In Homer, an established Republican in the Alaska House is facing a challenge from an independent

For the past eight years, Sarah Vance has been a reliable member of the Republican caucus in the Alaska House of Representatives, winning election four different times in a district covering the southern Kenai Peninsula.

But in this August’s primary election, something unusual happened: An independent challenger, Brent Johnson of Clam Gulch, beat Vance by more than 13 percentage points.

That was a reversal of two years ago, when Vance beat Johnson by 9 percentage points in a primary that included two other candidates.

The candidates are now facing each other again in the November general election, with consequences for Alaska as a whole. 

For the past two years, a predominantly Democratic coalition has controlled the state House by holding 21 of 40 seats, a one-vote majority. Johnson has said that if elected, he would join the coalition. 

“That’s 100% correct,” he said when asked whether he would join.

Vance has said she would seek to stay with Republicans, whether in the minority or in a new majority, depending on results elsewhere. Statewide, Democratic voters appeared to be more motivated than Republican voters during the primary, and it remains to be seen whether that disparity will return in the general election.

“I’m praying for a Republican majority. At the very least a Republican-led majority,” Vance said. “You know, miracles happen.”

A split on education and pensions

When the 2027 Legislative session begins, members of the House’s current coalition majority are expecting to push for changes to the way the state funds education.

They’ve talked about funding schools in advance, through an early budget process, and providing automatic inflation adjustments for the amount of funding the state gives to public schools each year.

Johnson said he’s in favor of those concepts and wants to see what a legislative task force on education funding ends up recommending. 

As a member of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, he presided over arguments about school closures.

“Tustumena Elementary, which is five miles down the road from our house, where I went to school as first grader through sixth grade, closed, and that’s a big deal. People are mad about that,” he said.

Johnson said the district has a lot of home-schooled students, but even if that proportion is 30%, that means 70% of local students are using public schools.

“We care about public schools, and I’m not opposed to homeschool, but I care about public schools too,” he said.

To that end, he’s in favor of reviving a pension program for state employees, including teachers. Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a pension bill this year after it passed the House and Senate, an act that kept the existing 401(k)-like retirement system going. 

“The teachers are unhappy with it,” Johnson said of the existing system, and recalled how important retaining workers was in his fishing career. “We have a huge turnover in teachers. I know from my setnet experience, you want to keep people. You want to have workers that are happy and keep people there.”

Vance said she isn’t sure how the coalition majority intends to pay for a pension system and increased funding for public education. 

She voted against the pension bill that came before the Legislature this spring. 

“Without a fiscal plan and clear financials, they were spitballing on the numbers for that bill, and that had me more concerned,” she said.

On education funding, Vance said she doesn’t think the state has enough available revenue to follow through on the coalition’s plans. Increasing funding by $250 million per year — enough to balance inflation over the past several years — would result in more than $2 billion per year in education spending.

Forward-funding — paying for education a year ahead — would require the Legislature to come up with $4 billion, she said.

“The question is, where are they going to get the money? So the options are zeroing out the dividend and taxing. That frightens me more than anything,” Vance said.

She is usually a supporter of larger Permanent Fund dividend payments under the formula in state law.

Cost of living and the Permanent Fund dividend

House District 6 is whiter and poorer than the state’s average; only 19% of the district’s residents are nonwhite, the third-lowest proportion in Alaska, and the median household income ranks 35th out of 40 state House districts.

“That’s why I’ve taken a really hard position of no to taxes, to supporting the dividend, because we have to figure out a way to strengthen the economy, and I’ve come to the decision that losing this race is not an option for me because the alternative representation is not palatable,” Vance said. 

In the Legislature, Vance has taken a hard line on the Permanent Fund dividend, seeking to increase it to the maximum amount possible without increasing taxes. That means holding down spending on services to compensate.

“I am in full support of the historical statutory dividend, but I am also a realist,” Vance said during a September debate hosted by the Homer Chamber of Commerce.

She said the state could spend from savings or overdraw the Permanent Fund to pay a larger dividend.

“Now, can we do that for very long? The answer is no. So we’re going to have to make changes. But we have a legislative process that includes public process and representation of the people that are going to have to make that change,” she said.

Johnson said he would like to see Alaskans vote on the future of the dividend.

“I say, give it to the people. This is a democracy. Let the people decide what they want to do with the Permanent Fund. If they decide to have a statutory dividend, then there’s going to have to be a bunch of taxes that take care of the rest of government,” he said.

The setnetter and the legislator

Vance, 47, was born in Texas but grew up in Homer. She is married and has four children. Johnson, 71, was born in Seldovia but has lived in Clam Gulch since 1959 and graduated from Ninilchik High School. A commercial setnet fisherman, he is married with six children.

Johnson has served two different six-year terms on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, in addition to time on the borough’s planning commission and the local fisheries advisory committee. 

Online court records show no serious crimes by either candidate.

Through Oct. 2, Vance’s campaign had raised $77,365, including $7,000 from the Alaska Republican Party and $10,000 from Diane Perkins, her top donor. 

Johnson’s campaign, meanwhile, had raised $71,707, including $20,000 from Johnson himself and $6,000 from various unions.

On the cloud-seeding controversy

In August, a California tech company caused a local uproar on the Kenai Peninsula when it tested a new drone-based rain-making process. 

Residents were outraged that they hadn’t been informed beforehand, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough subsequently voted to require permits for similar efforts in the future.

There isn’t a state law on the topic, but Vance said she intends to change that if re-elected.

“I have a bill drafted to prohibit weather modification, and we’ve sent that to DEC and DNR, saying, ‘Hey, you know, what do you think?’” she said.

Johnson said he’s not in favor of a ban but is willing to support limits.

“Let’s go ahead and make some legislation. I’m not in favor of banning it because maybe the technology will develop, and every once in a while, people want rain,” he said.

Democratic and progressive voters appear mobilized

Johnson’s strong performance in the primary was unusual for a district that voted heavily for President Donald Trump in 2024, but it wasn’t because Vance did worse than other Republicans.

Vance received more votes in the primary than incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan or incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III. 

But over 36.7% of registered voters in the district participated in the primary, compared to 27.7% in the state as a whole, indicating that Democratic and left-leaning voters mobilized against her, possibly because of her denouncement of a local newspaper’s coverage of a Charlie Kirk protest, or her membership in the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. 

“I happen to be pro-life, and so I think because of that, that they’re worried, and because I am a part of a Christian organization, that they’re trying to make this boogeyman,” Vance told the Beacon.

“There’s been memes about me dressed up as “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and saying that I’m gonna take women’s rights and things like that. And it’s like — no, that’s very far from the truth,” Vance said.

In the Homer Chamber of Commerce forum, Johnson and Vance were asked about the separation of church and state.

“I’m a big supporter of a lot of the themes that are in church, but when it comes to the state and church, it has been a long-standing institution or a philosophy that we keep the two separate, and I believe in it 100%,” Johnson said.

Freedom of religion and expression are protected by the First Amendment, Vance said.

“I’m not going to check my faith at the door when I step into the legislature because that guides my decisions, and I think that that should be defended when you go to your workplace, when you go to the grocery store, when you go into your home, that should be honored and protected,” she said.