Clockwise from top left, Sarah Palin, Nick Begic III, Mary Peltola and Al Gross. (photos of ADN staff)
Early results of the special primary election for 48 candidates in Alaska for the US House of Representatives show that Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begic III are taking the lead, followed by independent Al Gross. Former Democratic Republican Mary Peltola was fourth in her first nationwide campaign.
Palin, in his first campaign since resigning as governor of Alaska in 2009, was a clear leader with 35%. Begic, a businessman who launched his campaign before the death of Alaska’s longtime US envoy Don Young in March – sparking Saturday’s special election – came in second with 19%.
Gross, who unsuccessfully ran as an independent for the US Senate in 2020 with the Democratic nomination, was in third place with 13%.
Peltola, a former state representative from the rural center of southwest Alaska in Bethel, was in fourth place with 7%. The top four candidates in the special primary election will go through to the special general election in August, which will be the first in Alaska to use a ballot.
Independent Santa Claus, born Thomas O’Connor, was 5 percent on Saturday, followed by Alaska Native Republican leader Tara Sweeney, former Fairbanks Republican Sen. John Coghill and Fairbanks Democrat Adam Uhl.
The results, representing 68,000 of the nearly 130,000 ballots released by Friday, are not a final statement that four candidates will run in the snap general election in August, and Alaska’s Electoral Department did not say which regions the ballots came from. Several more censuses will be conducted over the next two weeks.
But the numbers represent the first, long-awaited clear expression of Alaska’s voter preferences in the first race in the state’s House of Representatives without a half-century incumbent.
Palin was celebrating the results with family and friends at his home in Vasila and was not immediately available for an interview late Saturday, said campaign manager Chris Perry. But Palin’s campaign issued a prepared statement saying the country was at a “turning point”.
“We need to focus on policies that will make life better for ordinary Joe, who cannot afford to fill their gas tanks and are struggling to feed their families because of Joe Biden’s hyperinflation,” the statement said. quoted by Palin. I look forward to the special general election so that we can highlight our ideas for fixing this country through the responsible development of Alaska’s God-given natural resources, controlling low-cost government spending, protecting human life, protecting the right to hold and carry of arms and the restoration of respect for personal liberty and the Constitution. “
In a telephone interview with Anchorage Daily News, Begic was quick to take on Palin’s lead role, saying there was a “huge contrast” between the two.
“We have one candidate who makes a living from celebrity videos, and we have another candidate who makes a living by creating jobs,” Begic said. He added: “This is a race between Sarah Palin and Nick Begic.
[Alaska Supreme Court reverses lower court decision, allowing certification of U.S. House special primary results]
Begic was in Anchorage late Saturday with his family and campaign staff. He said he planned to resume the campaign on Sunday on the Kenai Peninsula.
“We’re going to work first thing in the morning,” he said. “No time for celebrations.”
More elections are coming
The race with 48 candidates – a special primary election – was the first of four to determine who will replace Young, who died suddenly while flying back to Alaska from Washington, DC in March. These are the first elections in a new voting system approved by Alaskans in 2020, which includes non-partisan primary elections and general elections with ranked elections.
After the special primary results are finalized later this month, two more elections will be held at the same time – on the same ballot.
The top four special primary teams will compete in the special general election for the right to complete Young’s term; voters will be asked to rank the four candidates in order of preference on August 16th.
In the same ballot, 31 candidates are running in the regular primary – probably including four who will run for special general. After that, the four best of the regular primary elections will participate in the regular general elections with a ranked election on November 8.
In Saturday’s primary election, all voters chose one candidate from a non-partisan ballot with all 48 names.
[More coverage of Alaska’s congressional elections]
Beyond established politicians such as Palin, Gross, and Constant, the race involved a bearded Republican fisherman from the Wrangel community of Southeast Alaska; independent of California, whose website promotes wind turbines and links to “the best museums in the United States.” and an Anchorage woman who says she’s in a political arena similar to “a multimillion-dollar, modern-day gladiatorial sport of killing heroes.”
Trying to make the race meaningful was a “nightmare,” said a 32-year-old Anchorage man who voted in Anchorage on Saturday, giving only his first name, Brian.
“I look at everyone there, I try to remember who I hear and what I hear about them, I look at some of the people I hear more about,” he said after voting for Begic at Anchorage’s polling office on Saturday night. “Looking at 48 names is crazy.”
Sean Whelan, a 54-year-old gardener in Anchorage, put it more succinctly: “Holy buckets.”
Palin’s strong performance suggests that at least a significant minority of voters embraced her alliance with former Republican President Donald Trump, her criticism of the Washington office and her first campaign since resigning as governor in 2009.
“It’s a machine in itself,” Ronald Downey said after voting for Palin in Anchorage late Saturday. “It remains to be seen whether she will really do something positive or productive. But it will attract attention, it will shake it. And I voted for it. “
Other conservative voters said they saw Begic as a more serious candidate than Palin.
“I would vote for Sarah Palin. But I’m afraid that if she wins, it will be too much of a distraction in DC, “said Jack Border, 71, after voting for Begic in Anchorage. “That’s the only reason I didn’t vote for her.”
Awaiting more results
Gross was expecting further results in his hometown of St. Petersburg and said he would be available for an interview later Saturday.
Peltola was returning to Anchorage from a cultural festival of Alaskan natives in Juneau and was not available for an interview, said campaign leader Kim Jones.
Jones said she was “very optimistic” about the results, but added that “there are still many votes to count.”
Jones said he hoped Democrat support for Peltola would unite before the August vote.
“If she stays in the top four, I feel strongly that gives her a better chance of staying in the top four in August,” Jones said.
She added that Palin’s performance in the primary election “will scare people to start acting for the primary primary in August”.
“Because there are a lot of voters who don’t want Palin as our next representative,” Jones said.
If elected, Peltola will be the first Alaskan native to be elected to Congress, a fact she has stepped up her campaign and voters seem to have noticed.
Jennifer Howell, a 48-year-old Anchorage teacher, said she voted for Peltol because of her “perspective across the country.”
“And I think having a local woman in the House of Representatives, representing Alaska, would be amazing for our state,” Howell said Saturday after the Anchorage vote. “I think they have been marginalized and under-represented for so long.
This is an evolving story and will be updated.
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