If early results hold up in Alaska’s 48-candidate special primary election for U.S. House, the August general election to fill the last months of the late Rep. Don Young’s term will provide voters the choice between two Republicans, an independent and a Democrat.
Former Gov. Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III, both Republicans, were the top two vote-getters in the primary, which closed to voting last Saturday. Independent Al Gross came in third, and former state Rep. Mary Peltola, a Bethel Democrat running in her first statewide campaign, was in fourth place as of Saturday.
The top four advance to the general election.
Palin, in her first campaign since resigning as governor in 2009, was the clear leader with 30%. Begich, a businessman and investor who launched his campaign before Young died in March, was in second at 19%.
Gross, an orthopedic surgeon who ran unsuccessfully as an independent for U.S. Senate in 2020 with Democratic Party backing, was in third with 12%.
Peltola, who is on leave from her job in fisheries management, was in fourth with 7%, but the next three or four finishers were within striking distance of fourth place to make the general election ballot.
The results represent 108,981 of the nearly 140,000 ballots cast through Saturday, with several more tallies scheduled over the next two weeks. It appears Anchorage-area voters were underrepresented in the initial count. Data released by state elections officials late Saturday shows that they only counted Anchorage-area votes received by June 1, while ballots from other areas of the state received as of June 8 were counted.
Additional ballots can still arrive in the mail-in voting and be counted as long as they were postmarked by Saturday.
The top four from the primary will advance to an August special general election, which will be Alaska’s first using ranked-choice voting where voters can list their preference among the candidates.
Republican Alaska Native leader Tara Sweeney was in fifth as of Saturday with 5%, 2,389 votes behind Peltola; followed by independent North Pole resident Santa Claus — born Thomas O’Connor — with 4.5%; and Anchorage energy lawyer and gardening columnist Jeff Lowenfels at 4%.
Otto Florschutz, of Wrangell, received 165 votes, almost half of which came from the Wrangell-Ketchikan area. He placed 21st among the 48 candidates. Palin led all candidates in the Wrangell-Ketchikan state legislative district with 34% of the vote, slightly better than her statewide number.
Palin’s strong showing suggests that a significant numbers of voters embraced her alliance with former President Donald Trump.
Palin voters said they were excited to support a candidate with charisma and the potential to shake up Congress.
“She’s a machine in herself,” Ronald Downey said after voting for Palin in Anchorage late Saturday. “It’s to be seen if she’ll actually get something positive or productive done. But she will get attention, she will shake it up. And I voted for that.”
Begich, in a phone interview with the Daily News, was quick to claim the role of Palin’s leading challenger, saying there’s a “huge contrast” between the two.
“We have one candidate who makes her living on celebrity videos, and we have another candidate who’s made a living creating jobs,” Begich said.
Other conservative voters said they viewed Begich as a more serious candidate than Palin.
“I’m afraid if she wins it’s going to be too much distraction in D.C.,” said Jack Border, 71, after voting for Begich in Anchorage. “That’s the only reason I didn’t vote for her.”
Gross, from his home in Petersburg, said advancing to the general election would be “a really big honor and big responsibility,” and he added that he believes he can win the ranked-choice general election.
”The more people know who I am, the more likely they are to vote for me,” said Gross, who became a household name in Alaska after spending $19 million on his unsuccessful 2020 Senate campaign.
The top four special primary finishers will compete in the special general election for the right to finish Young’s term through January 2023; voters will be asked to rank those four candidates in order of preference Aug. 16.
On the same ballot in August, 31 candidates are running in the regular primary election. The top four from the regular primary will run in a ranked-choice regular general election Nov. 8 to serve a full two-year term in Congress.
Peltola’s campaign manager, Kim Jones, said she hopes Democratic support for Peltola will coalesce ahead of the August voting. She added that Palin’s performance in the primary “will scare people into action for the August primary.”
“Because there are a lot of voters that don’t want Palin as our next representative,” Jones said.
If elected, Peltola would be the first Alaska Native elected to Congress — a fact she played up on her campaign and that voters appeared to notice.
Jennifer Howell, a 48-year-old Anchorage teacher, said she voted for Peltola because of her “statewide perspective.”
“And I think that having a Native woman in the House of Representatives, representing Alaska, would be amazing for our state,” Howell said Saturday after voting in Anchorage. “I think that they have been marginalized and massively underrepresented for so long.”
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