Editor's note: The below excerpt from this interview is not the full transcript and has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Listen to the full interview with Bill Hill by clicking on the audio link.
Bill Hill: My name is Bill Hill. I'm a lifelong Alaskan, Dena’ina and Athabaskan. I live in Naknek out in Bristol Bay, home of the greatest sockeye salmon run in the world. I started out in a little village called Kokhanok on the Iliamna Lake. There were about a little over 100 people there at the time; real Bush frontier upbringing, chopping wood, packing water. My parents always had 50-some-odd dogs. We raised and raced dog teams 40 yards to the outhouse, you know, all of the good stuff, a lot of hunting, fishing and trapping to keep food on the table. A real good life full of hard work, and, you know, work as a family. It was a good place to grow up. And, you know, I feel like there's a need in our nation for some good, solid Alaskans to take on the challenge of going to Congress and representing us and working to drive down the cost of living for Alaskans, working to fight corruption and working to maintain the Alaska way of life. And I don't think that's being done right now, and so I've taken on the task of running for Congress, and I'm running for our sole US House seat.
Davis Hovey, KMXT: All sectors of the commercial fishing industry are experiencing, you know, all these headwinds right now. We've seen dropping prices, global competition in the markets. You know, processors are consolidating and closing. Fishermen are getting less pay… What would you kind of focus on to sort of help bring that cost down for fishermen and make Alaskan seafood more competitive?
Hill: I mean, you talked about the international aspect, you know. And essentially, you have competitors who don't play by the same set of rules that Alaskans play by, who don't play by a set of rules that make sure that we have a good environment for our fishing game, who play by a set of rules where they don't have to abide by labor laws. And we need to work with our partners, maybe in Europe, to say, hey, you know this seafood was caught either unethically or was using basically a really terrible labor system. We need to make sure we work with our partners to decrease that opportunity for people who are who are dumping fish on the market; is one way of putting it.
KMXT: Alaska has long been looked at as an oil state. We have a lot of critical minerals that the federal administration is starting to target…Where do you stand in terms of opening up different sectors of Alaska for resource development, mining and more gas and LNG projects?
Hill: Let me make it clear up front to you know, I am pro development, and Alaska is a resource development state, and you could even look at fisheries as resource development, in some sense, but I think we need to be smart about that development, and I think we need to make sure that we look at how things are going to impact current industries… Some projects I don't believe belong, and Pebble is one of them, but there are other projects that we need to look at and make sure that we bring to Alaska, because we are a resource development state, I think we need to make sure, as a state that Alaskans are the greatest beneficiary of every project that happens. And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case anymore.
KMXT: Switching gears again, how would you sort of address the needs of rural health care in the state of Alaska and just health care in the state as a whole?
Hill: Well, I think everybody should have access to good health care. That's the bottom line. Everybody should have access to good health care. And yes, it is difficult to deliver health care in some places. But does that mean we shouldn't do it? I don't think so. When we have an opportunity to improve health care, we should, you know, my opponent, you know, voted to, voted to do away with health care in Alaska, and some of our neighbors are, you know, on average, are seeing a $900 a month increase in their health insurance. I think we need to just continue working on, at the federal government level, to improve the health care that's offered.
KMXT: And final sort of elevator pitch. I call it, I guess, if you were talking to voters here in Kodiak or elsewhere around the state, why should they vote for you to become our next representative in the U.S. House?
Hill: I'm somebody who's going to go to Congress and I'm going to think about Alaskans from the moment I wake up and think about how to make Alaskans lives better when I go to sleep. I'm not going to be there to cozy up to special interests. I'm not going to be there to side with billionaires. I'm not going to be there to give tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy and to provide more tax loopholes for corporations. I'm going to be there to make life better for Alaskans.”
