In the race for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, Democrats Mary Peltola and Republicans Nick Begich and Sarah Palin won Tuesday’s primary. They will now face off in the general election.
Three of the four contestants who will move on are them. Undecided as of yet is the final time slot.
In a special election to complete the remaining months of the late U.S. Rep. Don Young’s term, Peltola, Begich, and Palin are all running. March saw his passing.
Tuesday was also the day for that vote. But it’s possible that the results of the ranked-choice voting election won’t be made public until the end of the month.
In a special election for the U.S. House in which Sarah Palin is running for re-election, Alaskan voters had their first opportunity to employ ranked voting in a statewide contest on Tuesday.
Additionally, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, is up against 18 opponents in a primary; the top four finishers progress to the general election in November.
On opposing, sides of a two-sided ballot are the special election and ordinary primary for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, and lieutenant governor, and state legislature seats. It might not be known who won the special election until August 31.
The three candidates in the House special election are Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich, Democrats Mary Peltola, and both are Republicans. The winner will serve out Rep. Don Young’s remaining term. Republican Young controlled the state’s sole House seat for 49 years. March witnessed his demise.
Sarah Palin, a former governor of Alaska and vice presidential contender, reaffirmed her “drill, baby, drill” calls for more oil production and vowed to use her connections for the benefit of Alaska. She asserted that the voters’ approved current electoral system has to be changed since it creates uncertainty.
Former legislator Peltola most recently served on a committee whose objective is to restore salmon resources on the Kuskokwim River. She has positioned herself as an “ordinary Alaskan” who can forge coalitions. If elected, she would be the first woman of Alaskan Native descent to serve in the House.
No matter how the special election pans out, all three candidates declared they intended to run for a full, two-year House term. They were the most well-known contenders in a field of 22 in the U.S. House primary, along with Republican Tara Sweene. Sheo served as the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs in the U.S. Interior Department during the Trump administration.
Days before the special election, Sweeney also submitted a write-in application for that position. The Palin campaign misrepresented the existence of write-in candidates in an email sent out on Friday.
Party primaries are abolished and ranked voting is implemented for general elections under Alaska’s election system, which was adopted by voters in 2020 and is being used for the first time this year. Each voter selects one candidate for each race from a list of all the contenders during the primary. The four candidates who receive the most votes in each race go to the general election in November, which will be conducted via ranked voting.
Murkowski, a centrist senator with almost 20 years of service who has occasionally clashed with her party, is up against 18 opponents, including fellow Republican Kelly Tshibaka, who is supported by former President Donald Trump.
Murkowski, who supported his conviction in his second impeachment trial following the January 6, 2021 uprising, has come under fire from Trump. Trump was exonerated.
