JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola on Tuesday advanced to November’s ranked choice general election for Alaska’s sole U.S. House seat, along with Republicans Nick Begich and Nancy Dahlstrom.
The three were the most prominent candidates in a field of 12 running for the seat in Alaska’s primary. Under Alaska’s open primary system, voters were asked to pick one candidate, with the top four vote-getters in the race, regardless of party affiliation, advancing to the ranked choice general election.
In early results, Peltola led in the vote count, followed by Begich and then Dahlstrom. It was too early to call who the fourth candidate would be.
Tuesday’s primary helps set the stage for what is expected to be a hotly contested, closely watched race this fall. The GOP is hoping to reclaim the seat that Republican U.S. Rep. Don Young held for 49 years before his death in 2022. Peltola became the first Alaska Native elected to Congress with her wins in special and regular elections that year.
Begich, who ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 2022, was running with support from a number of local Republican groups. Dahlstrom, who is Alaska's lieutenant governor, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and several House leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson.
Begich had said he would withdraw from the race if he finished behind Dahlstrom. Dahlstrom did not make a similar pledge. Both late Tuesday cast themselves as the candidate capable of beating Peltola.
Peltola catapulted to office in 2022 with a campaign that emphasized civility in politics. But in her reelection bid, she has found some of the pitfalls of playing the middle in today's polarized political landscape.
Weeks before the primary, she faced backlash on social media after telling reporters she was “keeping an open mind” about the presidential race and declining to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, who at the time was not yet the official Democratic nominee. Peltola was forced to clarify that she would not, in fact, vote for Trump.
She further angered some supporters when she voted with Republicans on a resolution condemning Harris' role in the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. border with Mexico.
“On the president, my opinion doesn’t matter at all,” Peltola told The Associated Press. “We are not a swing state; we’re very, very far away from being anywhere close to a swing state. So for people to demand a certain reaction, it’s a waste of energy.”
The majority of registered voters in Alaska are not affiliated with a party, a fact Peltola cited in explaining why she would not be endorsing anyone. The last time Alaska went for a Democratic presidential nominee was 1964.
The pace of this year’s race so far has been slow compared to the mad scramble two years ago sparked by Young's death. Nearly 50 candidates, including 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, ran in the special primary seeking to replace him.
Peltola, who is Yup’ik and is a former state lawmaker from a rural community, went on to win the special general election to serve the remainder of Young's term and later won a full term, casting herself as a consensus builder and running on a platform of "fish, family and freedom.”
That year also was the debut of Alaska's voter-approved open primary and ranked choice general election system. Supporters and critics of the system alike cite Peltola's success for why they either think it's working or that it should be scrapped.
Backers of ranked voting say it provides voters more choice and rewards candidates who appeal to a broader portion of the electorate. Opponents say it's confusing and pushes voters to rank candidates they don't support.
Most polling locations opened on time Tuesday, but several did not open until around 10 a.m., and one in Anaktuvuk Pass — an Alaska Native community of about 400 in the central Brooks Range in northern Alaska — did not open until around 7:30 p.m., roughly a half hour before polls closed at 8 p.m., Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher said by email. Polling sites in the Alaska Native villages of Wales and Kaktovik had not opened, she said.
“Despite trying multiple ways to contact the poll workers, the individuals we had hired for those communities were unresponsive today,” Beecher said. Elections officials were able to connect with the mayor of Anaktuvuk Pass to open a location there, she said.
The polling location in another community, Kobuk, a village of about 160 people, opened in the morning but closed early due to flooding in the region, she said.
In the 2022 primary, 43 people voted in Kaktovik, which lies within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and 10 voted in Wales, about 110 miles (177 kilometers) northwest of Nome in western Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
In endorsing Dahlstrom, Trump had blamed Begich for Republicans losing in 2022, a year when Begich sniped at Palin, and Trump and Palin criticized ranked choice voting — with Trump calling it a “rigged deal.”
Begich is from a family of prominent Democrats, including his late grandfather, who held the House seat before Young. Begich had cast his pledge to withdraw from the race if he finished behind Dahlstrom as a way to drive Republican interest in the primary. He said Tuesday night that conservatives need to unite to defeat Peltola in November.
Dahlstrom, in an interview with the AP last week, had said that once the results were in, she wanted to talk with Begich, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the head of the state Republican party to analyze “who got what and what it’s going to take to have a conservative in that seat vote-wise."
Becky Bohrer, The Associated Press