A Q&A with Alaska congressional candidate Bill Hill

Earlier this week, Northern Journal published a profile of this year's election for Alaska's sole U.S. House seat, which is currently held by Republican Nick Begich III.

The race between two anti-incumbent candidates, Democratic Matt Schultz and independent Bill Hill, is heating up; you can read about the dynamics in our piece.

Yesterday, we published a transcript of our interview with Schultz, 53. Today, we're sharing our interview with Hill, 57, which we conducted at a co-working space in Anchorage. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity, and condensed.

Nathaniel Herz: So, how do you find yourself here?

Bill Hill: I’ll start from the beginning. Just, a lifelong Alaskan, Dena’ina Athabascan, and I currently live in Naknek, out in Bristol Bay, and it's the home of the greatest sockeye salmon run in the world. I started in Kokhanok, though. Just to kind of set the stage: real Bush frontier upbringing. No TV, no radio, no telephone, not even electricity, for a good part of early life.

Nathaniel Herz: I met your mother during some fisheries reporting I was doing in Bristol Bay, and if I'm remembering correctly, your parents were teachers in Kokhanok, right?

Bill Hill: My father's family is from the region. They were both teachers (in Kokhanok), and my father was actually the principal. Whenever I got in trouble, he was the one I had to face.

Nathaniel Herz: Is it your dad’s side of the family that has the historic connection?

Bill Hill: My grandma, my father's mother, is a Dena’ina lady from the Lake Clark region. Katie Trefon Hill Wilson, she survived two husbands, and she grew up — it wasn't pre-contact, but sort of that lifestyle where they roamed around during the year, and subsistence hunted and fished.

Nathaniel Herz: Did you grow up doing both commercial fishing and subsistence lifestyle?

Bill Hill: So, Kokhanok, we spent a lot of time hunting and fishing and trapping, picking berries. My parents always had 50 some-odd dogs or more, because they raised dog teams. We’d cook for them and we’d feed them. And in the wintertime, my parents and we would race them, as well. But it was mainly my parents’ hobby. I don’t know if it was a hobby — but they got a lot of trophies out of it. 

In the summertimes, we'd pack the boat up and head down the Kvichak River to Naknek. And we'd spend the summer commercial fishing. I started at eight years old on the setnet site. My mom, my aunt Gloria and a couple brothers. Worked really hard dragging fish through the mud, back before we had skiffs or power equipment or anything like that.

At 12, My dad said, ‘Bill, you're coming on the boat with me.’ And I still do that to this day. Raised my kids on the boat. They learned to work hard, work with Mother Nature on most days. But some days, you’re just going into battle with the wind and the rain and the waves. And, you know, they learned a lot about life on the boat, and really privileged to raise them there.

Nathaniel Herz: Are you going to fish this summer?

Bill Hill: I'm gonna fish this summer. How long, it remains to be seen. 

Nathaniel Herz: Are you going to fish if you get elected to Congress?

Bill Hill: I don't know. I don't know what the schedule is. But my priority would be the Alaskan people. 

Nathaniel Herz: That's a real big one to give up.

Bill Hill: Talk about sacrifices. That's a big sacrifice.

Nathaniel Herz: Did you go to college in Alaska?

Bill Hill: Went to college a couple years in Fairbanks, finished off at University of Alaska Anchorage

Nathaniel Herz: And then you've kind of lived in different parts of the state and done a few 

different things. 

Bill Hill: So, Kokhanok, Naknek, Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau are the places I've spent time in. I've done a lot of different things in life. I was a construction worker for a good period of my life, dirt work and vertical construction, everything from sewer lines and environmental work to building houses and renovating canneries.

Nathaniel Herz: Were you actually a union member at one point?

Bill Hill: I was with the laborers union. 

And then I joined the education profession. It kind of runs in the family. Both my parents are educators; I have a number of educators in my extended family. And my uncle Frank was actually the first Native Alaskan superintendent in the state. Education has been a part of our family. And so, for 25 years, I was a teacher, principal and superintendent, both in small communities and large. 

And then, the last part of my working life is, my wife Diane and I built Bristol Bay Brailer, building marine textile products for the fishing industry. Basically big fish bags. All of ours are custom fit. We wanted to keep some of the money and jobs in our home region.

Nathaniel Herz: How’d you end up in this election?

Bill Hill: Well, I've been involved with my village corporation for 15 years, the last 10 as the president. That's been kind of the extent of my public office. But, you know, I've been in retirement for a couple years from education, and just really pissed off about what I'm seeing and just really worried about my kids and grandkids having the opportunity to work hard and build good lives here in Alaska. And we just need some good, honest, hardworking Alaskans in Congress. And right now, Congress is just infested with millionaires and billionaires. I feel like the working people get left behind. We're working our asses off and getting left behind.

Nathaniel Herz: It sounds like there also might be an open state House seat in your district. But you decided to just go big.

Bill Hill: I get that question a lot, actually. People say, ‘Why don't you go ahead and run for state House, and maybe get some experience under your belt?’ 

Bottom line is, I think Alaskans deserve just a good, hardworking man in Congress, not somebody who's a politician, not somebody who has a lot of experience in politics. And this is what really spoke to me. This challenge spoke to me. I've served my state in different capacities across the years, especially in education, as sort of a quasi-public servant. I believe in helping grow and making your state better, your community better, and this is where I see we can make a big impact, and I can help represent a lot of Alaskans with a campaign that represents small communities and large, Alaskans from different walks of life. Alaskans from coastal fishing communities, villages, urban Alaska, the Natives of Alaska, the hardworking people of Alaska, and the unions. We can represent everybody, and we can win this seat, and we can put someone down there who’s going to think about Alaskans every day.

Nathaniel Herz: How would you describe your politics?

Bill Hill: My politics? I've been a lifelong independent from Day One. It really reflects where a lot of Alaskans are; 60% of Alaskans do not identify with either of the major political parties. Alaskans don't fit into this neat little box. 

I believe in gun rights. I also believe in a woman's right to choose. I believe in, Alaska is a pro-development state, and I'm pro development in many respects, with the exception of some things like Pebble Mine. I think most Alaskans are that way. But we all do believe that we should have the opportunity to build good lives. We should be able to have happy, healthy families, and we should have a state where we can be sure that we can build those lives without any fear of losing a paycheck or having a bad medical experience and just going bankrupt.

Nathaniel Herz: You’ve been pretty direct in saying you're not satisfied with Nick Begich’s job performance. How would you be different?

Bill Hill: We can start with health care. I mean, the fact that the (Obamacare) tax credits, the extensions, were not voted positively. The fact that he didn't vote for those means Alaskans are under duress. Nick Begich voted against health care, is essentially what happened. [A spokesman for Begich’s campaign declined to comment.]

You look at the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and a lot of the benefits from that just flow directly to billionaires and corporations through tax cuts. The whole premise of this idea that we're going to do all this work to reduce our deficit — it's really just pulling money from everyday working people and giving tax cuts to the wealthy.

Nathaniel Herz: What's your opinion of Donald Trump?

Bill Hill: Where you have to stand, if you're Alaska's one congressman — if the administration is doing things that are good for Alaska, then, yeah, you can support that. But if the administration is doing things that are negative for Alaska or illegal, then you've got to stand up against that. You can't be down there just pushing the party line button. You got to be thinking about Alaskans first with every decision.

Nathaniel Herz: Do you feel like it’s fair to say that you probably have more in common with Matt Schultz than you do with Nick Begich? Or not necessarily?

Bill Hill: If you look at it in terms of who's a multi-millionaire, and who grew up out-of-state, and those kinds of things, I think I differentiate myself pretty firmly from Nick Begich. 

I think that my campaign can be different than any of the other campaigns, and it represents a broad swath of Alaskans, and that's what it's going to take to beat Nick Begich. I think Alaskans need somebody who just really represents a sort of independent ideology that many Alaskans carry, and so that's where I'm at.

Nathaniel Herz: Do you feel like, it's fair to say that from your perspective, Matt Schultz doesn't attract that large of a swath of Alaskans, or are there other reasons you felt like it still made sense for you to get in this race if he was already in it?

Bill Hill: Honestly, I didn't even consider that. I just felt the urge to jump into this race. I didn't even know who he was, or that he was in this race when I started researching this. 

My decision to jump in this race — my wife and I discussed it, and we talked about it with the rest of the family, and it was really not predicated on anybody else. It was predicated on, is this the work that we want to do? Do you think we can represent Alaska? Can we make sure that we're very respectful in representation of our communities? It really had nothing to do with anybody else, other than there is a Republican in Congress who is not representing Alaskans well. He's a multimillionaire, cozying up to billionaires, and we need somebody else there. That's where the discussion was.

Nathaniel Herz: There’s a pretty broad difference of opinion among anti-Begich people — about whether we should let Bill Hill and Matt Schultz run against each other and see who differentiates themselves, or whether there should be some kind of agreement for one of them to drop out before or after the primary. Do you have thoughts about the best way to beat Nick Begich, if that’s your big motivating principle?

Bill Hill: Well, we've got to have a really broad coalition of Alaskans to beat (Begich). Right now, my campaign is setting fundraising records. We're endorsed by nine legislators from across the state. We are the only campaign with organized labor behind us. So, the working people of Alaska are getting behind us. And we expect we can bring in the coastal fishing communities, the Alaska Native communities, and Bush Alaska as well. Those are all really important parts of a campaign that can beat the well-funded incumbent Republican, and that's what we're focused on.

Nathaniel Herz: Do you want the support or the endorsement of the Democratic Party?

Bill Hill: Our campaign is looking to speak to all Alaskans — whether you're from the left or the right or the middle of the spectrum, we want to get you on board.

Nathaniel Herz: How many guns do you have?

Bill Hill: I don't have a firm count off the top of my head, but it's about 30.

Nathaniel Herz: Do you have a favorite?

Bill Hill: I bought a .300 Win Mag when I was 19 years old, and it's been my favorite gun. Most of the moose and caribou I've harvested have been with that gun. I actually had it completely refinished a few years back, and so it looks pretty and new, but it's been with me since I was 19.

Nathaniel Herz: I did want to ask: I looked through the fundraising reports. I understand that there's some nuance to this, but you’re anti-billionaire and you raised some money from some billionaires, man.

Bill Hill: Did I?

Nathaniel Herz: Yeah. I think so.

Bill Hill: I have no idea.

Nathaniel Herz: Do you know how that happened?

Bill Hill: I have called a lot of people. I mean, you're not going to bring a knife to a gunfight, right? If you're in this, you know that Alaska can support a certain amount of fundraising. And the people I come from, they don't have a lot of money to give. So, we are calling a lot of people, and we're fundraising from every part of the state that we can. And if we can get funds from people who have lived in Alaska, have vacationed in Alaska, love Alaska, whatever the reason, we're gonna go after it. Because at the end of the day, Nick Begich is getting close to $3 million, and it's gonna take a lot more money than we have in our account to beat him.

Nathaniel Herz: So, if there are folks with a lot of money that are supporting you, you would assume that those are still folks who have the same beliefs as you, and are expecting you to stick to those principles?

Bill Hill: I hope so. I'm pretty vocal about the fact that I think the billionaire class needs to be taxed. And I'm pretty vocal about the fact that corporations, their tax loopholes need to be closed. Because we built this nation that's allowed people to amass a large amount of wealth. You take a look at the infrastructure, the railroads, the roads, the ports. You take a look at the people, the training facilities, the universities. You look at our immigration programs, where you draw the best and brightest from all over the place, and the mineral resources, and everything involved with building wealth. I mean, even like the fiber optic cables, you know, those parts of the infrastructure — people have amassed a lot of wealth based on the infrastructure of the United States. And now that's been turned against us. Instead of just paying their fair share, they're using that to pay less and less. The fact that my small business in Bristol Bay is probably paying more tax than some of these billionaires. That's ridiculous. And I think anybody who donates to my campaign knows that.

Nathaniel Herz: On resource development — definitely not a vote of endorsement for Pebble from you. A project like a Willow (oil development) or an Ambler (mining) road, where are you on those kinds of things?

Bill Hill: Where I stand on development in Alaska: Alaska is a pro-development state, and that's where a lot of our resources come from, and a lot of the money to run our state functions come from. I think what Alaska needs to do with every project that comes along is to make sure that it's going to make the maximum benefit for Alaskans, and it also speaks, first, to the people who are going to be affected by those projects. I'm pro-development, but like the Pebble mine, there are some developments that, the cost of them is too high for the people that are going to have to bear that cost.

Nathaniel Herz: Can you give any examples of ones that either you’ve supported or opposed, beyond Pebble?

Bill Hill: The North Slope has a lot of great projects. The gas line that's proposed, if that can provide gas to communities and reduce the cost of energy in Alaska, we’ve got to build that thing. Let's build projects like that.

Nathaniel Herz: If you got elected, would you caucus with whichever party will give you the best deal? Or where you'd be in the majority?

Bill Hill: I'm going to caucus with the people that are going to work on providing Alaskans and Americans with health care. I'm going to work with the people that are going to be working on improving our public education — it's just been under threat for decades, and we're seeing it fall apart. I'm going to be working with the people who are going to be interested in building good lives, reducing the cost of housing, reducing the cost of gas, reducing the cost of groceries, going after corruption, maintaining the rule of law. Those are the people that I will caucus with right now. 

The Republican leadership that's in place in Congress, it's not doing that. So, at this point, I'd say I would not be caucusing right now with Mike Johnson or any of his cronies. But the people that are doing the work that will be good for Alaska — those are the people I'll work with.