Alaska is relatively close, like it was in OTL 2012, without Governor Palin on the ticket. It's enough to convince the Democratic Party to invest in the state and build an apparatus there. Come four years later, Obama is set to make a historic campaign visit to a remote native village in the bush when his Presidential helicopter disappears Ted Stevens-style. Weeks later, Acting President Biden is finally officially sworn in after the largest manhunt in American history discovers the wreckage and the strangest presidential death is confirmed.