Politics

Peltola Beats Palin in Alaska Special Congressional Election

Published SEP 2 2022

#Politics

Peltola Beats Palin in Alaska Special Congressional Election

Story

Image credit: Getty Images [via CNN]

The Facts

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) - endorsed by former Pres. Trump - has lost the state's special congressional election to Democrat Mary Peltola, who will fill the remainder of the late Republican Don Young's House seat.
BBC News
The special election, the first held under Alaska's new ranked-choice voting system, took place on Aug. 16. It took several weeks to count mail-in ballots and then apply the ranked-choice rules.
NPR Online News
Under the new system, if a candidate fails to receive a majority of first-place votes, support for the lowest vote-getter goes to those voters' second choice until a majority winner prevails.
NPR Online News
On the first count, Peltola had 40% of the vote and Palin had 30%. Republican third-place finisher Nick Begich was close to the top two, but was eliminated and his voters' second choice was applied to the tabulation, leading to Peltola winning with 51.5% of the vote to Palin's 48.5%.
NPR Online News
Peltola, a former state legislator, will be the first indigenous person and the first woman to represent Alaska in Congress. She's also the first Democrat to hold this seat in more than 50 years.
Politico
Palin is still on the ballot to compete for a full two-year term in Alaska's regularly scheduled congressional election this fall, along with Peltola, Begich, and Libertarian Chris Bye.
Newsweek

Sources Split

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The Spin

Democratic narrative

Alaska might be a unique political animal, but this result along with others show Democrats are on the march since SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade. By weaponizing the Republicans' attack on abortion rights and tying Republican candidates to Trump, Democrats can continue to succeed in the midterms the way they have in special elections this summer.

CNN

Republican narrative

Without ranked-choice voting, Palin would've been a shoo-in. We can thank Republican turncoat Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was selfishly instrumental in its adoption to assure a win in her own primary, for this outcome. If Republicans win this seat in the fall, they should move to abolish this system.

The Federalist

Conservative narrative

It wasn't the system that cost Republicans, it was the candidate. Palin was unpopular to start the campaign and did nothing to change voters' minds, so many left her off their ballot even when they voted for Begich. This isn't a sign Democrats are going to prevail in Alaska or anywhere in the nation this fall, it's just a lesson for Republicans to avoid nominating unpopular figures.