Independent Bill Hill, running for Alaska’s sole U.S. House seat, is facing a tight race against Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III. Hill, who won 86% of votes cast in the village of Iliamna in the primary, has to build a much larger coalition to win the seat. Hill, who stopped to pay respects to a relative who had recently been buried in Iliamna, faced a minor setback when his car got stuck in deep sand. He was on an ambitious schedule for the homestretch of his campaign, stumping from Fairbanks to Sitka as he tries to close a suddenly shrinking gap between himself and Begich.
After his Iliamna visit, Hill was set to fly to three other villages before sundown. “Momentum,” Hill said calmly as his younger brother Karl spun the wheels. “Gotta get the momentum up first.” The car rocked back and forth before it finally got purchase. Hill stands above the shore of Iliamna Lake in the village of Kokhanok, where he grew up.
Hill’s campaign focuses on the claim that Begich has prioritized partisan politics and wealthy allies over loyalty to Alaska constituents and has supported decisions by President Donald Trump that have hurt his home state, spiking the prices Alaskans pay for essentials like food, gas, and health care. The campaign started as a long shot, seeking to introduce an unfamiliar face to a statewide audience in a year when airwaves are jammed with ads for Alaska’s U.S. Senate candidates. But the race has now tightened to what could be nearly a dead heat: Two polls released in October show Begich leading by no more than two percentage points.
Hill is not a polished politician; his vibe onstage gives more “your friend’s dad” than it does electrifying speaker. He has faced fierce attacks over actions that predate his recent entry into politics, like a misdemeanor conviction for commercial salmon fishing outside legal boundaries – an infraction many fishermen describe as the cost of doing business. Opponents also say he leans farther left than he lets on, pointing to old campaign donations to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
But what Hill lacks in conventional political experience, his supporters say, he makes up for in Alaska bona fides: He comes from an Indigenous family with deep roots and a long history of leadership in the Bristol Bay region, and claims an understanding of the state’s rural communities that can come only with decades spent living there. Hill’s campaign allowed me to join him on part of his final stretch – specifically, a multi-village tour through Bristol Bay, including stops at the site of his Dena’ina grandmother’s old cabin and his childhood home in the village of Kokhanok.
At every turn, supporters showed up to give Hill a hug, share news about friends and relatives, and joke about the attack ads that, as one person quipped in a text message to the candidate, make Hill out to be a drinker of “unicorn blood.” “Fuel, groceries, electricity, airfare, it’s getting really tough,” said Jessie Wilson, a cousin of Hill’s who attended a small campaign event Monday in Iliamna. Hill “lives in it,” she added. “He gets it. He’s in the thick of it just like we are.”
