On this date in both 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled David Eastman, a current member of the Alaska House of Representatives first elected to office in 2016 after a failed attempt to win a seat on the Alaska State Senate back in 2012. His district is better known as the little Alaskan hamlet known as Wasilla, aka the wellspring that gave our nation Sarah Palin. And yeah, there might be something in the water in that burg.
David Eastman came to our attention here at FRED because of the extent of his anti-choice fervor. It isn’t just that this upstart GOP legislator literally compares abortion to slavery, and in his one term and change in office, Eastman has already become known as the lunatic willing to be the one lone “no” vote on several pieces of bi-partisan legislative ideas, including honoring African Americans of the Vietnam War, being the lone vote against honoring the African American workers who built the Alaska Highway, and he once submitted an amendment to a bill aimed at raising awareness for sexual assault and child abuse that required that abortion would be referred to as a form of “child abuse”.
That’s still not all, Eastman is really “out there” on abortion. In an interview back in May of 2017, only a few months into his first term in office, he gave his opinion that there are women trying to deliberately get pregnant because they can use an abortion as a means to get a “free vacation” to come down to Anchorage:
“You have individuals who are in villages and are glad to be pregnant, so that they can have an abortion because there’s a free trip to Anchorage involved. We’ve created an incentive structure where people are now incented to carry their pregnancy longer than they would otherwise and then take part in that when they wouldn’t otherwise be doing it. I can think of a case that was brought to our attention earlier this session where you had a family who was very glad to hear that their abortion had gone beyond a certain point, because they were going to be heading to Seattle.”
So that little statement was enough to earn Eastman a censure from at the state legislature, and he dug in and refused to apologize for it. Amid the controversy, a legislative aide at the capitol who just resembled Eastman died his natural red hair blonde just to avoid catching hell from people who mistook him for Eastman. Alaska Republicans have also come to realize that Eastman is a corruption scandal waiting to happen, as by the end of his first term in office, he had committed an ethics violation by leaking information from a confidential state report to a reporter as a means of trying to damage a Democratic colleague.
We’re wondering how David Eastman’s 2020 election fortunes are going to be, as the Alaska GOP is so sick of his s***, they’ve placed him on probation for his inane outbursts and obstruction, and have removed him from all roles he plays in committees within the legislature. And yet… Eastman narrowly survived a primary challenger supported by the Alaska GOP in 2020 with 52% of the vote, before coasting to victory in November.
Eastman, however, was still aggrieved about the validity of the election he won another term in because Donald Trump did not win another second term to serve as an agent of chaos implanted by the Kremlin to run the United States, so he flew all the way from Wasilla to Washington, DC to be present at the Capitol during the “Stop the Steal” rally that posed as the legitimate face of the violent coup attempt carried out against members of Congress by Trump supporters on January 6th, 2021. He had the sheer brass balls to claim that he saw no signs of violence on the rotunda that day.
Eastman’s continued membership and association with the OathKeepers over the past two years and the fact that he’s a complete ***hole to even his fellow Republicans have reached a point where he’s been removed from the Alaska House Minority Caucus, and the Alaska GOP are fighting to primary him and get him out of their hair permanently. We hope this time next year, we can report that’s happened, whether or not the 14th Amendment gets invoked to push him out the door.
One Year Ago, May 4th, 2021: David Eastman (AK)… 2021 Update
Two Years Ago, May 4th, 2020: David Eastman (AK)… 2020 Update
Three Years Ago, May 4th, 2019: David Eastman (AK)… Original Profile
Four Years Ago, May 4th, 2018: Robert Fisher (NH)… 2018 Update
Five Years Ago, May 4th, 2017: Robert Fisher (NH)… Original Profile
Six Years Ago. May 4th, 2016: Jud McMillin (IN)
Seven Years Ago: May 4th, 2015: Tom Ready (CO)