a personal hobbyhorse of mine, predating Mary Peltola's win, is that Democrats should seriously contest Alaska, a heavily unionized, not very white state with strongly libertarian social attitudes where 40% of the population lives in a single city

3 EVs not that many, but when a lot of the maps that are being drawn are 270-268 it could definitely make some sense. Probably doesn’t cost that much for the media markets I would imagine?

There was a big New Yorker or Atlantic or such piece back in like 2018 talking about the Alaskan Democrats, and how by distancing themselves from the national party and loudly making their own platform, they've been able to get past default partisan alignments and become a competitive force

Could maybe see something similar in the Mountain West, if not for the lack of cities and the influx of conservative transplants.

I can’t remember who I read saying this, maybe it was Dave Weigel, but blue Alaska and Wyoming are more likely in the next few years than blue Iowa happening again

we kinda started doing that with Murkowski re-elect

And they have UBI, and they love it.

Biden became the first Democrat since I think LBJ to carry Anchorage without even trying!

Funny thing about Alaska and Hawaii statehood is they were deliberately paired red-blue... in the expectation that Alaska would be a Dem stronghold and Hawaii a Republican one.