This story is the first feature in a new Vox special project, Changing With Our Climate, a limited series exploring Indigenous solutions to extreme weather rooted in history — and the future.
Alaska
What 6 degrees of warming means for a community built on ice
When Priscilla Frankson thinks about home, she thinks about ice — thick sea ice stretching out toward the horizon.
Frankson, an Iñupiaq masters student in Tribal Leadership and Governance at Arizona State University, is from Point Hope (Tikiġaq), Alaska, a small city about 125 miles above the Arctic Circle and one of the northernmost communities in the United States.
“For us, the ice is a part of land, even though every single year it changes and it’s always different,” she said. “I think of the way that my boots kind of crackle over the ice, or the different sounds that it makes when there’s a very thin kind of sheet of snow on the top, and how it’s a little bit softer.”
In Point Hope, where summer temperatures rarely break 60 degrees, ice and cold are a part of life. Thick, reliable sea ice is essential for harvesting whales, a key part of the subsistence diets, a lifestyle built around harvesting wild foods for personal and community use, of Point Hope’s Iñupiaq residents.
Growing up, even when temperatures reached 40 below zero, Frankson would bundle up to go play outside in the snow or go hunting on the ice, while whales passed by. And on cold, cloudless nights, the northern lights would be spectacularly clear, flashing and dancing across the sky. It was a sight that Frankson said still seems too incredible to be real — even after years of observing it.
But climate change is threatening all of this.
Alaska is warming up to three times faster than the rest of the world, and the Arctic is warming nearly double that. Alaska’s North Slope, where Point Hope is located, saw an average annual temperature increase of 6 degrees since 1971. Since 1970, the US as a whole has warmed by 2.6 degrees.
Although the difference between, say, a day that is 0 degrees and one that is 5 degrees may seem like no big deal, the impact of these rising averages is immense.
Sea ice is forming later in the year than usual and is not as predictable as it used to be. As the permafrost thaws, siġlauqs — the traditional ice cellars carved into the land — are caving in or flooding. The animals that people rely on for food and goods — whales, fish, caribou — are also growing harder to find.
Despite the challenges, Frankson, who researches the social impact of declining caribou populations, says that Iñupiaq people are not going to change their entire way of life, but instead are making small adjustments to changing conditions. “We’re not scared enough to stop hunting, we’re not scared enough to stop going out on the ice, we’re not scared enough to do any of this,” she said. “We’re just learning how to adapt, as we always have.”
To adapt to the warming climate, Indigenous people in Alaska are relying on their deep understanding and respect for the land, a kind of humility developed over countless generations. “You can’t really change the Arctic,” Frankson said. “You can only change with the Arctic.”
Yes, daily life in Alaska — with its northern lights, its dependence on ice and the movement of caribou — may feel unrelatable. But this way of living in tune with the environment and gracefully adapting to a changing climate is becoming increasingly essential for the rest of the country. The strategies that Indigenous people in Alaska are developing show that sometimes the best forms of climate adaptation are achievable, local solutions.
Generations of extreme conditions have equipped Alaska Natives with the willingness and ability to embrace this kind of adaptation. As the impacts of climate change grow increasingly severe in the rest of the country, we could all learn from that.
Swimming may not seem like an adaptation to global warming. But in Alaska, it is.
Hundreds of miles south of Point Hope, in Bethel, Alaska, the Kuskokwim River is the heart of the community, providing food, transportation, employment, and community throughout the year.
The only way to get to Bethel is by plane, which can be very expensive, or by the river. In the winter, snow machines zip through town, heading up and down the frozen river to the dozens of villages that depend on Bethel for food, supplies, health care, and much more. In the summer, people travel by boat to spend days at their fish camps on the river, smoking salmon to eat throughout the rest of the year. In between, when the ice is forming or beginning to break up, the river can be dangerous: too frozen for boats, but too unstable for snow machines and cars.
“You can’t really change the Arctic. You can only change with the Arctic.”
Lately, those shoulder seasons have been shifting, extending, and becoming terrifyingly unpredictable.
Every year, flooding and erosion get worse, fish are dying, and the winter ice is becoming more dangerous. Kevin Whitworth, the executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, says declining salmon populations are especially concerning. “It’s hard times,” he said. “Our people are subsistence-based people. They’re not economy-based people. They rely on the river as their grocery store. Their life is the river.”
According to the Federal Subsistence Management Program, rural Alaskans harvest 295 pounds of wild food per person, more than the 255 pounds of domestic meat, fish, and poultry that the average American consumes per year. Fifty-six percent of the statewide subsistence harvest is made up of fish. Beyond its cultural and community importance, subsistence is crucial for Alaska Natives because of the high cost of groceries. In a study of 261 urban communities across the country, the Council for Community and Economic Research found that the three most expensive places for groceries were Juneau, Fairbanks, and Anchorage. Prices in more remote communities like Bethel are often even higher.
Salmon’s drastic decline can be attributed to a number of causes, including warming waters and increased offshore trawling. Every year, ocean trawlers fishing primarily for pollock catch, kill, and discard about 141 million pounds of salmon, halibut, and other species, an extraordinarily wasteful practice that Indigenous people and other groups in Alaska have been rallying against. Meanwhile, communities upriver are severely limited in the number of salmon they can take from the river. “Right now, the salmon are crashing and we’re seeing big changes with the climate,” Whitworth says.
Bethel Vice Mayor Sophie Swope, who also sits on the Orutsararmiut Native tribal council, says that river conditions have become more dangerous for fishing and travel. “It used to be pretty dependable that you could just go drive out during the winter and it would be fine and safe,” Swope said. “Now, you have to keep an ear out for what the river conditions are.”
Whitworth, who is Athabascan from McGrath, says that because of salmon’s increasing scarcity, people are taking greater risks to get fish even though the river ice forms later in the season and is less reliable, leading to accidents and drownings.
So, facing declining salmon populations and a dangerous river, Indigenous people in the region are shifting their norms, too. While chinook and chum salmon are restricted, sockeye salmon, a less traditionally popular and available fish, has become an increasingly viable alternative.
Chinook has been a staple of Indigenous subsistence diets for generations, but people are doing what they must to use what is available now. Traditional salmon fishing techniques make it hard to separate different species of salmon, so Whitworth and the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission have been encouraging local fishers to use dip nets, large circular nets that allow people to target sockeye.
In the commission’s 2023 end-of-season report, sockeye made up about 40 percent of the estimated total salmon harvest on the lower Kuskokwim, a number that Whitworth says is much higher than it used to be.
As warming continues to impact the river, the local community has also been taking steps to protect its people.
In 2014, Yup’ik elder Beverly Hoffman and others finally succeeded in a decades-long effort to build a community pool in Bethel, which is now a resource for people throughout the region to learn how to swim, preparing them for an increasingly unpredictable river. Hoffman and others recognize that they cannot control the river, but they can help prepare the community to survive its dangers.
Swimming lessons and dip nets might sound like tiny changes in the face of global climate trends, but these are the kinds of local adaptations that will help communities thrive in a warming world. Outside of Alaska, planting trees to create more shade in urban heat islands or hiring more lifeguards for public pools could have a similar impact.
But these solutions are within reach and meaningful; they literally save lives.
Such approachable adaptations mean understanding that although we have a limited ability to change the climate, there are many more options to change our own behavior.
“This is what Indigenous knowledge is”
As temperatures continue to rise, Alaska Natives are turning to intergenerational knowledge and community observations to build a wealth of data that they hope will urge non-Indigenous decision-makers to listen to what they have to say.
In Unalaska, the largest city in the Aleutian Chain, the Qawalangin Tribe is gathering community feedback on climate change and what the people are experiencing. The tribe will then use these observations to help develop its climate resilience plans, which include culture camps with traditional dances and classes on kayak making, traditional food nights, and water quality testing programs.
Vera Metcalf is the executive director of the Eskimo Walrus Commission, which represents 19 coastal communities. Metcalf says that Indigenous walrus hunters have adapted to climate change by participating in research projects led by agencies like the US Fish and Wildlife Service. “In the past, we were largely ignored in research occurring in our homeland and waters,” she said. “When you combine the two ways of thinking, it really becomes a rich resource of information.”
Changing With Our Climate: A limited series exploring Indigenous solutions to extreme weather rooted in history — and the future
There’s no easy fix for the planet, but Indigenous people have simple solutions rooted in the depth of their knowledge. This story is the first installment of a new Vox series exploring frameworks for responding to extreme weather and the climate crisis. Every month through October, we’ll be publishing a new feature that centers an Indigenous community responding to various aspects of climate disasters, from major storms like hurricanes and typhoons, to extreme heat, rising seas, wildfires, and spreading aridity.
Roberta Tuurraq Glenn-Borade, Iñupiaq from Utqiaġvik, is the project coordinator and community liaison at the Alaska Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub, where she works with observers from four communities in the Alaskan Arctic.
Community observers share details like air temperature, wind speed, ice conditions, and animal observations, sometimes sending in photos of animals being harvested. Glenn-Borade and her team then take this data and share it with agencies like the US National Weather Service, which releases forecasts for the region. Glenn-Borade says that, historically, these forecasts prioritized larger ships offshore rather than Indigenous people living on the coast and hopes that using local observations will lead to better forecasts for Indigenous communities. “That kind of foresight of what the conditions will be can really make a difference between life or death,” she said.
Glenn-Borade also says this kind of local observation provides invaluable historical context about how the coast and the ice have changed over the years, what is within normal ranges, and what is unexpected.
“That’s what Indigenous knowledge is,” she said. “It is constant tracking and understanding and monitoring what’s going on and being prepared to respond on the fly.”
As the world warms, these examples from Alaska offer a warning that we can’t simply do everything the way we used to. Saudi Arabia, for example, can no longer ignore the deadly impacts heat is having on Hajj. Places like the Pacific Northwest can no longer count on mild summers and will save lives by investing in cooling infrastructure. But they also offer hope that if we can shift away from trying to change the environment to suit us, instead of the other way around, there may be a chance of finding creative, unexpected ways of changing with our climate.
When I spoke with Glenn-Borade recently, she told me she and her people are proud “that we’re still here. We’re not going to die off. Our languages aren’t going to die off. We will adapt. We’ll continue to adapt our lifestyles as the environment changes.”
High school
Baseball
Thursday
Juneau-Douglas 8, Colony 3
West Valley 4, South 2
Dimond 5, Palmer 2
Service 9, Soldotna 4
Friday
South 8, Colony 0
Soldotna 7, Palmer 3
Petersburg 2, Kodiak 1
Juneau-Douglas 11, West Valley 1
Homer 8, Monroe Catholic 5
Service 6, Dimond 3
Saturday
Soldotna 6, South 1
Kodiak 12, Monroe Catholic 2
Dimond 8, West Valley 1
Homer 6, Petersburg 5
Juneau-Douglas 5, Service 4
• • •
Softball
Thursday
Colony 14, Bartlett 3
Delta 13, Soldotna 4
Wasilla 8, Wasilla 7
South 9, Colony 4
Delta 12, Homer 3
Chugiak 17, Bartlett 0
South 13, Juneau-Douglas 5
Sitka 3, Wasilla 2
Colony 17, Service 9
Bartlett 0, Chugiak 0
Friday
Service 6, Bartlett 3
Wasilla 8, Juneau-Douglas 4
North Pole 15, Soldotna 13
Homer 14, Kodiak 7
Chugiak 13, Colony 4
Sitka 10, South 9
Delta 15, Homer 9
North Pole 21, Palmer 20
Palmer 16, Kodiak 11
Homer 8, Soldotna 3
Colony 4, Wasilla 0
South 15, Service 14
Chugiak 8, Sitka 7
Delta 11, North Pole 3
Saturday
Palmer 14, Homer 6
Colony 21, South 11
Palmer 19, North Pole 18
Sitka 12, Colony 0
Palmer 12, Delta 2
Sitka 15, Chugiak 13
• • •
Alaska Baseball League
Monday
Anchorage Glacier Pilots 7, Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks 1
Tuesday
Anchorage Glacier Pilots 2, Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks 1
Friday
Mat-Su Miners 14, Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks 5
Saturday
Mat-Su Miners vs. Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks (Late)
• • •
Alaska Run for Women
Overall Results Top 100
1. Taylor Deal, Anchorage, AK 27:29; 2. Yvonne Jeschke, Anchorage, AK 28:08; 3. Heather Arneson, Anchorage, AK 29:09; 4. Mariah Graham, Anchorage, AK 30:27; 5. Rosie Conway, Anchorage, AK 30:36; 6. Michelle Hill, Anchorage, AK 31:03; 7. Kianna Wika, Anchorage, AK 31:13; 8. Mandy Vincent-Lang, Anchorgae, AK 31:16; 9. Karina Packer, Anchorage, AK 31:32; 10. Kikkan Randall, Anchorage, AK 31:48; 11. Hannah Souders, Anchorage, AK 32:02; 12. Janessa Hirniak, Eagle River, AK 32:06; 13. Megan Murphy, Anchorage, AK 32:13; 14. Emily Olson, Palmer, AK 32:18; 15. Hallidie Phillips, Anchorage, AK 33:02; 16. Sarah Freistone, Anchorage, AK 33:11; 17. Barbara Piromalli, Anchorage, AK 33:12; 18. Morgan Ekemo, Eagle River, AK 33:20; 19. Kaelan Dickinson, Anchorage, AK 33:31; 20. Sofija Spaic, Palmer, AK 33:37; 21. Lia Slemons, Anchorage, AK 33:39; 22. Brynna Gerlach, Anchorage, AK 33:40; 23. Stephanie Arnold, Anchorage, AK 33:40; 24. Rene Sobrino, Anchorage, AK 34:09; 25. Maggie Hamel, Anchorage, AK 34:23; 26. Cora Neroda, Anchorage, AK 34:30; 27. Livia Bond, Anchorage, AK 35:02; 28. Iris Samuels, Anchorage, AK 35:16; 29. Delia Neroda, Anchorage, AK 35:23; 30. Alison Matthews, Anchorage, AK 35:29; 31. Heather Poe, Anchorage, AK 35:49; 32. Siera Chadwick, Anchorage, AK 35:57; 33. Karen Kirk, Eagle River, AK 36:01; 34. Emily Urlacher, Anchorage, AK, AK 36:04; 35. Victoria Bear, Eagle River, AK 36:14; 36. Elizabeth Aarons, Anchorage, AK 36:32; 37. Grace Heglund-Lohman, Anchorage, AK 36:33; 38. Jennifer McGrath, Anchorage, AK 36:34; 39. Samantha Bassler, Anchorage, AK 36:38; 40. Valerie Bixler, Anchorage, AK 36:51; 41. Jennifer Page, Anchorage, AK 36:59; 42. Ashley Shaw, Eagle River, AK 37:02; 43. Annie Hamel, Anchorage, AK 37:12; 44. Samantha Sorensen, Anchorage, AK 37:22; 45. Sylvia Okuley, Chugiak, AK 37:25; 46. Jeni Moon, Chugiak, AK 37:28; 47. Kristen Ford, Seattle, WA 38:03; 48. Kari Skinner, Anchorage, AK 38:12; 49. Elizabet Hermanson, Anchorage, AK 38:19; 50. Jennifer Schmidt, Anchorage, AK 38:38; 51. Sharon Ong, Anchorage, AK 38:41; 52. Tatjana Spaic, Anchorage, AK 38:46; 53. Nikki Wray, Anchorage, AK 38:46; 54. Toril Peterson, Anchorage, AK 39:02; 55. Loren Gurkowski, Anchorage, AK 39:02; 56. Katie Russell, Eagle River, AK 39:03; 57. Valerie Watkins, Anchorage, AK 39:07; 58. Cynthia Decker, Anchorage, AK 39:17; 59. Francesca Singleton, Anchorage, AK 39:20; 60. Almut Tropp, Anchorage, AK 39:28; 61. Andrea Castelbanco Pardo, Anchorage, AK 39:34; 62. Jessica Brawn, Anchorage, AK 39:38; 63. KC Kent, Anchorage, AK 39:38; 64. Courtney Bond, Anchorage, AK 39:46; 65. Sarah Bagron, Anchorage, AK 39:49; 66. Kailey Sayer, Eagle River, AK 39:54; 67. Cindy Freistone, Anchorage, AK 39:55; 68. Celeste Earley, Anchorage, AK 39:57; 69. Ambriel Sandone, Anchorage, AK 39:58; 70. Linda Domjan, Anchorage, AK 40:05; 71. Claudia Rechtor, Anchorage, AK 40:34; 72. Jessica Shaffer, Anchorage, AK 40:40; 73. Kate Seibert, Anchorage, AK 40:55; 74. Eden Johnsen, Anchorage, AK 40:55; 75. Megan Gobeille, Chugiak, AK 40:56; 76. Tirza Cannon, Anchorage, AK 41:08; 77. Rosemary Reynolds, Anchorage, AK 41:13; 78. Lori Guyer, Anchorage, AK 41:14; 79. Lillian Konrath-Bera, Chugiak, AK 41:14; 80. Rosalyn Singleton, Eagle River, AK 41:16; 81. Emily Gulanczyk, Anchorage, AK 41:24; 82. Kayla Scherf, Eagle River, AK 41:25; 83. Haley Young, Wasilla, AK 41:27; 84. Elsa Sternicki, Anchorage, AK 41:34; 85. Mary Kaye Dolan-Hall, Eagle River, AK 41:35; 86. Julie Booher, Eagle River, AK 41:43; 87. Kira Fagerstrom, Wasilla, AK 41:46; 88. Jodi McLaughlin, Anchorage, AK 41:57; 89. Lauren Smayda, Anchorage, AK 41:58; 90. Nina Schwinghammer, Anchorage, AK 41:59; 91. Estrella Molle, Anchorage, AK 41:59; 92. Mari Rueter, Anchorage, AK 42:06; 93. Tereza Neveceralova, Wasilla, AK 42:08; 94. Lindsey Hiltner, Anchorage, AK 42:11; 95. Janet Warner, Eagle River, AK 42:15; 96. Rachel Stein, Palmer, AK 42:27; 97. Marilyn Sandford, Anchorage, AK 42:30; 98. Kayla Snyder, Eagle River, AK 42:30; 99. Kaitlyn DePlasco, Anchorage, AK 42:36; 100. Chrissy Barber, Anchorage, AK 42:51
Survivor
1. Kikkan Randall, Anchorage, AK 31:48; 2. Valerie Watkins, Anchorage, AK 39:07; 3. Cynthia Decker, Anchorage, AK 39:17; 4. Mary Kaye Dolan-Hall, Eagle River, AK 41:35; 5. Tina Powers, Eagle River, AK 43:24; 6. Lesley Yamauchi, Anchorage, AK 45:33; 7. Diane Trammell, Yakima, WA 47:32; 8. Annette Funk, Anchorage, AK 48:13; 9. Tricia Perkins, Anchorage, AK 50:58; 10. Vera Hershey, Wasilla, AK 52:28; 11. Sheri Boggs, Soldotna, AK 53:25; 12. Sharyl Toscano, Anchorage, AK 55:11; 13. Roxanne Caletena, Anchorage, AK 55:23; 14. Ecaterina Alexandru, Willow, AK 56:23; 15. Lori Stender, Eagle River, AK 56:23; 16. Meg Kurtagh, Anchorage, AK 56:33; 17. Patty Christian, Eagle River, AK 57:50; 18. Elaine Tibbetts, Anchorage, AK 58:39; 19. Kevyn Jalone, Anchorage, AK 1:03:10; 20. Dorys Higgins, Willow, AK 1:03:16; 21. Sarah Burrows, Anchorage, AK 1:03:16; 22. Unknown Runner, 1:05:59; 23. Qian Chen, Anchorage, AK 1:07:26; 24. Laurie Schmidt, Anchorage, AK 1:07:27; 25. Denise Hanson, Anchorage, AK 1:07:48; 26. Lauren McQuillan, Eagle River, AK 1:07:48; 27. Diane Frank, Anchorage, AK 1:08:17; 28. Tracy Anna Bader, Anchorage, AK 1:08:27; 29. Patricia Montague, Girdwood, AK 1:11:42; 30. Carol McNeese, Anchorage, AK 1:15:21; 31. Brittan Olsen, Anchorage, AK 1:16:32; 32. Leah Davies, eagle river ak, AK 1:16:34; 33. Julie Baumann, Anchorage, AK 1:16:35; 34. Patricia Anderson, Anchorage, AK 1:17:29; 35. Barbara Lane, Anchorage, AK 1:21:15; 36. Mary Ann Renkert, Anchorage, AK 1:21:19; 37. Jean Funatake, Anchorage, AK 1:21:24; 38. Jacquelyn Wellman, Wasilla, AK 1:22:21; 39. Jan Johnston, Anchorage, AK 1:23:52; 40. Megan Norgaard, Anchorage, AK 1:24:13; 41. Olivia Jenkins, Anchorage, AK 1:24:32; 42. Nancy Correll, Wasilla, AK 1:25:03; 43. Marcia Wakeland, Eagle River, AK 1:25:31; 44. Ljiljana Rezic, Anchorage, AK 1:25:40; 45. Anna Maria Knutson, Wasilla, AK 1:26:04; 46. Lora Lynch, Anchorage, AK 1:26:07; 47. Marla Greenstein, Anchorage, AK 1:26:25; 48. Carol Russell, Anchorage, AK 1:27:34; 49. Kelly Harrington, Anchorage, AK 1:28:48; 50. Cassandra Raun, Anchorage, AK 1:29:04
Winds and fire activity decreased Friday as U.S. Wildland Fire Service personnel and aircraft made progress toward containing the Kopshesut Fire (#137), burning about a mile west of Ambler.
Water dropping aircraft and smokejumpers made solid progress on the eastern side of the fire and are reporting about 20% containment. Satellite images show the fire’s perimeter now covers nearly 1,500 acres. Especially because this is an early‑season fire, it is not burning all the vegetation within that area. Hardwoods, willows, and alders usually don’t carry fire well this time of year. Instead, the fire has mainly spread through black spruce — the dominant tree across much of the area — and is not burning into deeper ground layers, making the flames easier to extinguish. The fire has reached the edge of the Kobuk River about a mile southwest of Ambler.
On Thursday, wind gusts up to 30 mph pushed the flames from their starting point at the nearby landfill, carrying the fire through black spruce to the southeast toward the Kobuk River rather than directly toward Ambler. Those winds decreased to 15 mph on Friday. The fast‑moving fire did burn a nearby Native allotment.
Water, whether coming from hoses used by smokejumpers on the ground or dropped from helicopters and airplanes, is having a noticeable impact on calming the flames. Two single‑engine water scoopers delivered more than 100,000 gallons on Thursday and Friday, with 70,200 gallons dropped on Friday alone. Each AT‑802F aircraft can scoop up to 800 gallons in about 15 seconds by skimming across a waterbody at roughly 75 mph. With favorable conditions — such as a clear, debris‑free stretch of the Kobuk River at least 2,200 feet long — the aircraft have been able to increase the number of drops per fuel cycle to 27, resulting in a higher volume of water delivered before needing to refuel.
The USWFS Midnight Sun Hotshots arrived in Ambler on Friday and will take over work on the eastern edge while smokejumpers shift to the western side. The North Star Fire Crew — the USWFS Alaska training crew — is shuttling to Ambler today and will join smokejumpers on the west edge of the fire Sunday. Each federal firefighting hand crew has just over 20 firefighters.
PREDICTED WEATHER — Cooler temperatures are expected Saturday, with a small chance of afternoon showers. Minimum humidity should stay around 45% through the start of the week. Winds will come from the south to southwest at about 10 mph. Another weather system is expected Sunday afternoon and evening, bringing more widespread showers and a better chance of meaningful rainfall, with totals between 0.05 and 0.15 inches through Sunday night.
AIR QUALITY — There is considerable concern about the noxious smoke produced by the burning material in the landfill where the fire began. Both wildfire smoke and smoke from burning trash contain fine particles and other pollutants that can be very harmful to people’s health. These particles can irritate the eyes and lungs and are especially dangerous for Elders, young children, and people with heart or respiratory conditions. Even short‑term exposure can worsen breathing problems. At this time, smoke from the Kopshesut Fire has not significantly drifted into Ambler, but residents should stay alert to changing conditions and take steps to protect their health if smoke moves into the community.
Contact Public Affairs Specialist Beth Ipsen at Elizabeth_ipsen@ios.doi.gov or (907)356-5510 for more information.
Read all Kopshesut Fire updates.
 100vw, 700px”/><figcaption class=)
Map showing the Kopshesut Fire’s perimeter near Ambler on June 6, 2026. Click on map for PDF version to download or click here for an interactive map of the area.-USWFS-
U.S. Wildland Fire Service, P.O. Box 35005 1541 Gaffney Road, Fort Wainwright, Ak 99703
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‹ Mastadon Fire Reaches 100% Containment
Categories: AK Fire Info, US Wildland Fire Service
Alaska
The prisoner & his mom: How are candidates who’ve never visited Alaska able to run for the state’s federal seats?
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A federal prisoner serving 20 years in a New York prison and his South Dakota mother are both on Alaska’s August primary ballot — and neither have ever set foot in the state.
They are two of several candidates running for Alaska’s federal seats from Lower 48 addresses, raising questions about whether non-residents should appear on the ballot.
“I’ve flown over it,” said Carol Hafner, the South Dakota resident and Alaska Senate candidate. “As far as boots on the ground, that’s in my future.”
Her son Eric Hafner, a federal inmate who has also not visited Alaska, is again on the ballot as a Democrat. He last ran for Alaska’s U.S. House seat in 2024 and is now seeking the same seat in 2026.
Eric Hafner was convicted in 2022 of threatening to kill judges, police officers and others, as well as making false bomb threats. He was sentenced to serve 20 years in federal prison and is currently serving out his sentence in a New York federal prison.
His 2024 run prompted Alaska Democrats to sue the state elections division in an attempt to remove him from the ballot.
MORE: Full 2026 election coverage in Alaska
The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in a 4-1 decision that Hafner could remain on Alaska’s U.S. House ballot. He was able to make it past the primary contest to the final ballot but received less than 1% of the vote in the general election.
“The state cannot put in higher requirements than what the federal constitution and federal laws have to say on this issue,” Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, told Alaska’s News Source Thursday.
The Alaska State Constitution does have a residency requirement for state positions, like positions in the legislature or governor, but congressional seats are contingent on the U.S. Constitution, which requires candidates to “inhabit” the state they run for. The Alaska Supreme Court determined Hafner could run for office but could not take office.
It isn’t the first run for either Hafner. Carol said she has previously run for federal office in Alaska — she ran in the 2018 Democratic primary for Alaska’s U.S. House seat — and her campaign website shows a run in Wyoming as well.
The Hafners are not the only non-residents on the ballot. Five other out-of-state candidates are running for Alaska’s two federal seats.
In the U.S. House race: Yaquelin Reynoso, a Democrat with a Lawrence, Massachusetts address; John Foddrill Sr., a Libertarian with a San Antonio, Texas address; and Melanie Salazar, a nonpartisan with a San Francisco, California address.
In the U.S. Senate race: Richard Grayson, a Green Party member with an Arizona address, and Richard Mayers, a Republican with a Chicago address.
MORE: Alaska’s 2026 primary ballot is set – here’s who is on it
The Hafners will appear on the Aug. 18 primary ballot. The top four candidates will advance to the November election.
The race for U.S. Senate has garnered headlines as former congresswoman Mary Peltola challenges two-term incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan for his seat.
Sullivan has accused Peltola of recruiting a Petersburg man who shares his name to appear on the primary ballot and confuse voters — an allegation the Peltola campaign denies. National Republicans have filed a formal complaint with the Lt. Governor seeking the Petersburg candidate’s removal from the ballot.
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