ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Bill Hill says he’s a natural-born political independent. His parents? Nonpartisan. He’s spent his party-free career as a fisherman, business owner and educator. He’s now running as an independent for Alaska’s at-large House seat, pledging to work with either party — and defy any ideology — to do what’s best for the state.
He also has been endorsed by the Alaska Democratic Party, is formally backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington and has the support of nearly every rank-and-file liberal voter in the state. Republicans are relentlessly attacking his credibility as a true independent, labeling him as nothing more than a Democrat in disguise.
Democrats endorsed Hill after the leading Democratic candidate in the race, Matt Schultz, suspended his campaign and backed the independent, citing his own poor fundraising. But an adviser to Schultz in Alaska, independent political consultant Jim Lottsfeldt, told The Washington Sun in an interview that DCCC officials in Washington had been pressuring Schultz to leave the race for months.
They hoped to clear a path for Hill, Lottsfeldt said, even if he wasn’t running as a Democrat.
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A spokesperson for the DCCC did not respond to a request for comment.
“When you see a candidate that is endorsed by the Democrats, funded by the Democrats, funded by Democrat super PACs, endorsed by Democrats in Congress, it’s obvious which side of the aisle he’s aligned himself with,” Republican Rep. Nick Begich, Hill’s opponent, told The Sun in an interview.
This dispute over what makes a true independent is simmering across the country this election cycle.
A host of independents are in a battle to prove they are not merely off-label Democrats. They argue that they represent a genuinely different political viewpoint, even if many of them do have some ties to the Democratic Party.
In Senate races alone, there’s Seth Bodnar in Montana, Brian Bengs in South Dakota, Todd Achilles in Idaho and Dan Osborn in Nebraska, all trying to beat Republicans through independent campaigns.
Osborn, who ran unsuccessfully against Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024, may have the best shot of any independent Senate candidate this year. He told The Sun that voters are really just looking for permission to break away from the two-party system.
“They will have spent $75 million by the end of this, at least, just calling me a Democrat,” Osborn said of Republicans. “Trying to emerge outside of that message certainly is difficult.”
The fight over these independent candidates could have a significant effect on the outcome of next month’s midterm elections in a political environment that polls indicate is sharply hostile to the GOP. Independents are running mostly in red states, where the Democratic Party is deeply unpopular, and proving to voters that they have a truly independent mindset is probably necessary for them to have any chance of winning.
In Alaska, Hill is running competitively against Begich, according to polls, threatening to win a seat GOP political operatives considered safely Republican when the election cycle began.
Hill defended his independent credentials in his interview with The Sun, saying he holds both progressive and conservative beliefs rooted in a lifetime of experience living and working with all kinds of different people in Alaska.
“I’ve lived a life in a coastal fishing community that’s very conservative in nature. And I’ve lived a life within education — and it’s very progressive,” he said. “I’ve got great friends across the political map. I’ve done things in my life, built things in my life, by building coalitions of people from across a political spectrum.”
Hill said he supports both abortion and gun rights and has voted for Republicans and Democrats in the past, singling out Republican former Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond for praise. And he dismissed criticism about his record — Begich and allies have focused attacks on prior donations Hill made to Sen. Bernie Sanders and his stand on transgender issues — as disconnected from what most Alaska voters care about.
“They don’t want to step up and talk about the things that Alaskans want to hear about,” he said of his critics. “I’ve traveled all over the state, and Alaskans want a response that talks about the way that the decisions being made in Washington, D.C., is impacting their lives every day.”
Hill has become the Democrats’ de-facto candidate in the race, even receiving formal backing from the Alaska Democratic Party in August. He is part of the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” program, which encourages donors to support candidates who it believes have a chance to flip a Republican-held seat.
“He’s been pretty clear that he wants endorsements from a wide range of Alaskans, so he wanted our endorsement,” Eric Croft, chair of the Alaska Democratic Party, said in an interview.
Lottsfeldt, the independent political strategist, said he was ambivalent about the wisdom of Hill running as an independent. He pointed to the Democratic candidate for Senate in the state, Mary Peltola, as proof that Democrats can run successfully in Alaska as long as they differentiate themselves from the national party.
“Why are you trying to hide it?” he said. “Don’t be disingenuous with me. Just tell me who you are. I’ll accept it.”
Lottsfeldt said he received calls from DCCC officials over the first six months of the year asking if he could persuade Schultz to drop out of the race, with the operatives continually making the point that Hill was raising more money. But he said things came to a head in July, just weeks before the state’s nonpartisan primary, when Democrats were facing the prospect of a split between candidates who appeal to progressive voters. (In Alaska’s primaries, the top four candidates regardless of party advance to the general election.)
“They were like, ‘OK, this is the horse we need to ride,’” Lottsfeldt said. “It wasn’t unreasonable, particularly if you’re thinking, ‘Well, they’re both the same.’”
Lottsfeldt said he eventually sat down with Schultz to lay out his options, and the candidate dropped out shortly thereafter.
Democratic candidates have pulled out of their races in other states as well. After the Democratic candidate dropped out of Nebraska’s Senate race in July, the state party voted to not fill the vacancy on the ballot, which left a one-on-one race between Osborn and Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts.
In South Dakota, Democrat Julian Beaudion dropped out of the Senate race after facing pressure to step aside to clear the field for Bengs.
Montana didn’t go that way. Alani Bankhead, the Democratic Senate candidate, refused to drop out to make way for Bodnar, even after party leaders urged her to do so. Montana Democratic Party Chair Shannon O’Brien stepped down last week and endorsed Bodnar.
Jane Kleeb, the Nebraska Democratic Party chair, told The Sun that Osborn gives Democrats the best opportunity to get Ricketts out of the Senate because he appeals to more people than a Democratic candidate would.
“He’s not a typical suit-and-tie guy,” she said. “Especially this election cycle, Republicans are looking for candidates who are speaking to them, because MAGA has turned their back on them.”
Unaffiliated candidates have always been a feature of U.S. politics, and Sanders remains the most prominent example. But this year’s cohort of independents is doing something different: Many, including Osborn, have said they would refuse to caucus with either party if elected.
“In fact, we’ll caucus with everybody,” he said at an October press conference with other independent candidates. “To do anything else would be a slap in the face to the people of Nebraska.”
Osborn has at times struggled to walk the line between being a true independent and a Democratic-endorsed independent, especially after an audio leak where he criticized Trump voters and called the border wall “a symbol of racism.”
Republicans have jumped at the chance to discredit candidates like Osborn as “fake independents” who would run to caucus with Democrats if elected.
“When you’re recruited by Democrats, funded by Democrats, and parroting Democratic talking points, you’re a Democrat,” said Bernadette Breslin, spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, in a statement. “Voters will see through Osborn, Bengs, Achilles, and Bodnar’s fake independent circus this November and reject their radical agenda.”
That messaging has been difficult to escape, Osborn told The Sun.
“If you want to label me, label me as a Teddy Roosevelt Republican, because that’s what we’re trying to do,” Osborn said. “We’re trying to break up the titans of industry to create an economy that favors competition, that elevates the middle class and workers.”
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