Sullivan, Gross advance in Alaska US Senate primaries

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Independent Al Gross won the Democratic Alaska U.S. Senate primary Tuesday, advancing to challenge Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan in this fall's general election.

Gross, an orthopedic surgeon who was endorsed by the state Democratic party and gained national attention bested Democrat Edgar Blatchford, a university professor and former state commerce commissioner, and Chris Cumings, a registered nonpartisan like Gross. “Independent” is a term often used to describe those registered as nonpartisan or undeclared in Alaska.

“The fight won't be easy, but I'm inspired to know that I’m not in it alone,” Gross told supporters outside an Anchorage union hall late Tuesday.

Sullivan, 55, said the stakes for the general election “couldn’t be higher for our state and country.”

He said having Democrat Joe Biden as president and a Democratic-led Senate would threaten to unravel what he sees as progress in recent years on resource development, military and other issues that are part of an “Alaska agenda.” He cites moves toward allowing oil and gas drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and investments in the military as issues the Trump administration has supported and issues Sullivan believes many Alaskans support, too.

He said he has a good relationship with President Donald Trump. “It’s not what he says and what he puts out with regard to tweets, but what he’s done, what his administration has done in conjunction with the Congress,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan, a former state natural resources commissioner and attorney general, was elected to the Senate in 2014. He ousted Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich in an expensive and closely watched race. Sullivan said a reason he ran in 2014 was because he believed the federal government, during the Obama...