UAF Students told to leave Vance rally

By Louis Seymour

Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Fairbanks drew supporters to a rally at Fairbanks International Airport ahead of November’s midterm elections. Several University of Alaska Fairbanks students said they were asked to leave before the speeches began, raising questions about their removal from an event focused on Republican candidates and energy policy.

The rally marked the first visit to Fairbanks by a sitting vice president since 1972, when Spiro Agnew visited to rally support for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Vance’s visit focused on the upcoming midterm elections, with Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich taking the stage before Vance arrived.

Sullivan and Begich are both running for reelection this November. Sullivan’s race has drawn considerable attention, with many Democrats viewing his seat as an opportunity to regain control of the Senate. Several speakers at the rally encouraged voters to “call five likeminded friends” to increase Republican turnout.

Vance and local Republican leaders used the rally to appeal to Interior Alaska voters. State and local leaders also attended. Speakers did not explicitly mention three Republican candidates for governor: Treg Taylor, Bernadette Wilson and Dave Bronson. Local media outlets attended, but The Sun Star was denied press access to the event.

As during Agnew’s 1972 visit, Alaska’s natural resources took center stage as a key campaign issue. Begich and Sullivan expressed support for the Alaska LNG project and increased oil production in the state.

Addressing concerns about rising energy costs, Vance and Sullivan highlighted the need for energy independence and reduced reliance on foreign oil. Speakers presented the Alaska LNG project and a spur line to Fairbanks as potential ways to lower regional energy costs. Sullivan also addressed financial concerns related to the war in Iran, describing what he called the true “forever war” that “the national Democrats have waged against Alaska.”

**Photo by Amber McCain**
Vice President JD Vance encourages voters to elect Republican candidates in the upcoming elections.

Sierra Fitzmayer, Lydia Wies and other UAF students said they were asked to leave the rally before the speeches began. Shortly after finding seats in the event space, the group was approached by a security officer and asked to speak with the security team in the back. The students said they were then told to leave the event immediately.

When asked why they believed they had been removed, Wies said, “I feel like they kicked us out just because we weren't a part of the in-group that was already there, which just feels very exclusive and very strange to me.”

The students said they were not given an explanation for their removal. Fitzmayer said, “I feel like it's clear because they didn't kick us out because we were a security threat or because we were causing a problem, because they didn't say that.”

Jackson Nelson, a UAF student who attended the rally, described a crowd that included people with different political affiliations.

“There weren’t just Republicans there,” Nelson said. “There were, you know, people from UAF there, there were Democrats.”

Vance and Sullivan also highlighted funding for UAF and the military, describing the funding as beneficial to the broader community.

Willow Edwards, another student who said he was asked to leave, described the rally as an appeal to existing supporters rather than an effort to win over new ones.

“It felt more like pandering to his audience than, like, trying to convince anybody to join his cause,” Edwards said.

The students said they felt Vance’s rhetoric did little to unite the Fairbanks community. When asked whether the rally had a positive impact on the community, Fitzmayer acknowledged the importance of building support among voters but said political leaders should also reach beyond their existing base.

“I understand it's important to create a community within your voters,” Fitzmayer said. “It's important to reach out beyond just, like, sort of MAGA or conservative people.”

**Photo by Amber McCain**
Sen. Dan Sullivan speaks to Fairbanks residents about his reelection campaign.

Nelson described the rally as peaceful and said security personnel were friendly, though he characterized the event as “certainly a bit MAGA.” Throughout the rally, supporters held signs reading “Defend our Future” and “Vance 2028,” while one attendee interrupted Vance as he spoke. Vance responded to the interruption by saying, “We of course had to have one person who wants to ruin the party.”

The interruption did little to disrupt Vance’s remarks, which focused on supporting Begich and Sullivan in their respective elections.

Nelson encouraged students who did not attend the rally to evaluate accounts of the event for themselves.

“You might hear all these negative things about the event, but is that actually what took place?” he said.

He also urged voters to assess Senate candidates based on their records in Washington and Alaska.

Nelson said the students’ account of the incident differed from his impression of them in person.

“The story that they were sharing was, you know, a narrative slightly different from how they acted in person,” he said, adding that “they looked like they were going to cause some drama.”

An Instagram post detailing the group’s experience drew attention among Fairbanks residents following their removal from the rally. Fitzmayer said they did not intend to create further division but wanted to draw attention to what they saw as a broader pattern of political polarization.

“I would just want to emphasize that at least my intention with telling people about this is not to create more divisions,” they said.

Despite their disappointment, the students said they planned to vote in the upcoming elections. The rally’s speakers also encouraged Fairbanks residents to vote in November, with Vance telling the crowd to “make sure to vote, and vote the right way.”

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman visits UAF for a student Town Hall on Alaska’s growing role in space exploration.