Sarah Palin Advances in Race for Alaska’s Only House Seat
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Sarah Palin, former Republican vice presidential nominee and former Alaska governor, advanced in the primary on Tuesday in a bid to win the state’s sole House seat in November, the Associated Press projected.
The top four candidates advanced, regardless of party, due to Alaska’s new election system. Palin will face Democrat Mary Peltola, Republican Nick Begich, and one other still unknown candidate in the general election.
Palin was endorsed by Donald Trump when she launched her campaign, who said, “Wonderful patriot Sarah Palin just announced that she is running for Congress, and that means there will be a true America First fighter on the ballot.”
Palin was governor of Alaska from 2006 to 2009 and was the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, sharing a ticket with Senator John McCain.
The candidates are also competing in a special general election to fill the remaining months of the late Representative Don Young’s term, which ends in January. The former representative was the longest serving member of the current Congress and died at the age of 88 in March.
The special election used ranked choice voting, an election method approved by Alaska residents in 2020. In ranked choice, voters rank their preferred candidates, and the candidates are then eliminated one by one based on the number of first choice preferences they received.
The results of the special election will not be known at least until August 31, when the results will be tabulated.
Palin bashed the ranked-choice voting system in a statement issued on Election Night.
“Today is the first test case of the crazy, convoluted, undesirable ranked-choice voting system, and to everyone who’s watching from Outside tonight, I say: Please, learn from Alaska’s mistake. Voters are confused and angry, and feel disenfranchised by this cockamamie system that makes it impossible to trust that your vote will even be counted the way you intended. We’ll keep fighting to equip Alaskans with the information they need to make sure their voices are heard amidst this Leftist-crafted system – no matter how hard the corrupt political establishment works to silence us,” she said.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who has held her Senate seat since 2002, advanced to the Senate November election. She was one of seven Republican Senators to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection.
Murkowski will be competing against Trump-endorsed Republican Kelly Tshibaka in November and two other candidates which are too close to call.
Murkowski and Tshibaka were neck and neck in the primary, with Murkowski getting 42 percent of the vote and Tshibaka getting 41.8 percent.
