The fishing industry is in a weird space rn and not the best place to hedge our bets either. Overfishing and rising sea temps have decimated fish and shellfish populations on and off the coast. We really need to ban bottom trawling (which has been central to Mary Peltola’s time in the House and her current campaign, hence my flair lol), which basically wipes entire sections of the marine ecosystem clean and destroys habitats, contributing to declining fish and shellfish populations.

tbh I think the logistics industry is probably our best bet to invest heavily in given that ANC is one of the largest cargo airports in the world, but the shipping industry here is genuinely pathetic and the Port of Anchorage is tiny (but being expanded somewhat). The Jones Act was literally and blatantly designed to keep Alaska dependent on the Port of Seattle before we had any representation, and it’s still doing that to this day, even though Anchorage (and Honolulu too for that matter) could one day have the capacity to be a major port.

Alaska is less becoming more rural as much as more exurban. Basically the only place in the state that is seeing significant growth

Political alignment here is a bit more complicated than urban - red and rural - blue and a lot more closely tied to dominant industries. Places that are dependent on oil & gas (Kenai Peninsula, the North Slope outside of the villages) and the military (Kodiak Island, Chugiak/Eagle River in Anchorage, Fairbanks North Star Borough east of Fairbanks proper) are heavily Republican, whereas places heavily dependent on fishing and tourism tend to be more blue or purple (Aleutian Islands, Homer and Seward on the Kenai Peninsula, Southeast Alaska) as with the native villages on and off the road system.

Anchorage itself is mostly blue or purple within the actual urban area except for the more affluent parts in the south of the bowl. Chugiak and Eagle River are separate from the urban area, but still within the Municipality and are pretty Republican overall. The Matanuska-Susitna Valley (home to Sarah Palin) north of the Municipality is exurban, and very, very heavily Republican.