Underwood-Eastman rematch gives Wasilla voters another House District 27 choice

House District 27 voters are getting the rematch that was easy to see coming and hard to ignore.

The Alaska Division of Elections lists Rep. Jubilee Underwood, a Wasilla Republican, as a certified candidate for reelection. It lists former Rep. David Eastman, also a Wasilla Republican, as pending.

That puts the Meadow Lakes and Wasilla district on track for a same-party fight between the incumbent and the former incumbent she defeated less than two years ago.

The margin last time was 196 votes.

Eastman led Underwood in the 2024 primary, according to official election results. But Underwood beat him in the general election, 3,856 to 3,660, with write-ins drawing 99 votes. That was enough to end Eastman's House tenure after four terms and send Underwood to Juneau.

Now Eastman is trying to take the seat back.

District 27 is not a swingy Anchorage district where party labels only tell half the story. It is Mat-Su ground, and the fight is over what kind of Republican representation those voters want.

Underwood's first term put her inside the House Republican world, but not in Eastman's old lane.

For years, Eastman was one of the most recognizable conservatives in the Alaska House, often isolated even within his own caucus. Underwood's 2024 win did not turn District 27 moderate. It changed who carried the district's conservative banner.

The rematch will test whether that change held.

If Underwood wins again, 2024 looks less like a one-off protest vote and more like a handoff. If Eastman wins, the district returns one of the Legislature's most polarizing conservatives to a House that already runs on narrow margins.

Either way, District 27 voters have seen this choice before.

This time, both candidates know exactly what 196 votes can do.