Begich declares victory in Alaska’s U.S. House race as ballot-counting continues

Republican Nick Begich III declared victory Saturday in the race for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat over incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola. In the latest count of ballots late Friday, he maintained his lead over Peltola by nearly three percentage points with thousands of ballots still to be counted and ranked choice votes left to be tabulated.

The Alaska Division of Elections released the results from 17,000 ballots late Friday, which shrank the gap between Begich and Peltola, a Democrat. But Begich remained in the lead by nearly three percentage points, or over 9,000 votes.

The latest count, bringing the total of votes tallied in Alaska to over 321,000, increased the likelihood that Peltola, who first won the seat in 2022, would lose reelection. Begich had 48.9% of votes counted as of Friday evening, while Peltola had 45.9%.

Alaska Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe garnered over 3.9% of the vote. Democrat Eric Hafner had 1% of the vote.

Unless the leading candidate in the race receives over 50% of the final ballot tally, the winner of the race will be determined by a ranked choice tabulation. The Division of Elections is planning to tabulate results on Wednesday, the last day that the division will accept ballots from overseas voters.

“The path forward begins with a unified understanding of what Alaska can do for the rest of our nation. Together, we will deliver results for Alaska, creating long-term jobs, protecting our way of life, and playing our part to put America back on track,” Begich said in a social media post Saturday morning. “Alaska’s resources are not only a blessing for the people of our state — they are vital to the strength and independence of our entire nation. “

Peltola has not commented on results since Election Day. Peltola’s campaign spokesperson Anton McParland said Saturday that the campaign planned to release a statement on Tuesday.

The ballots counted Friday include over 1,100 early votes cast before Election Day, around 9,000 absentee votes that were delivered by mail, and nearly 7,000 questioned ballots, which are often cast when a voter’s registration is not up-to-date or by voters who cast ballots in polling locations outside their designated precinct. Alaska law allows the Division of Elections to count absentee ballots from in-state voters as long as they arrived by Friday.

Division Director Carol Beecher, who is overseeing statewide elections for the first time this year after being appointed to the position last year, said the division would release an additional ballot count Saturday. A final ballot count is scheduled Wednesday.

Election results were posted Friday after 6:30 p.m. Beecher blamed the late hour on power outages in Juneau and Nome, where division offices are located.

President-elect Donald Trump is easily winning the state with 55% of votes counted so far. Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris has just under 41% of the vote. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was tapped by Trump to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, had 1.65% of the vote in Alaska.

A ballot question on repealing Alaska’s open primaries and ranked choice voting system remains too close to call. Of votes counted so far, just under 50.3% are in favor of the repeal initiative, which was backed by the Alaska Republican Party. Just over 49.7% of voters are opposed to the repeal. The gap between the “yes” and “no” votes sits at less than 1,700 ballots, with thousands more remaining to be counted.

As additional absentee ballots have been announced, the gap between the camps has shrunk, signaling that the ballot measure — whether it succeeds or fails — will do so only by a razor-thin margin.

Members of the Alaska House have already announced plans to form a new majority coalition that will bring together a group of Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans to control the chamber, in a flip from the current mostly-Republican majority. But one of the presumed members of the coalition is in a precarious position that grew even more uncertain with the latest round of results.

Democratic incumbent Rep. Cliff Groh, who represents a North Anchorage district, was leading Republican David Nelson by only 10 votes after the Friday vote tally. Additional votes could come in the race as absentee ballots are tallied.

The latest ballot count did not significantly change the results in any other legislative races. The outcomes in a handful of legislative seats will not be known until ranked choice ballots are tabulated.

This is a developing story and will be updated.