“Momentum, gotta get the momentum up first,” independent U.S. U.S. House candidate Bill Hill said calmly on a Monday in the Bristol Bay village of Iliamna, moments after the car he was riding in got stuck in deep sand. That roadside hiccup preceded an ambitious multi-village campaign swing designed to close a tightening gap against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III for Alaska’s sole congressional seat.
Stuck in the Sand and Surging in the Polls Across Rural Alaska
The campaign stop in Iliamna occurred after Hill paused to visit a relative’s recent gravesite. When his younger brother Karl took the wheel to drive away, the vehicle bogged down in the sandy terrain. The delay barely registered for the candidate, who faced a schedule requiring flights to three additional villages before sunset. Once Karl spun the tires and rocked the vehicle back and forth to regain traction, the trip resumed without visible fraternal tension. As Karl joked afterward, he was not listening to his brother anyway.
That personal resilience forms the core of Hill’s political pitch. A first-time candidate and retired school superintendent drawing an $80,000 pension, Hill is attempting to unseat Begich, who is wrapping up his first term in Washington. While the campaign initially appeared to be a long shot drowned out by high-profile U.S. Senate ads, two October 2026 polls show the race compressed into a near dead heat, with Begich leading by no more than two percentage points.
Dem-aligned PPP poll of Alaska circulating among groups and seen by me: #AKAL (1st choice)Nick Begich (R-Inc.) – 45%Bill Hill (I) – 44%Eric Hafner (D) – 5%Jim McDermott (L) – 2%(2nd choice: 15% for McDermott, 8% for Hafner, 4% for Hill, 3% for Begich)#AKSenMary Peltola…
Weighing Local Roots Against Established Washington Politics
Hill’s supporters point to his deep lifelong ties to rural Alaska as his strongest credential. Coming from an Indigenous Dena’ina family with generations of leadership in the Bristol Bay region—including a paternal grandmother, Katie Trefon, born in 1919 near Lake Clark—Hill spent decades chopping wood, hauling water, and running sled dogs in Kokhanok. Voters like cousin Jessie Wilson argue that Hill understands local hardships because he lives them directly, noting soaring costs for fuel, groceries, electricity, and airfare.
Conversely, opponents have targeted Hill’s background. Critics point to an older misdemeanor conviction for commercial fishing outside legal boundaries—dismissed by many local fishermen as a routine business risk—as well as past campaign donations to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Begich’s campaign has also attacked Hill over declining school test scores during his tenure as superintendent of the Bristol Bay Borough School District, though Hill’s camp attributes the data to a statewide shift in testing methods.
Competing Visions for Alaska’s Congressional Seat
Begich’s campaign declined an invitation to join the reporting tour but released a detailed statement via spokesman Paul Smith highlighting the incumbent’s legislative record. Those efforts include sponsoring laws that extend Vietnam War veterans’ rights to claim Native allotments, transferring federal land to Native corporations and health care providers, and pushing for increased Arctic security and oil and gas lease sales. Smith emphasized that Begich’s priority remains delivering results for Alaska families across communities from Nome to Southeast Alaska.
Hill counters that Begich prioritizes partisan party lines and wealthy donors over local needs, supporting federal decisions under President Donald Trump that hike everyday expenses for Alaskans. Hill’s platform opposes Trump’s tariffs, the repeal of renewable energy tax credits, and the Citizens United ruling, while supporting abortion rights, gun rights, expanded Medicaid, and resource extraction—with the notable exception of the proposed Pebble mine in Bristol Bay. Whether that message converts strong rural backing—such as his 65% primary win in Iliamna and Newhalen—into enough urban votes to secure an upset remains the central question of the race.
