Alaska has always been an odd appendage to the United States, separated from the lower 48 by 500 miles of Canadian territory, featuring an unforgiving (if gorgeous) polar climate that has capped its population at less than a million. And it has always been a GOP stronghold. Only in LBJ’s 1964 landslide did the state ever vote for a Democratic presidential nominee, and its voters have elected just a single, one-term Democratic senator since 1980. But that could change in 2026, where a major