Jim McDermott

Deep Dive

Jim McDermott is the Libertarian on Alaska’s November ballot and has run for this seat three times before. He retired from the Air Force as a Master Sergeant after 22.5 years, has taught business at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for more than eight years and run small business development programs there, and says he left the Republican Party over the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act. On November 3, 2026 the seat is filled by ranked-choice voting, and the ballot carries Nick Begich, the Republican incumbent, Eric Hafner, a Democrat, McDermott, and Bill Hill, who is registered nonpartisan. All four reached it through Alaska’s top-four primary of August 18, 2026, whose results were certified on August 31, 2026. McDermott finished eighth with 1.2 percent and reached the ballot after four candidates ahead of him withdrew.

He has been asked this question directly once, and he answered it. Alaska Public Media, KTOO, the Alaska Beacon and the Anchorage Daily News built a joint candidate questionnaire for this year's election and asked everyone running for Alaska's seat in the U.S. House to finish the sentence "U.S. military aid to Israel should be ____." His answer reads in full: "I love the good people of Israel, and my heart goes out to the good people in Iran, etc... as the global good people often care about caring for those around them. You see, when we can help our brothers and sisters around the world with good hearts then we should include security aide." The spelling of "aide" is his.

Read against the question, that answer does not say what the United States should send the government of Israel. It names Israel once and Iran once, and in both places it is talking about the people of those countries rather than about aid. The only clause that reaches American policy is about helping "our brothers and sisters around the world", which names no country, and the thing it would include, security aid, is attached to that worldwide help rather than to any recipient. There is no amount, no condition, no increase and no cut. This site's standing rule is that the direction is never implicit and that the recipient has to be named in the same breath as the verb, so the answer is published here in full and is not read as support for military aid to the government of Israel, which it does not state.

Beyond that answer the record is empty. His platform sets out nine headings: civil liberties and the Patriot Act; drug policy; defense and foreign policy; the national debt; trade and tariffs; small business and Alaska's economy; term limits; the Permanent Fund Dividend; and immigration and workforce. The words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian, Hamas, foreign aid and antisemitism appear nowhere on his campaign site. He has not completed Ballotpedia's 2026 candidate survey, and the one voter guide that asks candidates in this race whether the United States relationship with the government of Israel matters records no answer from him.

The plank that comes closest names no country. He writes that the United States should not serve as the world’s policeman, and that “Permanent entanglement in foreign conflicts, without clear objectives, defined endpoints, or Congressional declarations of war, is not a defense policy.” He says he does not support open-ended military commitments made without congressional authorization, that the War Powers Resolution exists for a reason, and, of recent U.S. strikes in the Middle East, that such commitments require a clear-eyed accounting of cost, consequence and constitutional authority. In his earlier runs his campaign site carried one line about foreign aid: “Our government needs to stop giving billions of our tax dollars to nations that hate us.” That names no country either, and it has no successor on the 2026 site.

One place that might hold more could not be read here. The statement he filed for Alaska’s 2026 official election pamphlet is published by the Division of Elections at an address that refuses every route available from here. Its address is on his research page so that anyone who can open it may.

You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask McDermott directly, or at a candidate forum, and send us the reply: it goes on this page in his own words, which is worth more than anything we could write about him.

The money

Checked the five lobbying groups we track; no direct 2026 support found

In their words

Research log

The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.

Every page named below was opened and read on 2026-09-20 unless the entry says otherwise. His campaign site was read in full: the home page, the issues page, the about page and the contact page, which are all the pages it has apart from the donation and privacy pages. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. McDermott has never held office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks is his, and no funding from the committees this site tracks is recorded on this record.

U.S. military aid and weapons to the government of Israel

• [Position, read 2026-09-20; the guide published ahead of the August 2026 primary] The one time the question was put to him directly. The joint 2026 voter guide built by Alaska Public Media, KTOO, the Alaska Beacon and the Anchorage Daily News asked every candidate for this seat to complete the sentence "U.S. military aid to Israel should be ____." His answer reads in full: "I love the good people of Israel, and my heart goes out to the good people in Iran, etc... as the global good people often care about caring for those around them. You see, when we can help our brothers and sisters around the world with good hearts then we should include security aide." The spelling of "aide" and the three dots after "etc" are his. The guide carries no publication date of its own and is dated here to the day it was read; the questionnaire was put to the candidates before the August 18, 2026 primary.
• How that answer is read here, and why it is not carried as a position. The question asks what American military aid to the government of Israel should be. The answer names Israel once and Iran once, in both cases about the people of those countries and not about aid. Its one clause about American policy, "when we can help our brothers and sisters around the world with good hearts then we should include security aide", names no country: the help is worldwide and the security aid is attached to that worldwide help. No amount, no condition, no increase and no cut is stated. Under the standing rule that the direction is never implicit and that the recipient must be named in the same clause as the verb, supplying the government of Israel as the recipient would be our inference and not his sentence, so the answer is published in full and is not counted as a position on what the United States sends the government of Israel. It is the closest he has come by a wide margin.
• Nothing else located, at any date. No other statement by him about weapons transfers, Foreign Military Financing, security assistance, an arms embargo or any bill on those subjects appears on his 2026 campaign site, on his Ballotpedia page, in his iVoterGuide profile, or in any other page read for this card. The words Israel and Hamas do not appear anywhere on jamesmcdermott.org.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

• Nothing located, at any date. Neither the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, nor humanitarian funding for Gaza, nor the aid pipeline appears anywhere in his published material. The word Palestinian does not appear on his campaign site.

Characterization of the conflict

• Nothing located, at any date. The words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian and Hamas appear nowhere on his campaign site or in any other source read for this card.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

• Nothing located about this subject. No statement by him about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or about any other advocacy organization on this subject, was found. His issues page does name a lobbyist, in a passage about federal surveillance contracting that has nothing to do with this question.

Safety and antisemitism (context, not a position on what America sends)

• Nothing located, at any date. His campaign site does not mention antisemitism, religious communities or hate crimes.

His platform's defense plank, which names no country either

• [Position, read 2026-09-20] The defense and foreign policy plank on his 2026 issues page, written in the third person by his campaign. In full: "Jim served 22.5 years in the United States Air Force. He is not anti-military. He is anti-recklessness with the military. He believes the United States should not serve as the world's policeman. Permanent entanglement in foreign conflicts, without clear objectives, defined endpoints, or Congressional declarations of war, is not a defense policy. It is a jobs program for contractors and a burden on the American people." / "He supports a strong national defense - including protecting Alaska's borders, airspace, and Arctic strategic position. He does not support open-ended military commitments made without Congressional authorization. The War Powers Resolution exists for a reason. He supports diplomatic engagement and opposes the assumption that military action is the default first option. On recent U.S. strikes in the Middle East: these commitments require a clear-eyed accounting of cost, consequence, and constitutional authority." The dash in the second paragraph is an em dash on the page and is rendered here as a hyphen. The plank names no country at all, and it says nothing about what the United States sends to the government of Israel or to Palestinians. The page carries no date, so it is banded to the day it was read.
• [Earlier record, 2016] Ballotpedia's record of the issues his campaign site listed in 2016, citing mcdermott4congress4alaska.com. Six lines, on immigration, drugs, lawmaking, crime, foreign aid and government spending. The foreign aid line in full: "Our government needs to stop giving billions of our tax dollars to nations that hate us." It names no country. The same line appears on the site at https://www.mcdermott4congress4alaska.com/, which opens.
• [Earlier record, 2014] Ballotpedia's record of the issues his campaign site listed in 2014, citing mcdermott4congress4alaska.com/issues.html. Five lines, the first of which is the military one: "Military action should only be employed when our homeland is threatened. We need to bring our troops home ASAP, and employ them to secure our own borders." The 2014 list carries no foreign aid line.

What the campaign site and his own pages say

• [Read 2026-09-20] His entry in the joint 2026 voter guide is the one place he has answered a direct question on this subject. The guide is published inside the page by a separate application, so its text is not in the page's own markup and a plain reading of the address does not reach it; the answers were read from the application's own data at https://app.electup.com/api/v2/embed/fd4b753c-7235-4437-ba20-2f924a118266/ballot and in a browser. He answered that item; the guide's introduction names Alaska Public Media, KTOO, the Alaska Beacon and the Anchorage Daily News as its builders.
• [Undated; read 2026-09-20] His 2026 campaign site, jamesmcdermott.org, whose footer files date from July 2026. The home page gives his biography and his case against the incumbent: 35 years in Alaska, retired from the Air Force as a Master Sergeant after 22.5 years, more than eight years teaching business at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, small business development programs in Fairbanks, three previous runs for this seat with 5.2 percent in 2012, 7.6 percent in 2014 and 10.4 percent in 2016, and a pledge not to seek a third term. It says he was a Republican and left the party over the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act.
• [Undated; read 2026-09-20] His issues page is arranged in three parts, "Personal Liberty & Civil Liberties", "Fiscal Accountability & Alaska's Economy" and "Alaska First", with nine headings under them: civil liberties and the Patriot Act; drug policy and personal liberty; defense and foreign policy; fiscal accountability and the national debt; trade and tariffs; small business and Alaska's economy; term limits; the Permanent Fund Dividend; and immigration and workforce. A case-insensitive search of that page, the home page, the about page and the contact page for israel, gaza, palestin, hamas, antisemit, jewish, aipac, unrwa and foreign aid returns nothing at all. The only foreign matches anywhere on the site are the defense plank quoted above.
• [Read 2026-09-20] His Ballotpedia page records that he has not completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. It carries campaign themes for 2016 and 2014 only, both quoted above.
• [Read 2026-09-20] iVoterGuide's profile of him for this year's Alaska primary, which rates him "Moderate" and carries his biography. Its questionnaire asks "Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?" and every answer on the form, including that one, reads "Did not answer". A form nobody filled in is a fact about the guide, not about the candidate.
• [Read 2026-09-20] https://www.mcdermott4congress4alaska.com/ still opens and reproduces his 2014 campaign material, including the foreign aid line. It is no longer his: a note on the page says that a reader discovered the domain was available, bought it, and rebuilt the content from archived pages so that it would not be repurposed. The wording it carries matches what Ballotpedia independently recorded from the original site, which is why the line is treated as his; the card links Ballotpedia rather than the rebuilt domain.

The race

• [Read 2026-09-20] Ballotpedia's page for Alaska's at-large district: "Incumbent Nicholas Begich (R), Eric Hafner (D), Jim McDermott (L), and Bill Hill (Nonpartisan) are running in the general election for U.S. House Alaska At-large District on November 3, 2026." Its page for the primary gives the filing deadline as June 1, 2026 and the top-four primary as August 18, 2026, and records the results as certified: Nicholas Begich 44.6 percent and 72,696 votes, Bill Hill 32.5 percent and 53,008, Eric Hafner 3.8 percent and 6,175, Jim McDermott 1.2 percent and 1,951, out of 162,932 votes cast among fifteen candidates.
• [Read 2026-09-20] The Alaska Beacon's account of how the field was settled, by James Brooks, published September 2, 2026 and read on KTOO, which carries it. Under Alaska's system every candidate runs in one primary, the top four advance, and in November voters rank them; if a candidate takes more than half of the first choices they win outright, and otherwise the last-placed candidate is eliminated and those votes are redistributed. If a top-four finisher withdraws, the next finisher takes the place. Matt Schultz, third, John Williams, fifth, Clay Strickland, sixth, and Yaquelin Reynoso, seventh, all withdrew before the deadline, which is how the eighth-place finisher, McDermott, reached the ballot. The article says the official results were published that Monday, which was August 31, 2026, and records that a call to his listed phone went to voicemail.

Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them

• https://elections.alaska.gov/doc/oep/2026/Mcdermott,%20James%20C_%20USRep_Eng_06.07.26-PWEB.pdf , his candidate statement in Alaska's 2026 official election pamphlet, as iVoterGuide links it. The Division of Elections host refuses every way in that was tried, and meets a browser with a human-verification page. Nobody has read it for this card, and it is the document most likely to carry a further 2026 statement from him in his own words.
• https://www.elections.alaska.gov/doc/oep/2012/Region-3-Book-Final-2012.pdf , https://www.elections.alaska.gov/doc/oep/2012/Region-4-Book-Final-2012.pdf and https://www.elections.alaska.gov/doc/oep/2014/AK-Region-II-book.pdf , the earlier official election pamphlets our research listed for him. The same host refuses all of them the same way.
• No social media account of his was found on his campaign site or on Ballotpedia, and none was read.

Not on the card, and why

• The rest of his defense and foreign policy plank, including the passage on Alaska's borders, airspace and Arctic position. It is quoted in full above. Defensive and territorial matters do not go in the fifty-word summary, and the plank names no country anywhere.
• His remark about recent United States strikes in the Middle East, as a position. It is about the authorization and cost of American military action, not about what the United States sends to the government of Israel or to Palestinians, and material of that kind does not go on a card front. It is on the card in the deep dive, described for what it is, so that a reader can see how close he has come.
• The rest of his platform: the Patriot Act, surveillance contracting, drug policy, the national debt, tariffs, small business, term limits, the Permanent Fund Dividend and immigration. None of it answers what the United States sends.
• iVoterGuide's unanswered form. A page of "Did not answer" is a fact about the guide's coverage, not about the candidate.
• Whatever his 2026 official election pamphlet statement says. The Alaska Division of Elections host will not serve it by any route available here.
• The record of Jim McDermott of Washington, who represented that state's 7th District from 1989 to 2017. A different person, of the same name, in a different state and party. His Ballotpedia page was read only to confirm the two are distinct.
• The records of Nick Begich, Eric Hafner and Bill Hill. No one else's record is narrated on this card.

Sources retrieved for this card (address; opened or could not open; date)

• https://alaskapublic.org/news/2026-alaska-primary#/alaska-us-house/candidate/james-c-jim-mcdermott (opened; 2026-09-20; his entry in the joint 2026 voter guide, read in a browser and from the application's own data at https://app.electup.com/api/v2/embed/fd4b753c-7235-4437-ba20-2f924a118266/ballot; the guide carries no publication date)
• https://jamesmcdermott.org/ (opened; 2026-09-20; undated, site files dated July 2026)
• https://jamesmcdermott.org/issues/ (opened; 2026-09-20; undated)
• https://jamesmcdermott.org/about (opened; 2026-09-20; undated)
• https://jamesmcdermott.org/contact (opened; 2026-09-20; undated)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Jim_McDermott_%28Alaska%29 (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Jim_McDermott_%28Washington%29 (opened; 2026-09-20; read only for the identity check)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Alaska%27s_At-Large_Congressional_District (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_House_election_in_Alaska,_2026_%28August_18_top-four_primary%29 (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.ktoo.org/2026/09/02/in-alaskas-u-s-house-race-a-libertarian-and-a-federal-inmate-advance-after-late-withdrawals/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2026-09-02)
• https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/3907/race/27433/election/1416 (opened; 2026-09-20; profile for the Alaska primary of 2026-08-18)
• https://www.mcdermott4congress4alaska.com/ (opened; 2026-09-20; a rebuilt copy of his 2014 site, bought and restored by a reader, not his)
• https://elections.alaska.gov/doc/oep/2026/Mcdermott,%20James%20C_%20USRep_Eng_06.07.26-PWEB.pdf (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.elections.alaska.gov/doc/oep/2012/Region-3-Book-Final-2012.pdf , https://www.elections.alaska.gov/doc/oep/2012/Region-4-Book-Final-2012.pdf and https://www.elections.alaska.gov/doc/oep/2014/AK-Region-II-book.pdf (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-20, not a claim that no other statement exists.