Voters and candidates gathered at the Glenn Massay Theater this past Sunday afternoon for an election event called Flip the Script. This was not the usual election forum where voters sit and listen to the candidates.
The Mat-Su Sentinel hosted the event. It focused on state legislative races in the Mat-Su. Sixteen of the 17 candidates for State House and Senate seats the Mat-Su took part. More than 200 citizens showed up.
Sentinel founder Amy Bushatz moderated the event with James Brooks of the Alaska Beacon.
The Flip the Script format turns the usual candidate forum upside down. Audience members answer live poll questions with an app on their phones. Results are shown on a large screen. The candidates then answer related questions in 30-second time slots.
Poll questions included how the state should raise revenue and what it should cut. The audience’s top choice for raising revenue was raising taxes on corporations. Later, candidates had 30 seconds to name their first priority for balancing the budget: cutting services, raising taxes, or reducing the Permanent Fund dividend.
Candidates shared tables by district in the foyer.
Kit Kennedy is a Democrat running for House District 28. She shared a table with Republican candidates Elexie Moore and Stephen Wright. Kennedy says she met Moore for the first time Sunday. She says Moore was kind. The two had a nice conversation before the program began.
A pair of teens impressed Kennedy. Both will be old enough to vote in November. They pressed her on renewable energy. Kennedy says she rarely gets such pointed questions from adults.
Jubilee Underwood is the Republican incumbent running for House District 27. She appreciated hearing from community members whose views she doesn’t hear in her usual circles. Some conversations leaned further left than what she typically hears. She valued that opportunity.
Underwood added she was encouraged by how many people showed up and wanted to be involved.
Volunteer Sabrena Combs liked the shared tables for candidates. She says they need to get along with each other as well as with the public. Combs was one of about 15 Sentinel volunteers. The volunteers were easy to spot with their bright yellow lanyards and Mat-Su Sentinel T-shirts. She says candidates rarely get a direct line to what voters care about. The interactive polling gives them that information.
The Mat-Su Health Foundation helped make the event possible. Affordable Catering provided the food.
Health Foundation Director of Public Policy David Wilson says the turnout was huge. He says candidates rarely get that many constituents in one room, all ready to share ideas. Wilson served eight years in the Legislature. He says lawmakers never had that kind of chance when he served.
The Sentinel is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. It launched Flip the Script last year for the borough election. That event drew more than 150 residents to the Palmer Depot. The format went on to win a national award.
Bushatz wants election forums to feel less like lectures. The turnout confirmed something she suspected. Bushatz says, “Our community members crave connection, and if we create a space that fosters it, they’ll show up.”
That connection is the point for Underwood. She says, “We’re here to serve the whole Valley, and listening matters even when we don’t agree.”
There is one more Flip the Script tomorrow. It features candidates for the Mat-Su Assembly and School Board. It is at the Palmer Depot. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. The forum starts at 6 p.m. Food and drinks are provided.
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Emily Forstner attended Flip the Script and reported this Page Two article and yours truly, Lee Henrikson produced it. If you have an idea for a Page 2 topic, please email us at page2@radiofreepalmer.org.
That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Wednesday, October 7, 2026.
Photo of James Brooks by Elise Giordano Photography courtesy of Mat Su Sentinel