Democrat Mary Peltola defeats Sarah Palin in special election for Alaska's House seat

Democrat Mary Peltola is projected to win the Alaska special general election for the state’s sole House seat, ABC News reports.

Peltola defeated two Republicans -- former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Nick Begich -- and will be the first Democrat to represent the state in the House in nearly half a century, succeeding Rep. Don Young, who died in March.

Peltola will also be the first Alaska Native to represent the state in Congress.

Begich had been knocked out under the ranked-choice rules; Peltola defeated Palin about 51-49%.

“What’s most important is that I’m an Alaskan being sent to represent all Alaskans. Yes, being Alaska Native is part of my ethnicity, but I’m much more than my ethnicity,” Peltola said following the announcement of the results according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Mary Peltola attends the Congressional Candidate Forum in Anchorage, Alaska, May 12, 2022. The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE

The election, which was called on Wednesday some two weeks after voting ended, was historic for a more technical reason: It was the first Alaska race that used ranked-choice ballots.

The process -- which advocates said would encourage more consensus-building but Palin criticized as "convoluted" -- worked like this: If a candidate in the election had initially won more than 50% of first-choice votes, they would have won the race outright. That didn't happen in the special race on Aug. 17. (Peltola initially ended up with about 40%.)

Then, the candidate with the least amount of first-place votes -- Begich -- was eliminated and that candidate's voters instead had their ballots redistributed to their second choice until one candidate got at least 50%.

U.S. House candidate former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole on August 4, 2022, in Dallas.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Peltola is an indigenous Yup-ik Alaskan and former member of the Alaska House of Representatives. As a state lawmaker, she chaired the bipartisan Bush Caucus of rural politicians. In addition, she served in the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission before leaving for her congressional campaign.

On the trail, she prioritized climate change, responsible resource development and infrastructure for airports, ferries, highways and energy grids.

Peltola will only serve the remainder of Young’s term, which ends in January. She is on the ballot again in November -- along with Palin and Begich -- to try and win a full two-year term.

In a statement Wednesday, Palin repeated her criticism of ranked-choice voting, saying it "was sold as the way to make elections better reflect the will of the people" but that it has the "opposite" effect.

She said that "though we’re disappointed in this outcome, Alaskans know I’m the last one who’ll ever retreat. Instead, I’m going to reload. With optimism that Alaskans learn from this voting system mistake and correct it in the next election, let’s work even harder to send an America First conservative to Washington in November."

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Alaska Native Peltola beats Trump-backed Palin to win House election

Democrat Mary Peltola, who is Yup'ik, will be the first Alaska Native to serve in the US House and the first woman to hold the seat.

Mary Peltola, who most recently worked for a commission whose goal is to rebuild salmon resources on the Kuskokwim River, casts herself as a "regular" Alaskan. (Becky Bohrer / AP)

Democrat Mary Peltola has won the special election for Alaska’s only US House seat, besting a field that included Republican Sarah Palin, who was seeking a political comeback in the state where she was once governor. Peltola, who is Yup'ik and turned 49 on Wednesday, will become the first Alaska Native to serve in the House and the first woman to hold the seat. She will serve the remaining months of the late Republican US Republican Don Young's term. Young held the seat for 49 years before his death in March.  Peltola's victory, in Alaska's first statewide ranked-choice voting election, is a boon for Democrats coming off better-than-expected performances in special elections around the country following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v Wade.  She will be the first Democrat to hold the seat since the late US Republican Nick Begich, who was seeking reelection in 1972 when his plane disappeared.  Begich was later declared dead and Young in 1973 was elected to the seat. Peltola ran as a coalition builder while her two Republican opponents — Palin and Begich's grandson, also named Nick Begich — at times went after each other. Palin also railed against the ranked voting system, which was instituted by Alaska voters. The results came 15 days after the August 16 election, in line with the deadline for state elections officials to receive absentee ballots mailed from outside the US. Ranked choice tabulations took place on Wednesday after no candidate won more than 50 percent of the first choice votes.  Wednesday's results were a disappointment for Palin, who was looking to make a political comeback 14 years after she was vaulted onto the national stage when John McCain selected her to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential election. In her run for the House seat, she had widespread name recognition and won the endorsement of former president Donald Trump.

Alaska special election results show Democrat Mary Peltola, Yup'ik, as the winner with 51.47 percent vs. 48.53 percent for Sarah Palin. That makes Peltola both the 1st woman to hold Alaska's sole Congressional seat and the 1st Alaska Native Representative to Congress.

— ICT (@IndianCountry) September 1, 2022

Peltola's 'regular Alaskan' campaign But critics questioned Palin's commitment to Alaska, citing her decision to resign as governor in July 2009, partway through her term. Palin went on to become a conservative commentator on TV and appeared in reality television programmes, among other pursuits. Along with Peltola and Begich, Palin is among the candidates vying for a full two-year term that will be decided in the November general election. Palin has insisted her commitment to Alaska never wavered and said ahead of the special election that she had “signed up for the long haul.” Peltola, a former state lawmaker who most recently worked for a commission whose goal is to rebuild salmon resources on the Kuskokwim River, cast herself as a "regular" Alaskan. "I’m not a millionaire. I’m not an international celebrity," she said. "I’m really hopeful that voters will feel like they can vote their heart and not feel pressured to vote for the candidate that they think is most 'viable,'" Peltola said before the special election. "And my hope is that we shy away from the really extreme-type candidates and politicians." During the campaign, she emphasised her support of abortion rights and said she wanted to elevate issues of ocean productivity and food security.  Explaining Alaska's new voting system Alaska voters in 2020 approved an election process that replaced party primaries with open primaries. Under the new system, ranked voting is used in general elections. Under ranked voting, ballots are counted in rounds. A candidate can win outright with more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round. If no one hits that threshold, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated.  Voters who chose that candidate as their top pick have their votes count for their next choice. Rounds continue until two candidates remain, and whoever has the most votes wins. In Alaska, voters last backed a Democrat for president in 1964.  Source: AP

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