Republican challenger Nick Begich III has built a lead in the race for Alaska’s U.S. House seat.
With about 97% of precincts reporting by Wednesday afternoon, Begich led incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola by about 10,500 votes, with 49.6% of the vote to Peltola’s 45.5%.
The current vote tally is just first-choice ballots. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, ranked choice tabulation will determine the winner on Nov. 20.
Late Tuesday, Begich arrived to cheers at his election night party at a hotel in downtown Anchorage. Attendees were also applauding national results showing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who endorsed Begich, winning key battleground states.
Begich told his supporters that Alaska has an important role to play in national politics.
“The pathway to America’s prosperity starts in Alaska, but it’s not good enough to know that,” Begich said. “We got to talk about it down in D.C. We got to be down in D.C. We only have one person in the House, and we need Alaska’s voice in the House.”
One attendee, Gretchen Stoddard, said she voted for Begich because she wants a Republican majority in the U.S. House.
“Honestly, I think it’s good for our state,” Stoddard said. “I think it’s good for my child, you know, the economy.”
Begich, an entrepreneur who lives in Chugiak, is a Republican from a prominent Democratic family. If his lead holds, he’ll win the seat once held by his grandfather. Congressman Nick Begich, D-Alaska, was campaigning for reelection in 1972 when his chartered plane disappeared enroute to Juneau.
At the Peltola watch party, also in downtown Anchorage, the national results flashed on a TV screen behind the bar, and people checked their phones for the early Alaska results.
Peltola urged her supporters to remain patient.
“We’re not going to know results until, like, three days before Thanksgiving,” she said.
Someone in the crowd booed.
“Boo to that,” Peltola agreed, but she said the delay leaves a lot of time “to celebrate.”
“And remember, we’re all in this together. We’re all Americans,” she said, in an apparent nod to the national results. “We’re all pulling for the same things. We all love the same things.”
Democratic stalwart Jane Angvik said she was hopeful Peltola could win and she was philosophical about the presidential results.
“I believe that she’s done a really good job of making sure that she can work with whoever is the president in the United States, and that is to our advantage,” Angvik said.
Peltola became the first Alaska Native person elected to Congress when she won the 2022 special election. She beat Begich and Republican Sarah Palin. Months later, she won reelection in the 2022 regular election, beating Begich and Palin again.
A year after she took her oath of office, in September of 2023, the congresswoman’s husband, Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola, died in a plane crash in western Alaska.
Unlike the 2022 election, Begich’s rival Republicans declined to accept their spots on the general election ballot this year, clearing the field for Begich to benefit from a huge influx in national money.
The Alaska race was one of only about two dozen House races across the country considered a toss-up. Political groups spent more than $28 million to influence the outcome, hoping to win the House speaker’s gavel for one of the major parties.
That spending bought independent ads that echoed the claims of candidates but were outside their control. The outside money was almost evenly divided between Begich and Peltola, diminishing the Peltola campaign’s 6-to-1 fundraising advantage. She raised some $12 million for her campaign, while Begich raised about $2 million.
John Wayne Howe of the Alaska Independence Party took about 3.9% of votes in the House race in early returns.
Democrat Eric Hafner, a federal inmate who has never been to Alaska, had 1%.
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