Notes from the Campaign Trail: May 31

Dear Alaskans –

Monica and I have been thinking of the families of the children and teachers who were wounded and killed in Uvalde last week. We have four grown kids, and we hope to be grandparents sometime, and the thought of children being killed in a school shooting is incomprehensible and horrifying. I am a lifelong Alaskan, own a dozen guns and, like most of us, am a strong supporter of the second amendment. However, I do believe that gun violence in America cannot be ignored and must be addressed.

I issued a statement to the ADN last Friday supporting these policy changes:

We must put an end to senseless gun violence across our country. I am for common sense regulations. We need to restore a sense of responsible gun ownership—as Alaskans know well—by ensuring background checks are thorough, sufficient, and mandatory.
I support the ability for family members or law enforcement to petition a judge to temporarily remove firearms from a person deemed at high risk of harming themselves or others.
I support personal interviews by local authorities for assault weapon purchases, which should be funded by federal legislation and held to a national standard so that people don’t drive across a state border to a more lenient state. I had to be interviewed and cleared by a TSA agent to get my Global Entry/TSA pre-check card to fly, and I believe this level of scrutiny is also appropriate if someone wants to buy an AR-15.
I support the federal government funding mental health programs that help prevent gun violence.
What should the federal government do to address mass shootings?
Do you support gun control legislation?

This last weekend I traveled to Kodiak for Crab Fest. What a great event it was, and the weather was spectacular! I had so much fun talking with many people from all over Alaska about crab, ferries, fish, bears, bycatch, renewable energy and lots of other Alaskan and National topics. I marched in the parade with some of our local supporters, and it was heartwarming how much enthusiasm for our campaign that we felt from so many people.

Friday evening at the festival I was fortunate to meet the Prout family, who graciously drove me to their 116-foot Bering Sea Crab boat, the Silver Spray, gave me a great tour of their very stout and well-kept ship, and then loaned me one of their survival suits for the upcoming traditional Survival Suit Swim Race. Thank you, Bill, Sterling, and Captain!

The next morning, I connected with three other people to form a Survival Suit Swim Race team, the Ocean Pearls, which included the hometown hero and favorite, Sara, who had just graduated from Kodiak High School! We did great and had a lot of fun together! I haven’t laughed that much in a long, long time. There was a very enthusiastic large crowd, and it was a great event on a beautiful day. I really like Kodiak and if you’ve never been there, I highly recommend.

Here’s the footage from the race!

This weekend Monica and I are bringing the camper up to the Matanuska Susitna valley again. Look for us at the Palmer Alehouse Saturday evening. As always, I look forward to talking with Alaskans and hearing your thoughts and questions while on the road or online. You can follow my travels on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dralgrossak/

Last Friday I spoke at the Bartlett Club luncheon at the Senior Activity Center in Anchorage and it felt so good to be back there. They had only recently reopened from the Covid closure. I originally spoke at the Bartlett Club when I was running for the Senate in 2020. I was asked lots of hard questions and did my best to explain clearly where I stand on issues, and I received a great response from the participants.

I want to be very clear (again). I will caucus with the Democrats when I get to Washington. However, I am a Non-Partisan independent, and I look forward to working with Republicans, Democrats and other Independents to fight for my values and to address the issues we confront both statewide and nationally. I will not be beholden to party politics.

This race is a lot like March Madness basketball with 64 college teams in a race for the National Championship, except that it is June, in Alaska, with the salmon about to run, everyone out and about because it is summer, and we have 48 candidates in a race for Congress! We are going to go on to the Final Four and then we are going to win. Please go to my website and read my stance on issues, and I hope that I can earn your vote.

Voting in person is open in many locations. Please check out the Division of Elections website if you would rather vote in person than with your mail in ballot: https://elections.alaska.gov/Core/avolocationsp.php
Special Primary mail in ballots must be postmarked by June 11. Don’t forget to sign and get your ballot witnessed.
If you have specific questions or concerns, please email me at hello@dralgrossak.com
If you have a place for a high visibility large sign or want a yard sign, please click here: https://forms.gle/kuJ1zKy4amCLAE6f7
Please tell three friends about my campaign and encourage them to go to my website https://dralgrossak.com/ to learn more about me.
Please help our campaign by sending a short video saying, “Why you are voting for Al!” to hello@dralgrossak.com. We will be sharing these videos on our social media. Please film the videos vertically on your cell phones.
And most important of all VOTE!

Thank you,

Al Gross