5th Alaska State Legislature

In the 1966 elections, Alaska followed the rest of the nation and voted Republican: incumbent governor William A. Egan and incumbent U.S. Representative Ralph J. Rivers both lost reelection to Republican challengers (Walter J. Hickel and Howard W. Pollock, respectively).

In response to the "one man, one vote" decision of the United States Supreme Court in Reynolds v. Sims, the area-based apportionment scheme established for the Senate in the state constitution was abandoned, and the Senate was apportioned strictly on a population basis like the House.

Jay Hammond, who served in the House in the first three legislatures before returning home to Naknek to serve as manager of the Bristol Bay Borough, was newly elected as a senator from a district which stretched as far north as Bettles and as far south as the Alaska Peninsula.

In the 1966 election, Hammond defeated Democratic incumbent Grant Pearson, who lived in Nenana, 480 miles (770 km) from Naknek.

Under population-based apportionment, many future legislative districts in rural Alaska would also cover vast amounts of the state.