This is often said, but why?
It has trended D in every election since 2004, and Trump underperformed there in 2016 (even though his opponent was an awful fit for the state). The state has also gotten a lot more competitive at the state level as well. I'll believe AK acutally trending back to Rs when I see it.
We don’t really know what’s driving the population growth in the Anchorage exurbs, but these areas don’t seem to have gotten a lot more R in recent years either. I certainly hope I’m wrong, though.
One thing I have noticed looking over the last five Presidential elections, the Democratic vote has not changed that much in raw numbers. In fact it has also declined since 2008, but only slightly.
The GOP number spiked in 2004 and again in 2008 for obvious reason, and has declined since but has remained stable at the same general number seen in 2000, 2012 and 2016.
Donald J. Trump Michael R. Pence Republican 163,387 51.28% 3
Hillary Clinton Timothy Kaine Democratic 116,454 36.55% 0
Willard Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Republican 164,676 54.80% 3
Barack H. Obama Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Democratic 122,640 40.81% 0
John S. McCain, III Sarah Palin Republican 193,841 59.42% 3
Barack H. Obama Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Democratic 123,594 37.89% 0
George W. Bush Richard Cheney Republican 190,889 61.07% 3
John Kerry John Edwards Democratic 111,025 35.52% 0
George W. Bush Richard Cheney Republican 167,398 58.62% 3
Albert Gore Jr. Joseph Lieberman Democratic 79,004 27.67% 0
Ralph Nader Winona LaDuke Green 28,747 10.07% 0
The Democrats have also lost votes in every election since 2008 in Alaska. In fact they have lost more votes than the Republicans have excluding the surge in 2004/2008