Democrat Wins Alaska Special House Election – First Democrat Win in 50 Years

Mary Peltola, a Democrat, has won the House special election in Alaska to succeed the late Rep. Don Young.

She becomes the first Democrat to win a House race in Alaska in 50 years.

NEWS | Mary Peltola, a Democrat, has won the House special election in Alaska to succeed the late Rep. Don Young.

She becomes the first Democrat to win a House race in Alaska in 50 years, and the first Native Alaskan to win a House seat in history.

— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) September 1, 2022

“In the final round of the count, Peltola, a former state lawmaker, edged Sarah Palin, a former Alaska governor and the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, by 3 percentage points, 51.5% to 48.5%,” NPR reported.

The shocking Democrat victory comes after Alaska instituted a confusing ranked-choice voting system.

From NPR:

The special election in Alaska was held earlier this month but it took until Wednesday to tabulate all the mail-in votes and calculate the winner with the state’s new ranked-choice voting system.

Republican Nick Begich III came in third in the election, so voters who had put him as their first choice (or who had written in another candidate) had their ballots reallocated to the candidate who was their second choice.

The special election was to replace Rep. Don Young, who died earlier this year at the age of 88.

The special election was only to determine who will serve Congress the final two months of Rep. Don Young’s term.

Palin is running against Peltola in November.

WATCH: @chrislhayes learns from the prompter that Democrat Mary Peltola has won the special election for the Alaska House seat, defeating Sarah Palin. pic.twitter.com/SpWOOiRhzK

— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) September 1, 2022

Beating Palin, Mary Peltola is first Native Alaskan sent by the state to Congress and rare Democrat to win a special election there https://t.co/REvnJwvNXD

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 1, 2022

“I feel like I need to catch my breath for a minute,” Peltola said, speaking to supporters at an office in downtown Anchorage after the results were tallied.

KTOO reported:

Peltola, who represented Bethel in the state House for a decade, was ahead of former Republican Gov. Sarah Palin by almost 9 percentage points when only first-choice ballots were counted.

Republican candidate Nick Begich finished third and was eliminated on Wednesday as the ranked choice tabulation began. Just over half of his voters had marked Palin as their second choice, 29% of them selected Peltola 21% either did not mark a second-choice candidate or ranked a write-in candidate second.

From The Gateway Pundit:

The Gateway Pundit previously reported earlier this month that Republicans in Alaska passed rank-choice voting in 2020. This confusing system is only being pushed by RINOS and radicals in conservative red states. It allows Democrats to even the playing field when they have no chance of winning.

Republicans also passed mail-in voting.

These Republican lawmakers in state after state are straight from hell!

ALASKA IS LOST!

President Trump won Alaska by 10 points in 2020.

GET THE TRUTH: DailyTruthReport.com

Again — We warned about this back in May! Alaska moved to mail-in voting. And at the same time, they dropped signature verification on ballots.

These new rule changes will ensure the state becomes the next Oregon or California.

Republicans just gave the state away. How tragic.

Yahoo noted:

The special election on Aug. 16 marked the first time Alaska voters used ranked-choice ballots in a general election. State officials allowed a large window of time for mail-in ballots to arrive, delaying the final results…

…The special election process, which came after Alaska voters approved a ranked-choice voting initiative in 2020, had voters rank their top candidates in order of preference. If a candidate won more than 50% of first-choice votes, they would win the race outright. But if not, the ranked-choice comes into play, with the lowest-ranking candidates being eliminated, round by round, until one person on the ballot receives more than 50% of the votes.