‘We’re all on the same team’: Inside the Alaska model for US politics

When Democrat Mary Sattler Peltola went looking to hire a chief of staff, she chose someone with hands-on experience and a deep knowledge of her home state, Alaska. He was also a Republican. Alex Ortiz’s last job was serving in the same role for her predecessor, Don Young, a giant in the state who died in 2022 after setting a record for longest-serving Republican congressman in United States history.

And he wasn’t the only Republican who Representative Peltola put on her payroll after winning a special election in August to...