It’s 1 a.m. ET, and polls are now closing across Alaska.
These are the key races in the state: GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski has survived tough elections before – she won her 2010 Senate race as a write-in candidate – but now she is facing Trump-endorsed opponent Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska’s first ranked-choice Senate election.
The independent-minded Murkowski has frequently been a target of Trump and his supporters, especially since she voted to convict in Trump’s second impeachment. Murkowski won 45% in the top-four primary while Tshibaka, the former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration got 39%.
If no candidate wins a majority of first choice votes, the election will be decided by ranked choice voting and the second choices of supporters of Democrat Patricia Chesbro could be key.
In the House race, Rep. Mary Peltola won a special election in August to replace long-time Republican Don Young, who died in March, and she’s hoping to repeat the feat.
Peltola will face the same two Republicans in Alaska’s ranked-choice system. Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee, is backed by Trump and finished second to Peltola in August.
Nick Begich, who has a name well known in Alaska politics, argues that he can beat Peltola in the ranked-choice tabulation, after many of his voters spurned Palin on their special election ballots. Peltola led the top-four primary with nearly 37% of the vote.
