WASHINGTON — Alaska's all-Republican congressional delegation agrees that GOP candidate Donald Trump is preferable to Democrat Hillary Clinton, but they have struggled to fully embrace his often controversial ways.
So how exactly does it stack up?
Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young all declined to endorse any candidate during the long primary season, remaining mum on Trump's rise whenever possible, while generally saying they would support "the nominee," whomever it was.
But like many others, all three have been critical of some of Trump's more controversial statements and stances.
When it comes down to voting though, all three say Hillary Clinton's policies are wrong for Alaska.
With Trump, "there is a dramatic contrast with Hillary Clinton," Sullivan said in an interview after meeting the candidate Thursday in Washington, D.C., along with other Republican lawmakers.
Sullivan said Trump has it right when it comes to curbing federal regulations, particularly for the economy, and encouraging more oil drilling including offshore in the Arctic, a point also made by Murkowski and Young, at times. All three have also said that Clinton is on the wrong side of the gun control debate for Alaskans.
Sullivan said he pressed Alaska's "critical role" in the nation's economy and national security when he spoke with Trump after the Capitol Hill meeting Thursday. He said he urged Trump to support Alaska's liquified natural gas pipeline project and opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
But Sullivan wasn't willing to talk about the more contentious parts of Trump's meeting with Republican senators, including a reported spat with Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and the candidate calling Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who recently withdrew his support for Trump, a "loser." Reports emerged, too, of a Constitution-related gaffe after Trump held a separate meeting with House Republicans the same day.
Sullivan said he believed Trump would gain support if he focused on energy, the economy and over-regulation.
But Sullivan, Alaska's junior senator, was the lone member of the state delegation to make it to the Thursday meetings with his party's soon-to-be leader. Murkowski spokeswoman Karina Peterson said Murkowski missed the gathering because of "previously scheduled meetings."
Young "is open to discussing policy with the presumptive Republican nominee," but had a "preexisting commitment," said his spokesman Matt Shuckerow, who later clarified that Young had a "private appointment … that could not be moved."
Murkowski and Young were not alone in their decision to opt out of the meeting — many Republican lawmakers across the Hill found themselves busy Thursday morning, particularly those facing re-election campaigns.
Neither Murkowski nor Young plans to attend the Republican National Convention next week, when Trump is expected to formally accept the nomination. But said they plan to campaign in anticipation of upcoming primary elections Aug. 16.
Sullivan plans to attend the opening days of the convention before heading back to Alaska.
Murkowski and Young each appear to be in a good position heading into their campaigns. The most recent quarterly poll by Alaska Survey Research found that more than 70 percent of voters have very positive, positive or neutral views of Murkowski.
For Young, 56.9 percent of those polled viewed him in a positive or neutral light. By contrast, 78.4 percent of those polled said they had no idea who Young's leading Democratic challenger, Steve Lindbeck, is.
Another key metric emerged in that poll, though — a sentiment that may be on Murkowski and Young's minds. More than half of those polled said they had a negative view of Donald Trump, with 44.4 percent characterizing their opinion of him as "very negative."
Many Republicans worry that Trump's high negative ratings nationwide could have an impact for party members down-ballot — driving voters away from Republican congressional and senate candidates. In Alaska, the worry may be more focused on voter turnout, given an even higher negative rating for the Democratic front-runner. The most recent quarterly poll from Alaska Survey Research found more than 60 percent of those polled had a negative view of Clinton.
Murkowski, Sullivan and Young have each criticized many of Trump's policies and statements.
"Where he says things that I think are inappropriate or when he takes policy positions that I don't agree with, I feel that it's part of my responsibility to my constituents" to make that disagreement clear, Sullivan said.
How do they disagree with Trump? Let's count the ways:
Trade: Murkowski and Sullivan have both supported the Trans Pacific Partnership, a not-yet-ratified deal with 12 Asia-Pacific countries, citing the benefits of opening up new Asian markets for Alaska industries, particularly fishing.
Trump has regularly railed against free trade and the so-called "TPP," saying it will move jobs overseas, relinquish U.S. economic control, and calling it "a rape of our country."
Barring Muslim travel: All three Alaska lawmakers have dismissed Trump's suggestion that the U.S. should, in varying degrees, bar Muslims from entering the country. Murkowski said it conflicts with religious freedom and American values, and Sullivan has said that the plan is not in line with the country's founding principles.
[Alaska delegation rejects Trump's plan for Muslims]
NATO: Sullivan took to the Senate floor in recent months to rail against statements Trump made about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and military efforts of America's allies. Trump has repeatedly called the 28-country security organization "obsolete" and criticized U.S. spending on NATO, saying he'd be willing to force it to disband.
"Oh well, so much for the world's most successful alliance," Sullivan said to that, noting that the U.S. pays "about only 22 percent of NATO's common-funded budgets and programs" and that the NATO leaders have committed to realigning the budget to be representative of member countries' gross domestic product.
"It's not just about finances. Over 1,000 non-U.S. NATO troops have been killed in action in Afghanistan, coming to our defense after 9/11," Sullivan said. And Trump "does not seem to fully comprehend how the presence of American troops in the Asia-Pacific has been the lynchpin of security and prosperity in the region for more than 70 years," Sullivan said.
Judge Curiel: Trump garnered broad rebukes from Republican party leaders when he said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel should have recused himself from fraud lawsuits over Trump University because "he's a Mexican," and Trump wants to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. Curiel was born in the United States after his parents immigrated from Mexico. Both Murkowski and Sullivan labeled Trump's comments racist and inappropriate.
Trump's hands: It's not really a policy position, but suffice it to say that Young was not impressed with Trump's one-time preoccupation with what people thought of the size of his hands and bragging about the beauty of his former-model wife. "It's silliness," Young said.