Peltola expands lead over Sullivan in Alaska Senate contest

Former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) has expanded her lead over Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) in her state’s competitive Senate contest.

The latest batch of votes to be counted reported Peltola leading by 2,517 first-choice votes which extended her lead of 637 from last week. She holds 48.63 percent of the vote, while Sullivan has 47.47 percent and Republican candidate Gerald Heikes received 2.23 percent of the vote, according to The Hill’s partner, Decision Desk HQ . Dan J. Sullivan Jr. has notched about 1.7 percent of the vote.

Because Alaska uses ranked choice voting, a candidate will still need to garner 50 percent of first-choice votes. If no candidate has greater than 50 percent of the vote after all first-choice ballots are counted, the state will run an instant runoff.

The tabulation eliminates the last-place candidate and redistributes their voters’ second, third and fourth-choice preferences. The process repeats until a candidate has a majority.

Before the latest batch of votes, an Alaskan Beacon analysis found Sullivan was favored to win in a runoff election. Now, Peltola’s lead puts her ahead of Sullivan even if the runoff was triggered.

The race drew national attention when a third-party spoiler candidate, who shared the same name as the incumbent Republican senator, advanced to the general election. Dan J. Sullivan Jr. has notched about 1.7 percent of the vote, per DDHQ.

Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.’s presence on the November ballot angered the Justice Department, which sued to block the certification of the election if the senator lost. The department argued that the spoiler candidate’s appearance on the ballots could confuse Alaskan voters but the case was dismissed by a federal judge.

The Beacon’s analysis conducted after Election Day also concluded that the results of the ranked-choice election indicated there was little to no voter confusion between the senator and the spoiler candidate.

A New York Times report alleged Peltola and national Democrats participated in an effort to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. though she, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Daniel J. Sullivan have all denied any involvement in the reported effort to recruit spoiler candidates for the race.

Another court battle is ongoing as Peltola and Sullivan’s campaigns argue over whether the Democrat’s campaign can obtain access to records for absentee ballots that were rejected by the Alaska Division of Elections.

President Trump has repeatedly weighed in on the race and on Tuesday morning wrote in a post on Truth Social , “Dan Sullivan PLUS Dan Sullivan wins the Alaska Election by thousands of votes. All votes going to the Fake Dan Sullivan, which was done solely for the purpose of fraud and confusion, should immediately be given to the Real Dan Sullivan (Senator!) -”

“Likewise the votes of the second fraudulent candidate, also put up by the Dems. There should be no question concerning this Rigged Election. Time is of the essence!!!” the president added.

Alaska’s vote count is expected to continue for several more days as state election officials transport ballots across the state’s remote parts. Ballots can arrive up to 15 days after the election so long as they are postmarked by Election Day.