Matt Shinners
Independent Bill Hill just announced the endorsement of the Voter Protection Project (VPP). He is the first independent candidate the organization has supported since its founding in 2019.
The endorsement of an independent is a shift from the group’s stated mission. The VPP call itself the nation's largest PAC focused on electing Democrats "up and down the ballot" who will protect voting rights and fight for reforms such as same-day registration. By its own count, VPP has endorsed more than 130 candidates, including Sens. Ruben Gallego and Elissa Slotkin in 2024—all Democrats.
VPP joins two other national democracy PACs backing Hill. End Citizens United, formed in response to the Supreme Court decision that opened the door to unlimited outside spending, endorsed Hill earlier in the cycle. Defend the Vote, a PAC that launched a $14 million cycle plan to elect pro-democracy candidates, also endorsed the independent. Like VPP, both groups overwhelmingly back Democrats. The Alaska Democratic Party has encouraged its members to support Hill too, though he has refused to say which party he would caucus with.
The campaign also said in its release announcing the endorsement that Hill will defend Alaska's voting system from federal interference. That pledge has a concrete target. In 2025, Begich and Arizona Rep. Abe Hamadeh unveiled legislation to ban ranked-choice voting in federal elections, which would directly attack the current Alaskan system that was adopted by voters in 2020.
That system is also under threat at home. Voters approved top-four primaries and ranked-choice generals by about a point in 2020. A 2024 repeal failed by 737 votes out of 320,985 cast, and supporters of repeal quickly gathered signatures to try again. Ballot Measure 2 is on the November ballot. Besides restoring party primaries, it would repeal the 2020 reform's requirement that large donors disclose the true sources of their political contributions.
Hill's trying to build a coalition that includes Democrats, independents, and Republicans who are unhappy with the current direction of the party. Such a coalition has worked in the 49th state before, sending Senator Murkowski to her seat in 2002 and reelecting her ever since. Both Hill and Murkowski see the current system as benefiting candidates who are running outside of traditional party infrastructure and support. Whatever happens in Hill's race, Alaska's vote on Measure 2 will decide whether the next independent gets the same opening.