Independent candidate Bill Hill is threatening to unseat Trump ally Nick Begich with a message of affordability

As Republicans fight to maintain their narrow majority in Congress, they face a unique challenge in Alaska – not from a Democrat, but from an independent commercial fisher and first-time candidate running to flip the state’s lone House seat.

Bill Hill, who is an Alaska Native and has worked in education and construction, has positioned himself as a working-class candidate who will fight to make life more affordable for people like himself and his family.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Becky Bohrer/AP

© Photograph: Becky Bohrer/AP

© Photograph: Becky Bohrer/AP

Mary Peltola denies knowledge as party accused of recruiting spoiler candidate with same name as sitting Republican

• Alaska Senate race: what to know about Democrats’ alleged ballot-stacking effort

The top federal prosecutor in Alaska confirmed on Friday the existence of a criminal and a civil investigation into an alleged scheme by Democrats to confuse voters by recruiting a spoiler candidate on the ballot for US Senate who shares a name with the Republican incumbent, senator Dan Sullivan.

Speaking at a news conference in Anchorage on Friday, US attorney Michael Heyman cited reporting by the New York Times which suggested that the Senate campaign of Democrat Mary Peltola and national Democrats had, in his words, “orchestrated a sprawling conspiracy to recruit and prop up Daniel J Sullivan as a sham candidate”.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola denied Thursday that she knew anything about an effort to put another candidate on the Alaska ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent as the Justice Department escalated a criminal investigation with new grand jury subpoenas.

The Justice Department issued subpoenas, a House oversight committee sought interviews and the state opened its own inquiry into a Democratic plan to recruit a spoiler into a Senate race.

© Kerry Tasker/Reuters

As a conflict over candidates roils the Alaskan Senate race, here’s a look back at the political practice over the years.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times; Christopher Miller for The New York Times

Alaska's governor is ordering an investigation into Democrat Mary Peltola's Senate campaign over reports that it recruited a spoiler candidate to dilute Republican votes. That's as President Trump repeated calls for Peltola's prosecution during a trip to another deep red state where his endorsed candidate is facing headwinds. Liz Landers reports.