get our message out, because you only have one voice. You only have one person who can speak for us. One of the things that I'm seeing in our conversation today is the pattern of silence from Mary Peltola. She could really have these mic drop moments where she speaks. Right. She's the only Alaska Native that's ever been in Congress. She's Alaska Native female. She's got this amazing opportunity to strategically step out of her party to build bridges and speak in common sense ways for America, but she's choosing instead to do things like stir up her caucus against Alaska and against America and do things that actually hurt us. Step out at strategic times that would help us and not use her voice. And even what you're saying right now both of you is this silence on this Israel issue is extremely concerning. We have an incredible opportunity as Alaskans to have a voice in Congress instead of to be muted, and I think that's really the issue that's on the ballot for us, not just here in Alaska, but across America, is this is an election where we could have a voice In our presidential election. It seems like our president has been quite muted these last four years because he just seems to lack some physical abilities, as he's declining, and we have an opportunity to have a voice on a national stage and an international stage. We have an opportunity to have a voice in Congress with our Alaska representative. We have an opportunity to have a voice on a national stage and an international stage. We have an opportunity to have a voice in Congress with our Alaska representative. We have an opportunity to have a voice across the nation in decisions that we'll make. Nick, we want to pick up with you right after this break and talk about the path to victory. You're on. Stand with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka, stand by, we'll be right back.

Niki Tshibaka: 40:22

Welcome back to Stand with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka. We are on with Nick Begich, candidate for Congress. Nick, this has been a fantastic and really, I think, wide-ranging discussion and really appreciate the depth of your policy insights. You clearly are well well educated on these issues. You understand them through and through. You understand the issues that are important to Alaskans and to Americans on a broader level. We'd like to talk a little bit about what you see as your path to victory. You know we live in a ranked choice choice environment and that complicates things for Republicans, and that was the whole point of the Democrats putting it in here and our Senator, L lisa Murkowski, helping putting it in here. Talk to us about your path to victory. For those who are sort of scratching their heads and thinking I just I think Nick is great and we want to see a Republican win, but we're just not sure if they can, so I'm not even going to vote at all, because what's the point, yeah?

Nick Begich: 41:21

Oh well, let me first, First off, everybody vote. Ok, look, if you're watching this podcast, you need to vote. If you're an American, you need to vote. It's your civic responsibility to vote. So be educated, make an informed decision. Vote for the person you think will best represent you in the House. Please vote. But setting that aside, look, we have a clear path to victory. I mean, Decision Desk HQ came out here just last week and gave us a 53% chance of taking the seat back, which is incredible considering that the Democrat has outraged the Republicans in this race. Something like seven to one combined. So we have the tailwind, the political tailwind, with the presidential election year. Trump's going to win Alaska by 10 to 20 points, probably closer to 20 if Kelly's involved 30 points 30 points.

Nick Begich: 42:13

There you go, but he's going to win. He's going to win this state in a landslide and this is our opportunity to retire Mary Peltola and put a conservative back in office on behalf of the people of Alaska. And the pathway to victory is a little muddied, I will tell you, because of ranked choice voting, and I am one who has signed the repeal petition. I was proud to put my name on the repeal petition for ranked choice voting. It should appear on the ballot this November and I think a lot of Alaskans in fact, the data has shown up to this point that more than half of Alaskans want to see ranked choice voting go away. We have to deal with it right now, and I think the best way to deal with ranked choice voting, my opinion, is to selfose a primary.

Nick Begich: 42:56

We saw what happened in our race in 2022. And you know, sarah Palin and I were both in that race and the reality is we ended up splitting votes. And folks say, well, if you just would rank, you wouldn't split votes. Well, that's theoretically true, but you can't make every single person rank. It turns out that there'll be a percentage of people who simply won't do it, no matter how many times you talk to those people. In fact, the more you talk to some folks, the less they want to participate in that system, and so it's just not going to. It just doesn't happen that way, and so I think we need to be self-imposing primaries on Republicans voluntarily. It's something that I have committed to do in this race. If another Republican finishes ahead of me in this race, I will get out and allow that Republican field to consolidate so that we can take the Democrat out, and that, I believe, gives us the best path to victory. So is it possible that you can do it with more than one Republican in the race? Yes, it's theoretically possible, but I say you go from a four lane highway to a goat trail if you've got more than one Republican running in the race, and and so that's what. That's what I think gives us the best opportunity to win.

Nick Begich: 44:11

Polling shows, as has been pointed out in one of the prior segments, polling shows that I am tied with Mary Peltola, once the roll-up effects of ranked choice voting are taken into account. And the reality is that is pretty incredible again, considering how much favorable press my Democrat opponent has gotten, how much money she's raised, how much money she's already spent, because the people of Alaska recognize that she truly doesn't represent their values in DC. So there's a strong pathway. The data's there. I think we have a good, strong strategy for achieving victory.

Nick Begich: 44:49

The Congressional Leadership Fund has already allocated over five million million in television spending. They recognized they made a big mistake in the last election cycle. The NRCC and the Congressional Leadership Fund did not spend significant amounts of resources in Alaska, predominantly, I'm told, because they believed they would have some giant red wave that would wash across the country and they could come back to Alaska in the future and pick it up. Well, that didn't happen, and yet we lose the seat, and so there's a recognition.

Nick Begich: 45:16

I think nationally, that we need to get Alaska's seat back. One of the important things about Alaska is that we really are not a swing district. We're really not. We are a red state, and in the House, where you have 435 members, there are certainly going to be some swing districts. You're going to have 20 or 30 swing districts across the country that will go from blue to red and then back to blue and then back to red until you go through the next census and reapportionment process. But the reality is Alaska is a deep red state and, as our single congressional district in this state, we should be having a Republican representing us, and that's why it's worth the investment to make sure that we get a conservative back in office, because we'll hold that seat for a long period of time.

Kelly Tshibaka: 46:02

I agree with you. Let's jump into some questions that we need to just, I think would be good to resolve for people who have lingering questions from last election. How will you win over Palin supporters who dug their heels in? I just saw like this almost stubbornness in the last election, where Republicans picked camps and then didn't move. So how are you planning to win over some of the Palin voters from last election?

Nick Begich: 46:27

It's a great question. It's a really fair question. We have seen in the data that a lot of those folks have come over already.

Kelly Tshibaka: 46:33

That's great.

Nick Begich: 46:35

So that's really been positive. But I think I think it's really making clear Look, I have been America first. I'm. This is not a new thing for me. I didn't just wake up one morning and say, oh, I'm going to be America first today. I supported Trump in 2016. I was at his presidential inauguration in 2017. I spoke at a bikers for Trump rally in 2020.

Nick Begich: 46:55

I have been on the Trump train America first agenda for a long time and I think some of the some of the confusion in the last election prevented us from being able to articulate that to enough Alaskans. So I think people have seen that. They've also seen what happened in the last election and no one's happy with that result. And so when you look at the data, in fact, from the last, uh, the last election, more than 60 percent of sarah palin's voters put me second on their ballot, and so I think you know there's there's sort of three camps. You got that camp, you got people who didn't rank at all, and then you have people who put mary peltola second, and so you know, 60 put me second. Uh, the folks that didn't rank recognize that you, you know most of them recognize that you've got to participate in that process if there's more than one credible Republican on the ballot.

Nick Begich: 47:44

And lastly, for folks who put Mary Peltola second she clearly is not America first. She clearly doesn't support Trump. In fact, she's endorsed Joe Biden for president and they recognize that that's not a good solution either. So I think that we's not a good solution either. So I think that we've got a strong answer. We've done a tremendous job. I have to compliment my team on this and making sure that we're spending time, you know, in the areas of the state where Palin had a lot of support and you know there's, I would hope, no animosity carrying over from that last campaign. We've done everything we can to reach out to those folks and continue to reach out to folks because, at the end of the day, we've got to. It's not just about Alaska's seat, it's about saving this country.

Niki Tshibaka: 48:27

I think those are some really good strategies. I also appreciate the point that you just made about tying Congresswoman Peltola to Biden, because that's really important. If Alaskans want more Biden policies hitting Alaska, then vote for Peltola. If Alaskans want to see our state sort of right itself and rise again, don't vote for Peltola.

Nick Begich: 48:52

Well, kelly brought it up earlier. You know there's been 63 executive orders that target Alaska from Joe Biden and despite that, mary Peltola has endorsed and continues to support Joe Biden. She was even on Meet the Press here recently saying that Joe Biden if you can believe this, joe Biden to her was one of the most articulate, intelligent people she'd met in Washington DC. Oh my goodness.

Niki Tshibaka: 49:15

It's outrageous. She'd met in.

Nick Begich: 49:17

Washington DC. Oh my goodness, it's outrageous. I don't anyone who's watched any news at all should be able to discern. Wait a minute, he does not have all of his faculties.

Kelly Tshibaka: 49:24

I mean to be fair. You don't know who she's met.

Nick Begich: 49:27

Well, okay, fair enough.

Kelly Tshibaka: 49:28

But it's, yeah, it just depends on the pool of people, nick Well she clearly represents.

Nick Begich: 49:33

That's right. Maybe she needs to expand her circle, that's right. Wrong cocktail parties, but this is her judgment. I mean, if this is the person's judgment that we're sending on behalf of Alaskans to DC to make decisions for us, well, we got some problems. That's not good.

Kelly Tshibaka: 49:48

In all seriousness, like you said, I think it might be the talking points from the staff.

Niki Tshibaka: 49:53

Well, that, and, at the end of the day, what we ultimately know with those statements is she represents Joe Biden, she doesn't represent Alaska, and that's the point. One of the points I think it just needs to be communicated forcefully to Alaskans is she represents Biden and the establishment and those people are anti-Alaska. And so if you vote for them.

Niki Tshibaka: 50:13

You're voting against yourself, Nick. We're coming up on the close of the show, but we'd like to give you a couple of minutes to address Alaska and America directly. Give them and give us your closing pitch for why Nick Begich III should be our next congressman from Alaska in DC, in DC.

Nick Begich: 50:33

Look, I'll tell you right now. Alaska has a compelling story. People love this state. People dream of coming to Alaska. They dream of Alaska because it represents the last frontier. We are the last frontier. Our state motto is North to the Future. We need to make sure that that promise continues for generations to come.

Nick Begich: 50:55

Shutting down Alaska prevents us from achieving any of those dreams, any of those ideals. We can't be that place to look to if we're going to turn Alaska into a national park. Alaska has more estimated undiscovered oil and gas resources than any other state in the country. We have not billions, not hundreds of billions, but trillions of dollars in mineral wealth waiting to be unlocked for the benefit of the people of our state and the people of this great nation. We need Alaska, but in order for people outside of our state to understand just how compelling our state can be for them, we have to have someone who can tell Alaska's story again. That's why I'm running.

Nick Begich: 51:35

I want to tell that story on behalf of Alaskans. I believe it's a story that everybody can get behind. Yes, I'm a conservative, yes, I'm a Republican, but there are good reasons why people even on the other side of the aisle should want this state developed. It's good for Alaska, it's good for America, it's good for jobs, it's good for energy security, it's good for mineral security, it's good for national defense and we need this state to be a part of our portfolio as a nation moving forward. I want to make that case on behalf of our state and I want to take that story to the rest of America.

Kelly Tshibaka: 52:08

Nick, where can people donate to you if they want to support your campaign?

Nick Begich: 52:13

Alaskansfornickbegich. com is our website. Please come out. We've got policies out there. We'd love to have your financial support. As was mentioned, there's a lot of money coming in from outside of Alaska. We need help to make sure we can get that positive message out to the people of Alaska and win in November.

Kelly Tshibaka: 52:28

Alaskans for Nick Begich. com. We need an Alaskan advocate. We need an America first advocate. Nick Begich is running for Congress in Alaska November 2024. That'll be our election day. This looks like a promising election, nick. We're so glad that you were with us on stand. Thanks for joining us today. We're at stand showorg. Make sure to hit subscribe. We will see you next week.