Alaska’s special election for its lone U.S. House seat is still too early to call, but initial returns show Democratic candidate Mary Peltola leading the field. If she is elected, Democrats will have flipped a seat held by the late GOP Rep. Don Young for nearly 50 years, most of Alaska’s history as…
Alaska’s special election for its lone U.S. House seat is still too early to call, but initial returns show Democratic candidate Mary Peltola leading the field. If she is elected, Democrats will have flipped a seat held by the late GOP Rep. Don Young for nearly 50 years, most of Alaska’s history as a state.But Peltola told the Washington Examiner she hopes to carry on Young’s legacy of bipartisanship.
“It's very hard to build infrastructure and maintain infrastructure in Alaska, and he was so good at that, he really transformed the airports in Alaska to be much more safe than they had been,” Peltola said. “His role on Resources and Transportation made all the difference for our growing state. So, I think it will mean a lot to Democrats, if a Democrat is elected, but I just really want to continue his legacy of fighting for all Alaskans.
Peltola led Palin 38% to 32%, with 82% of the votes counted as of Friday evening. But regardless of who wins the special election to finish Young’s term, Peltola, Palin, and Begich will compete in November, as will a fourth, yet-to-be-determined candidate.Peltola told the Washington Examiner she grew up helping her father’s salmon fishing business from the time she was about 6 years old.
She later joined the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission to protect salmon runs in the state. Peltola and her husband Gene have seven children and two grandchildren. Peltola seemed undeterred by the prospect of waiting weeks for official results and offered praise for her Republican rivals, saying she had a friendly relationship with both, especially Palin, whom she knew during her time in the legislature.
“I'm very optimistic because these closed party primaries have led to a situation where Republicans are trying to out-Republican each other, and we end up with candidates who are very, very extreme, and sometimes even fringe, who are then representing people who are mostly very middle of the road,” she said.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Results from Alaska’s first ranked choice vote are still days away. Maine’s top election official says that’s a good thing.The Alaska Division of Elections has decided not to release early ranked choice tabulations in Alaska’s U.S. House race. That means the winner will remain a mystery until the end of August. The top election official in the only other state to hold a ranked-choice congressional election says there’s good reason to wait.
Read more »
Rage Against the Machine: Can Alessandra Biaggi Defeat Sean Patrick Maloney?NY-17 has been one of the more contentious primaries of this bizarre election cycle, morphing into a bitter proxy war between centrists and progressives
Read more »
At the peak of his powers, legendary comedian Bob Hope made multiple visits to AlaskaHistories of Anchorage: The famous performer made numerous stops in Alaska to entertain troops as part of USO tours and even filmed an episode of his TV show here.
Read more »
The Senate looks like a jump ball. Here are the 10 seats that will decide the majorityRecent events are giving Democrats hope of retaining the 50-50 Senate, which they narrowly control with the vice president casting tie-breaking votes.
Read more »
Employment in Alaska is up 3 percent this July compared to July 2021Alaska jobs are up from July last year but are still lagging.
Read more »