Palin released a statement on election night, saying she was grateful to her supporters “who voted to make Alaska great again!” Department of Interior during the Trump administration. Sweeney was an assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Peltola, who was one of six Democrats on the ballot, is a former state lawmaker. Alaska Democratic party leaders in this race urged voters to pick a Democrat. Senate in 2020 with the endorsement of state Democrats. Many of the candidates were relative unknowns.īegich comes from a family of prominent Democrats, which includes uncles Mark Begich and Tom Begich, who have both held elected office. Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, held significant name recognition in a field that also included current and former state legislators and a North Pole city council member whose name is Santa Claus. The election went on as scheduled following a tense legal fight over ballot access issues, with the state defending itself against accusations that the manner in which the primarily by-mail election was held discriminated against voters with visual impairments.
It also was the first election under a system approved by voters in 2020 that ends party primaries and institutes ranked voting for general elections. The election was unusual in that it was conducted primarily by mail. Democrat Mary Peltola had 8.7% and Republican Tara Sweeney, 5.5%. With 132,730 votes counted, Palin had 28.3%, followed by Begich with 19.3% and Gross with 12.8%. Additional counts are planned for Friday and for next Tuesday.
State elections officials were releasing additional vote counts on Wednesday, the first day since the special primary in which counts were conducted. The winner of that race will serve the remainder of Young’s term, which ends in January. 16, in which ranked choice voting will be used. The top four vote-getters in the special primary advance to a special election, set for Aug. Palin and Begich, both Republicans, and Gross, an orthopedic surgeon, were among 48 candidates in last Saturday’s special primary for the seat, which was left vacant following the death in March of Republican Rep. Sarah Palin, Republican Nick Begich and independent Al Gross have advanced to the August special election for the state’s only U.S.