Alaska’s US House races close as early votes roll in

Updated: 30 minutes ago Published: 37 minutes ago

Republican challenger Nick Begich III was narrowly ahead of incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska’s US House race with 44% of precincts reporting Tuesday night. The final result likely won’t be known until Nov. 20, when Alaska election officials are set to tabulate the ranked-choice results.

Begich had 49.7% of the more than 102,000 votes counted as of Tuesday. 21.00. Peltola had almost 44.5%.

If the best vote-getter does not get more than 50% of the votes, the election is decided in a ranked electoral list. Many votes from predominantly Alaska Native areas of the state, where support for Peltola is greatest, have yet to be counted.

Alaska’s only seat in the US House is seen as one of a small number that could be won by either a Republican or a Democrat. Millions of dollars were spent by out-of-state groups and donors to support both Begich and Peltola as the parties eyed control of the chamber.

That led to a campaign far different from the 2022 race, where both Peltola and Begich were on the ballot. But the appearance of another Republican on the 2022 ballot — former governor Sarah Palin — caused the two Republicans to spend much of their energy attacking each other. It allowed Peltola to cruise to victory two years ago with almost no negative campaigning.

This year, Begich and other Alaska Republicans pushed another high-profile GOP member slated to appear on the November ballot — Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom — to drop out of the race after the August primary. That cleared the way for a traditional Republican-versus-Democrat contest that came down to weeks of nonstop attack ads.

Dahlstrom’s departure from the race, along with the departure of another top-finishing Republican, cleared the way for two unexpected congressional candidates to appear on the November ballot.

John Wayne Howe, chairman of the Alaska Independence Party, campaigned on a platform of eliminating most forms of taxation and questioning Alaska’s statehood. Eric Hafner, a serial candidate running as a Democrat, was allowed to appear on the ballot despite serving a 20-year sentence in a New York state federal prison. Hafner has never lived in Alaska, nor has he visited it. Strict limits on communication coming in and out of prison meant that he was virtually banned from campaigning. Neither candidate raised money for their campaigns.

On the ground, Begich and Peltola offered different plans for their work in the American House. Begich envisioned herself as a cheerleader for the Trump agenda, who would vote for policies favored by the Republican presidential candidate and seek to promote new resource extraction projects in the state.

Peltola initially supported President Joe Biden in the presidential election, then refused to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris when she took his place as the Democratic presidential nominee, pledging instead that while she would not vote for Trump, she would seek to work with the , who won the White House.

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