Alaska's at-large congressional district

Alaska's at-large congressional district
Representative
Area665,384.04[1] sq mi (1,723,336.8 km2)
Distribution
  • 65.7% urban[2]
  • 34.3% rural
Population (2023)733,406[3]
Median household
income
$86,631[4]
Ethnicity
Cook PVIR+8[5]

Since becoming a U.S. state in 1959, Alaska has been entitled to one member in the United States House of Representatives. The representative is elected at-large, because the state has only one congressional district, encompassing its entire territory. By area, Alaska's congressional district is the largest congressional district in the United States and the third-largest electoral district represented by a single member in the world. It is exceeded by the Yakutsk district in Russia and Nunavut in Canada.

On August 31, 2022, Democrat Mary Peltola defeated Republican former governor Sarah Palin in the special election to replace Don Young, who died on March 18 of the same year and was the longest serving Republican in the history of the House and was the most notable person to represent the district. Peltola became the first Democrat elected to the House of Representatives from Alaska since 1972, and the first Alaska Native in history to be elected to the United States House of Representatives.

As of 2024, the state comprises the most Republican-leaning congressional district to be represented by a Democrat. It has a partisan lean of R+8.[5]

  1. ^ Census data 2010census.gov Archived October 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Congressional Districts". proximityone.com. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  3. ^ Center for New Media & Promotion (CNMP), US Census Bureau. "My Congressional District". www.census.gov. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
  4. ^ Center for New Media & Promotion (CNMP), US Census Bureau. "My Congressional District". www.census.gov. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Introducing the 2022 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index". The Cook Political Report. June 8, 2022. Retrieved June 12, 2022.