Alaska Senate Race: Dan Sullivan Holds Narrow Lead Over Mary Peltola

Alaska Senate Race Remains a Tossup as Vote Counting Continues

Alaska remains on course to keep its Republican incumbent Senator in a closely watched contest that will help determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the U.S. Senate. With 338 of 401 precincts reporting results Tuesday night, Sen. Dan Sullivan held 48.3% of voters’ first-choice votes, while Democratic challenger Mary Peltola secured 47.5%.

The two main candidates were separated by just 1,677 votes out of 208,441 ballots cast. Independent challenger Dan J. Sullivan stood at 1.7%, and Republican challenger Gerald Heikes captured 2.2% of the first-preference vote.

Sullivan’s narrow lead follows a series of Democratic victories in U.S. Senate races across the country on Tuesday night. If Peltola prevails under the state’s ranked-choice voting system, she is expected to be the 55th or 56th Democratic senator in a large Democratic majority. If Sullivan wins, he will return as a member of a shrunken Senate Republican caucus that will operate in the minority.

🔴LIVE: Dan Sullivan's Alaska Senate Race Puts Republican Senate Majority Under Pressure | AC1W

How Alaska’s Ranked-Choice System Works

In this system, all candidates for an office run in a single primary election, and the four candidates who receive the most votes advance to the November general election.

During the general election, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If any candidate clears 50% of the first-preference votes outright, they win. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. Ballots cast for that eliminated candidate are then redistributed to the voters’ second choices. This process of elimination continues until only two candidates remain, and the person with the most votes wins.

Alaska Senate Race: Dan Sullivan Holds Narrow Lead Over Mary Peltola — Photo: newsfromthestates.com

Trump Denies Plans to Challenge Peltola Election Results Despite Republican Pressure

The stakes have drawn high-level attention from national figures. Some Republican officials said before the first results that they would challenge the legality of a potential Peltola victory, citing New York Times reporting that found Democratic campaigners recruited independent candidate Dan J. Sullivan in an attempt to siphon votes from the incumbent Dan S. Sullivan.

Despite reports that President Donald Trump ordered civil challenges against Peltola, the president told the Times late Tuesday that he would not challenge the results of the election.