Sen. Dan Sullivan Projects Confidence in Alaska Senate Race

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan is projecting confidence in prevailing in the Alaska Senate race as tabulations are made in the state’s controversial ranked choice voting method. Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola are currently separated by less than half a percentage point as the state continues tabulating votes on Wednesday. A Sullivan campaign memo lays out his case for victory as neither candidate appears on track to hit 50 percent of the vote, sending ballots to the ranked choice results. The memo states that Peltola leads on first choices by 626 votes, but first choices are not the final result. “The 8,404 ballots for the two candidates who cannot win, Gerald Heikes and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., are eliminated and their second and third choices are added to the totals of Senator Sullivan and Peltola. Heikes voters who ranked anyone else break for Dan 71% to 29%, and that round decides the race,” the memo concludes, noting that Sen. Sullivan is in position to win despite “the biggest election cheating scandal in the history of Alaska.” The memo continued, “If the ranked choice voting tabulation took place today of the votes that we have in hand right now, Senator Dan Sullivan would defeat Mary Peltola 105,037 to 104,709, a margin of 328 votes.” (emphasis in original) The Sullivan campaign added that Alaska’s Division of Elections released a voter file with full data for how people ranked candidates, meaning they know who was ranked first, second, and third. “For these votes, we know what would happen if the ranked choice voting tabulation took place today: Dan wins this election,” the memo says. The unprecedented ballot-stacking scheme perpetrated by Democrats — the “election cheating scandal” the memo refers to — found a liberal activist also named “Dan Sullivan” to put on the ballot; Peltola was aware of the effort, and Washington Democrats also backed a second Republican in the field. Follow Matt Mercer on X: @mattmercer.