A cardboard cutout of U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) was the target of questions and concerns at an empty-chair town hall Thursday evening at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library. Nearly 170 people crammed the conference room and spilled into the space beyond.

David Noon, a Juneau Board of Education member and American history professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, moderated the event.

While he was unsure what reasons Sullivan had for not attending town halls, Noon acknowledged “a lot of elected officials around the country are a little bit reluctant at the moment to engage in these kinds of events.”

“I can sort of understand why,” Noon told the crowd. “It would be hard for me to frame my work if I were abdicating my work to someone else and allowing someone else or another branch of government to do that work instead of me.”

Empty-chair town halls for Sullivan have been held in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau this week, mirroring recent similar gatherings nationwide after Republican party leaders advised lawmakers to avoid in-person town halls. Sullivan told reporters Thursday that invites to the Alaska events arrived too soon before his visit to be seriously considered.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rep. Nick Begich III (R-Alaska) held virtual town halls earlier this year, with many constituents expressing frustration about limited engagement during Begich’s forum and some unable to connect with Murkowski.

Demonstrators line the hall leading to the House chamber prior to U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R-Alaska) address on March 20, 2025 (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)

Seeking to hold those in power accountable

Juneau for Democracy, a newly formed political organization, first emailed Sullivan’s office inquiring about a town hall on March 11. The group asked if they could plan for a later date if the senator wasn’t available during his visit to Juneau this week. Kolby Hickel Zerkel, the senator’s director of Alaska operations, wrote in response that Sullivan’s schedule was full and he would follow up. He also asked what concerns constituents had.

“I’m happy to pass them along to our team and the Senator,” Zerkel wrote.

Juneau for Democracy replied they would like to discuss issues directly with Sullivan, not through his staff.

The group plans to hold future town hall meetings. Elise Pypaert, a member of the organization, said the group held its first protest on President’s Day, Feb. 17. A petition “to uphold constitutional authority and prevent unchecked power 2025” by Juneau for Democracy was first shared at that event and now has more than 900 signatures.

Juneau for Democracy has its next protest, “Hands Off,” scheduled for April 5 at the Alaska State Capitol.

“Instead of just talking amongst ourselves, we need to involve the community,” Pypaert said. “We need to hear what they’re concerned about, what they’re thinking, and just put some voices together and bring up some issues that some people might not be aware of.”

A petition by Juneau for Democracy to protect Alaska’s citizens has gathered more than 100 signatures. So has a resolution titled “Alaska’s Economic and Transportation Security, Condemning Federal Actions That Endanger Relations with Canada, and Urging Immediate State and Federal Action.” Additionally, a petition asking Sullivan to “unequivocally support Ukraine” was shared at Thursday’s empty-chair town hall.

A Juneau resident signs a petition asking Sullivan to “unequivocally support Ukraine” at an empty-chair town hall on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)

In Sullivan’s news conference, the senator disputed claims he has not held a public town hall in four years, asserting he recently met with constituents in Washington, D.C., and rural Alaska. He also said he took a multitude of questions from state legislators — many confrontational — following his speech on Thursday.

“If it’s all about screaming and yelling and viral moments that they want to send out to their colleagues, you know, it’s not necessarily the most constructive way to do what I just did in there: an hour and a half with Alaska elected officials,” he said.

If engagement is constructive, Sullivan said, he “is all for it.”

Fired employees seek support from community

Isabel Dziak, a terminated U.S. Forest Service employee from the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area, said the empty-chair town hall was constructive because it built a sense of community.

“Having community events like this, I’m very grateful for it,” she said. “I don’t take it for granted.”

Noon prompted town hall participants to “think about ways in which the cuts or executive orders have directly impacted or potentially directly impacted people that you know.” Dziak, in response, told Sullivan’s cardboard cutout about her experience working at the Mendenhall Glacier. She was fired in mid-February.

“I always wanted to be the good in the government,” Dziak said. “I wanted to stand up for my own personal values and make sure that we held people who hold positions like you (Sullivan) accountable to make sure that you’re serving us, just as I consider myself a public servant.”

In an interview, Dziak said she was offered her job back on March 19, but she declined. She plans to stay in Juneau and attend community events, such as those planned by Juneau for Democracy.

“I knew that for me it was time to take a step back and put myself first, because that job was difficult to navigate,” she said. “We’ve always been short-staffed. We’re frontline government employees, so we deal with a lot of public comment in uniform, seeing millions of people a year. But I am going to continue fighting for employee rights and speaking out for those who don’t have a voice in the Forest Service.”

Sue Walker, a retired fisheries biologist, said her son was fired as a backcountry wilderness ranger in Juneau.

“He was rehired yesterday (March 19), but he doesn’t actually have a job because no one knows who was fired, what positions they held, what effects losing those people have,” she said. “If their positions are offered back, are they even going to take them because are they going to be fired in 45 days?”

Attendees of an empty-chair town hall clap on Thursday, March 20, 2025. A Juneau resident holds a sign that says “protect our democracy.” (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)

Organizations losing grants directed to explain their importance

In his annual address to the Alaska Legislature, Sullivan invited lawmakers to fill out a “federal awards inquiry” form that explains how Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) federal terminations and freezes undermine President Donald Trump’s executive order “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential.”

In an email on Saturday, Amanda Coyne, the senator’s communication director, said the form has been shared with constituents and groups having problems with job cuts and projects being frozen. She said it will be added to Sullivan’s website.

Andy Romanoff, executive director of the nonprofit organization Alaska Heat Smart, faced Sullivan’s cutout to ask for his help. He said freezing federal grants could leave Alaskans freezing in their homes. He said Alaska Heat Smart has two programs in development that aim to serve many people and nonprofits around the state.

“Funding for these two programs has been frozen once, thawed once, frozen again, and is now open, but we have no idea when or if this funding will survive, or if it will go away,” he said. “One of these programs stands to serve 6,000 different families across the region from Ketchikan to Kodiak helping to install heat pumps in homes. The other program will serve statewide 25 different nonprofit organizations and help them cut their utility costs annually, and ideally, put that money that they save from lowered utility bills back into their missions.”

Romanoff said a Juneau family served by Alaska Heat Smart recently is one of many that would be impacted if the funding is lost.

“It’s a young, single mother, five children, small mobile home, living on about $40,000 a year and spending about $2,500 of that $40,000 on heat,” he said. “We were able to get into her home and put in a heat pump and a new electrical panel, and fix some holes in the floor and leaks around the doors and the windows, and she’s saving roughly $2,000 a year now, which is quite a big chunk of change for a family like that.”

Romanoff asked the senator to stand up for Alaska when the time comes to repeal or rescind the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law.

“Say, ‘No, my state, this one nonprofit organization alone (has) $43 million at stake,” he said.

Guy Archibald, who works for the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, said the nonprofit organization received a Bureau of Indian Affairs grant to run a fish consumption survey to measure the number of fish people eat in Alaska. His grant was suspended.

“Alaska bases the water quality criteria for bio accumulative pollutants partially based on the amount of fish that you eat,” Archibald said. “They estimate that people in Alaska eat 6.5 grams of fish a day…Our water quality criteria are not protective of our residents that eat a lot of fish.”

He said the loss of the grant impacts three jobs in the community of Wrangell, plus $10,000 worth of incentives for people who take the survey for groceries and fuel.

“I contacted your office, and I got a form letter back saying that I must explain to the senator why my fish consumption survey aligns with the presidential order to benefit the nation and directs agencies to resent, rescind, revoke, revise, amend, defer or grant exemptions from any and all regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies or any similar actions that burden Alaska,” Archibald said. “I would like the senator to explain to me why having data that the state of Alaska has actually requested to produce protective water quality criteria to protect the health of our citizens is burdening Alaska.”

Katie Thomas-Canfield said she knows firsthand how such concerns should be handled.

“I used to work for the Office of the White House, and we would send back letters,” she told the Empire. “We had whole teams that are sending back letters to constituents who are writing and calling in. And that’s standard practice in every senatorial office, every congressional office. The fact that Izzy and I have called in dozens of times to congressional reps, into senators here, we’re one of the smallest states in terms of population and I haven’t gotten any follow-ups, feels like our voices do not matter.”

Thomas-Canfield was recently laid off from the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit providing foreign aid. She said it was among the hardest hit by Trump when he terminated nearly all USAID programs — an action among the many now subject to court challenges.

She added it feels like the Alaska congressional delegation is banking on constituents holding hard conversations and providing them with the information, instead of them doing their jobs.

She said it’s unfair for constituents to have to hold town halls and then tell the Alaska congressional delegation how Alaskans are affected.

“This is a triple burden on Alaska residents,” she said. “We’re paying our federal taxes; we paid our federal taxes. We’ve paid more federal taxes than many of the world’s wealthiest, and our city money is then being used to reallocate and pay for Trail Mix crews to come in and do the work that was already done by these rangers.”

Dave Klein speaks about the process of applying for Medicaid at an empty-chair town hall on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)

Kara Johnson asked the senator’s empty chair why he is not speaking out about cuts to the Veterans Association.

“Over 83,000 people are being cut,” she said. “Seventeen percent of the VA is being cut. How are you? Do you get to keep your job? Senator, Mr. Vet, this is severely impacting our most treasured people. How is this OK? There’s a higher percentage of vets in the workforce, in the federal workforce, over half of them are disabled. All of them have been targeted, every single one of them. Why are you not standing up for them?”

Johnson also expressed concern about the threatened status of the Social Security Administration, as well as DOGE cuts of the Local Foods for Schools and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement programs.

Jane Hale, a U.S. Navy veteran and retired National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration employee, spoke as a member of the LGBTQ+ community at the town hall.

“I display a progress pride flag outside my house, and it’s been ripped down three times, Senator Sullivan, and each time I put up a bigger flag,” Hale said. “So I guess the question for the senator is with the president emboldening the voices of hate all across our nation, what are you going to do to protect the civil liberties of Americans?”

Ana Chernora said she feels powerless, but it’s important to come together as a community and stay strong for one another. She spoke as a Ukrainian and a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

“The fact that we’re all showing up here today, and I see so many people who are passionate about democracy and passionate about a better community, makes me really hopeful that we can get through this together,” she said.

Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356.