637-vote gap keeps Alaska Senate race un-called

Democratic challenger Mary Peltola and incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan each claimed victory in the Alaska Senate race on Thursday, despite a margin of fewer than 700 votes separating them. Neither candidate has secured a majority of the ballots cast, leaving the outcome dependent on the state’s ranked choice voting system.

As of the latest results posted Wednesday afternoon, Peltola leads with 102,962 votes, representing 48.02% of the total. Sullivan trails with 102,325 votes, or 47.72%. The gap between the two candidates is exactly 637 votes. Republican Gerald Heikes holds third place with 2.26% of the vote. A different candidate named Dan J. Sullivan from Petersburg received 3,600 votes, and 695 voters selected a write-in option as their first choice.

Cheryl Bruce, Peltola’s campaign manager, stated in a written release that the mathematical projection confirms her client’s victory. “The numbers are clear: when every vote is counted, Mary Peltola will be elected as Alaska’s next United States Senator,” Bruce said. She noted that tens of thousands of early and absentee ballots remain outstanding and that available data suggests these will extend Peltola’s lead.

The Sullivan campaign sent a memo to reporters arguing that their candidate would win if the ranked choice tabulation occurred immediately with the current vote counts. “If the ranked choice voting tabulation took place today of the votes that we have in hand right now, Senator Dan Sullivan would defeat Mary Peltola,” the memo read. The campaign characterized Peltola’s projection as fictitious and highlighted that Sullivan maintains his position despite what the memo called the biggest election cheating scandal in Alaska history and a national trend favoring Democratic candidates.

The Associated Press has not called the Senate race, the House race, or the governor’s race. Under Alaska’s election rules, candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated, and their votes transfer to the next ranked choice. This process continues until one candidate holds a majority. The state will begin this ranking process on November 18.

A similar uncertainty exists in the race for governor. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, the sole Democratic candidate, leads with 48.99% of the vote. Bernadette Wilson, who received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, holds 29.13%. Two other Republicans remain in the race. Wilson said she was satisfied with her performance, noting that the goal was to prevent the Democratic candidate from reaching 50% of the vote in the first round.

Former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson and former Attorney General Treg Taylor led a group encouraging voters to rank the three Republican candidates. They advised voters to rank these candidates above Kreiss-Tomkins. Wilson was not part of that specific initiative but told Alaska’s News Source she agreed with the strategy because the other two Republicans had not withdrawn from the race.