Mary Peltola Widens Alaska Senate Lead to 49.8% as Ranked-Choice Count Looms
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Nov 14
Mary Peltola Widens Alaska Senate Lead to 49.8% as Ranked-Choice Count Looms
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Nov 14
Summary
49.8% of counted votes put Democrat Mary Peltola nearly 4 points ahead of Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, but Alaska’s Senate race was still uncalled Friday night.
50% is the threshold to avoid Alaska’s ranked-choice tabulation next week, and late-arriving mail ballots plus the state’s counting rules have prolonged the result.
About 4% of votes have gone to Gerald Heikes and unaffiliated candidate Dan J. Sullivan; if neither major candidate wins outright, those ballots’ next preferences could decide the race.
The contest is the only Senate race still unresolved after a midterm cycle that already gave Democrats 55 seats, with a Peltola win lifting them to 56.
Peltola, a former congresswoman, would become the first Alaska Native elected to the Senate and Alaska’s first Democratic senator in nearly 20 years.