Frier vs. Chase: a rematch for Alaska's northernmost House seat

The 2024 race for House District 40 is happening again. Democratic Rep. Robyn Niayuq Frier of Utqiagvik, who won the seat two years ago, is being challenged by Kotzebue Mayor Saima Chase — the same opponent she beat, along with then-incumbent Thomas Baker, last time. The primary is August 18.

The district is the northernmost in the country and roughly the size of Germany, stretching across the North Slope and Northwest Arctic boroughs. Both candidates are Iñupiaq women, based at opposite ends of it.

In her official pamphlet statement, Frier, a former North Slope Borough School District board president, names coastal erosion, high energy costs, and thin public safety coverage as her priorities, alongside education funding, responsible resource development, and subsistence. "The state serves all Alaskans, including those in our most remote communities," she wrote, calling for money to rebuild community buildings and infrastructure across the district. Frier is part of the House's bipartisan majority coalition.

Chase is running hardest on public safety and on tighter collaboration between state and tribal governments — an area she knows firsthand, having served as public safety administrator and fire chief for the Northwest Arctic Borough before becoming Kotzebue's mayor in 2021. It's also ground Frier claims, setting up a contest in which both women point to the same problem and ask voters to trust them to fix it.