Peltola leads both Sullivans combined as she heads to victory in Alaska contest
Prefer us on Google
to see more of our voting rights news coverage when you search.
Candidate for U.S. senator Mary Peltola (D) now significantly leads not just her main GOP opponent, Dan Sullivan, but both Sullivan candidates combined in Alaska’s high-stakes U.S. Senate race.
Peltola’s count reached 118,926 — 49% of the total votes — compared to 114,676 for Dan Sullivan (R) and 4,027 for retired teacher turned Republican candidate Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., according to the latest AP counts.
Get updates straight to your inbox — for free
Join 350,000 readers who rely on our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest in voting, elections and democracy.
The tallies show Peltola leading the GOP’s favored candidate by over 4,000 votes and both Sullivans combined by 223 votes.
Peltola is now just one percentage point away from the 50% threshold needed to trigger the next step in the state’s ranked-choice system. The sizable edge comes as 84% of the votes have been tallied, with the next major vote dump expected Friday.
The Democratic candidate’s lead continues to widen amid President Donald Trump’s attempts to subvert the election with a last-ditch legal challenge from his Department of Justice.
Litigation* is currently ongoing in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where voting rights groups Monday called the suit “embarrassing and indefensible.”
Meanwhile, Trump continues to undermine Alaska’s election results online with inaccurate data. In a social media post Tuesday evening, Trump showed Peltola as lagging behind the vote counts of both Sullivans combined.
As of the latest tallied results, this is incorrect.
Trump has consistently held that all of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.’s votes should be transferred to incumbent Dan Sullivan, claiming Peltola’s campaign brought in the latter Sullivan as a decoy. The Peltola campaign has denied the allegations.
What’s more, the state’s ranked-choice voting system allows Alaskans to vote for more than one candidate, and the retired teacher Sullivan ended up pulling the fewest votes of all candidates — including a completely different Republican candidate.
*The Elias Law Group (ELG) represents the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in this case. ELG Firm Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.