Alaska voters held a primary election yesterday to narrow down a crowded field of candidates for competitive U.S. Senate and governor races, with Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan among the top contenders in the Senate contest.
Under Alaska’s top-four primary system, the top four vote-getters regardless of party affiliation advance to the November general election. The Senate race drew 16 candidates, while 17 Republicans, Democrats, and independents competed for the governor’s seat being vacated by term-limited Republican Mike Dunleavy.
Peltola, who became the first Alaska Native to represent the state in Congress after winning a 2022 special election, has raised about $18.5 million for her Senate campaign. Sullivan, first elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2020 with 54 percent of the vote, had raised about $11.7 million as of late July, according to reporting on the race.
A notable complication emerged in the Senate primary: another candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a former teacher with the same name as the incumbent, also ran on the ballot. Republicans unsuccessfully tried to block him from appearing, accusing him of colluding with Democrats to confuse voters, charges both he and the Peltola campaign denied. An Alaska court overturned efforts to remove him.
Alaska voters approved the top-four primary system in 2020 through Ballot Measure 2. The system allows any voter registered in Alaska to participate in an all-party primary, with all candidates for a given office appearing on one ballot. The top four advance to the November general election, where winners are determined by ranked-choice voting—another reform approved by Alaska voters that year. Peltola benefited from this system in 2022, when she defeated Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich in the special election using ranked-choice voting in the general election.
The Senate race is expected to play a pivotal role in determining which party will control the chamber next year. Although Alaska has long been Republican territory in federal elections, this marks the third consecutive election cycle in which the state finds itself among a handful of competitive battlegrounds for Congress.
Sources
- PBS News Hour — primary election details, candidate counts, fundraising figures, and system explanation
- Ballotpedia — top-four primary system details and candidate information
- AP News — reporting on the race and the second Dan Sullivan candidate issue
