By SUZANNE DOWNING
Oct. 6, 2026 – Bill Hill is running for Alaska’s lone US House seat as an independent, but an analysis points to financial backing from people and organizations associated with progressive causes, including opposition to Arctic oil development, wealth redistribution, and criminal justice reform.
The analysis, supplied to The Alaska Story, examines contributions to Hill’s campaign and funding behind Wheel Dog PAC, an outside group supporting his candidacy. It also traces a portion of Wheel Dog’s funding through Way Back PAC.
It identifies approximately $2.58 million from donors it classifies as aligned with progressive causes, representing 69.3% of the $3.73 million in combined receipts examined. That percentage reflects the analysis’s classifications and allocation method; the supplied summary does not include the transaction records or full methodology needed to independently reproduce it.
Hill is challenging Republican Rep. Nick Begich. While Hill says he is an independent in Federal Election Commission records, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee included him in its Red to Blue program, which provides organizational and fundraising support to candidates as Democrats seek control of the House.
Among the campaign contributors identified in the analysis is Daniel Tishman, whom the Natural Resources Defense Council lists as a chair emeritus. NRDC describes efforts to stop fossil fuel development in Alaska’s western Arctic and litigation against federal lease sales and exploration approvals. Those are the organization’s stated positions, rather than a personal quotation from Tishman or a policy statement by Hill.
His organization actively opposes development in a region central to the state’s oil industry.
Regan Pritzker also appears in the analysis’s list of donors behind Wheel Dog PAC or Way Back PAC.
Pritzker co-founded the Kataly Foundation, which describes its mission as building the economic, political, and cultural power of Black and Indigenous communities and other communities of color, including redistributing wealth. Her biography says she aligns her assets and philanthropic work with “progressive and radical values” through investment, philanthropy, and political giving. The key word here is “radical.”
Sixteen Thirty Fund among the organizations financing the outside support network. The fund openly describes its priorities as advancing racial justice, confronting climate change, and supporting causes that share its progressive values.
Another radical donor is Michael Novogratz, founder of Galaxy Gives. In an announcement of the organization’s leadership fellowship, Novogratz criticized spending that sustains what he described as a failed incarceration system and advocated redirecting resources toward housing, education, health care, and jobs.
Here are quotes from some of the radicals backing Bill Hill:
| Donor | Role | Quote | Org/Source |
| Daniel Tishman | NRDC board chair 2008–17, now chair emeritus | “We are aggressively pursuing strategies to stop fossil fuel development in America’s largest public reserve in the western Arctic.” | NRDC |
| Edward Alexander | Personal (2012 congressional testimony) | “The Gwich’in tribes…stand united against drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.” | House testimony |
| Ayyu Qassataq | Personal | “This country was built on stolen Indigenous lands on the backs of stolen African peoples.” | Pluralism.org |
| William Watterson | Director/ED, Galaxy Gives | “Every dollar put into maintaining a [prison] business…needs to be shut down.” (Novogratz, founder) | Galaxy Gives |
| Eva Greenthal | Staff, CSPI | Dismissed soda-ban opposition as “professionally manufactured outrage.” | CSPI/InfluenceWatch |
| Susan Blaustein | Founder/President, WomenStrong | Decries “vestiges of colonialism, racism, sexism.” | WomenStrong |
| AlexAnna Salmon | Personal | “We can’t be bought off.” (re: Pebble Mine) | Phys.org |
| Samuel R. Walton | Trustee, EDF | “Climate change is a serious and growing danger to Americans’ health, safety and well-being…” | EDF |
| Richard Lawrence | Co-founder/Director, High Tide Foundation | High Tide “funds other organizations in an effort to curtail conventional fuel use” and provides “legal opposition to pipelines”; grants include Niskanen Center’s “eminent domain and pipeline litigation project.” | InfluenceWatch / Niskanen funder PDF |
| Dee Lawrence | Co-founder/Director, Cool Effect | “Extensive research has proven that humans cause climate change and our mission remains focused on providing opportunities to take measurable action.” | Business Wire |
| Stacy Schusterman | Chair, Schusterman Family Philanthropies | Family “support[s] President Biden’s agenda to combat climate change”; foundation’s first-ever climate grant ($300K) went to a group calling climate change “the existential crisis of our times.” | Times of Israel / JTA |
| Nik Mittal | Board member, ClientEarth USA | “We’re currently witnessing a great deception, where the companies most responsible for catastrophically heating the planet are spending millions on advertising…” (staff lawyer Johnny White) | ClientEarth |
| Nik Mittal | Personal (co-authored op-ed) | “We are seeing fear and misinformation distort this debate…oil industry propaganda and lobbying stoking fear.” | Capitol Weekly |
Wheel Dog PAC / Way Back PAC donors
| Donor | Role | Quote | Org/Source |
| Regan Pritzker | Founder, Kataly Foundation | “We will redistribute and redefine wealth…for Black and Indigenous communities.” | Kataly Foundation |
| Michael Novogratz | Founder, Galaxy Gives | “Every dollar put into maintaining a [prison] business…needs to be shut down.” | Galaxy Gives |
| Christy Walton | Personal (paid NYT ad) | “Free the 70% of those in custody of ICE without a criminal conviction.” | Snopes |
| Stephanie Schriock | Former President, EMILY’s List | “We will just be a better society when there’s an equal number of women and men sitting at our decision-making table, period.” | Guardian |
| Celinda Lake | Personal | “The feminist agenda is wildly popular…feminism is highly correlated with voting for Democrats.” | Ms. Magazine |
| Lynde Uihlein | Founder, Brico Fund | Fund “aims to secure full participation in society for women and girls, to sustain our natural environment and to promote a just and equitable society.” | Brico Fund |
| Stephanie Gillis | Senior Advisor/Director, Raikes Foundation | Foundation went “all in on racial equity and democracy.” | Raikes Foundation |
| Tony Davis | CEO & CIO, Inherent Group | “We need to push politicians to price externalities we know are bad for us, like carbon emissions.” | Rumsey Hall |
| Tedd Saunders | CEO/Founder, EcoLogical Solutions; board member, Ceres | “Pursue sustainability. There is so much evidence that it is a smart way to do business.” | Green Lodging News |
| Toolbox (Nunnelly/Dupré Foundation) | ED Josh Biber | “Painfully and persistently, those most affected by the pandemic…were those from historically marginalized groups.” | Medium/Authority Magazine |
| Sixteen Thirty Fund | Org | “advancing equity and racial justice…confronting climate change.” | Sixteen Thirty Fund |
| North Fund | Org | “accelerate progress towards racial and gender equality.” | North Fund |
| Civitech | Org | “As progressives, we care about a fair and inclusive democracy.” | Civitech |
| Global Impact Social Welfare Fund | Org | Mission includes “…JUSTICE REFORM…RACIAL AND GENDER EQUALITY.” | GuideStar |
That Democratic support, together with the progressive donor connections identified in the analysis, places Hill’s independent identity and the political coalition backing him under renewed scrutiny.
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7 thoughts on “Research reveals Bill Hill’s ‘independent campaign’ funded by hardcore leftist donor network”
“Tax the rich, get rid of the dark money, I’m independent….” What a joke.
This guy is the new Al Gross.
“I’m a fisherman just like you, I’m the most Alaskan…” yadda yadda yadda.
He’s running on the platform of “tax the millionaires” after seeing the list of donations, I’m calling BS
I would be giving something to Mr. William Hill too if I had something to donate. Most of my money goes to alcohol. The rest goes to pay electric bills. Since I have very little after I pay in advance for my liquor, I’ll just have to lie a bunch in my little blog. Hope that satisfies my Marxist Democrat friends. I’m very good at lying.
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Derm the Mutt
Snorting and Always Ready to Fart From Alaska.
lol…..the cole foundation for lop-sided journalism, marxist rhetoric, and fundamental untruths. scribbled in his little column when he’s not raging drunk.
a real hero for lefties.
This is no way this Bill Hill moron will win the Alaska house race, so it is good to see all these leftist lower 48 low life billionaires throw their ill-gotten gains away. This guy they are running is actually so pathetic it’s nauseating. That’s the best the Alaskan Democrats could do? Shows how stupid they are – couldn’t even recruit a viable candidate.
The Hillbilly is a pure phoney. NB3 will kick his ass.
“Independent” is new speak for Leftist.
Hill is a democrat, if only obviously.