Matanuska-Susitna Borough (often referred to as the Mat-Su Borough; Russian: Матануска-Суситна) is a borough located in the U.S. state of Alaska. Its county seat is Palmer, and the largest community is the census-designated place of Knik-Fairview. The borough is part of the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area, along with the municipality of Anchorage on its south. The Mat-Su Borough is so designated because it contains the entire Matanuska and Susitna rivers. These rivers empty into Cook Inlet, which is the southern border of the Mat-Su Borough. This area is one of the few agricultural areas of Alaska.

Barry Ashlin Williamson (born June 19, 1957) is an attorney from Austin, Texas, who was from 1992 to 1999 a Republican member of the Texas Railroad Commission. In 1992, he defeated the appointed incumbent Lena Guerrero, a Democrat, to win a seat on the three-member panel which regulates oil and natural gas operations (not railroads).Williamson is the son of the former Alice Wicker, a native of Steele, Missouri, and Ashlin "Tunney" Williamson (1926–2011), a farmer and school board member who was born in Blytheville, Arkansas, but reared in Missouri. Barry Williamson himself was reared in Snow Lake in Desha County and in Elaine in Phillips County, both located along the Mississippi River in eastern Arkansas. Williamson and his wife, the former Holly Holt, have two sons, Holt Williamson and Ashlin Williamson. Williamson has three sisters, Jan W. Dunkerson of Rose Bud, Arkansas, Karen W. Tepovich of Houston, Texas, and Alecia W. Lybrand of Soldonta, Alaska. A brother, Tracy Williamson, is deceased.Williamson did not seek a second term on the Railroad Commission in 1998, but he instead ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general. He lost a runoff election to John Cornyn. A third candidate eliminated in the primary was Tom Pauken, the former state party chairman. Cornyn then defeated the Democratic former attorney general Jim Mattox in the 1998 general election. In 2010, Williamson served as campaign chairman for Republican Railroad Commission nominee David J. Porter, a Certified Public Accountant from Midland and Giddings, who upset incumbent Victor G. Carrillo of Abilene, Texas, in the party primary. Porter then defeated the Democrat Jeff Weems in the general election held on November 2, 2010. Williamson formerly resided in Midland and Dallas, Texas.

Kenai (, KEE-ny) is a city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. (Dena'ina: Shk'ituk't; Russian: Николаяевская крепость also Николаевский редут presently Кенай Nikolaevskaya krepost, Nikolaevskiy redut/Kenay) It is one hundred and eighty-seven miles south from Anchorage. The population was 7,100 as of the 2010 census, up from 6,942 in 2000.

Seward (Alutiiq: Qutalleq) is an incorporated home rule city in Alaska, United States. Located on Resurrection Bay, a fjord of the Gulf of Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula, Seward is situated on Alaska's southern coast, approximately 120 miles (190 km) by road from Alaska's largest city, Anchorage. With a population of 2,693 people as of the 2010 Census, Seward is the fourth-largest city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, behind Kenai, Homer, and the borough seat of Soldotna. The city is named for former U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, who orchestrated the United States' purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 while serving in this position as part of President Andrew Johnson's administration. Seward is the southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad and the historic starting point of the original Iditarod Trail to Interior Alaska, with Mile 0 of the trail marked on the shoreline at the southern end of town.