Alaska voters select candidates for general election
This Tuesday, Alaska voters will head to the polls to choose finalists for governor, U.S. Senate, the state’s lone U.S. House seat, the Legislature and one statewide ballot measure in the primary. The nonpartisan, open primary puts all candidates on one ballot; voters select one candidate per race, and the four highest finishers advance to the Nov. 3 ranked-choice general election.
Alaska’s Tuesday primary will spotlight three consequential statewide races: the contest to succeed term-limited Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Sen. Dan Sullivan’s campaign for a third term, and Rep. Nick Begich’s bid to retain Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. Early voting is underway, and election officials expect the first results between 8:45 p.m. and 9 p.m. Tuesday.
The governor’s race
Seventeen gubernatorial tickets are competing for four places on the November ballot, making the contest the primary’s most unsettled statewide race. No candidate was polling above 22% shortly before the election, according to FairVote’s analysis.
The candidates generally regarded as the leading group include:
- Bernadette Wilson, a Republican businesswoman running with former state Sen. Mike Shower.
- Tom Begich, a former Democratic state senator, running with Julia Hnilicka.
- Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a former Democratic state representative running with Zac Johnson.
- Bill Walker, the former independent governor, running with former Revenue Commissioner Randy Hoffbeck.
- Republicans Click Bishop, a former state senator; Dave Bronson, Anchorage’s former mayor; and Adam Crum, a former commissioner in the Dunleavy administration.
Senate and House contests
The Senate race has 16 candidates, but it is dominated by Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola. Sullivan is seeking a third term, while Peltola has built the strongest well-funded challenge; campaign-finance reports showed her raising $6.9 million from April 1 through mid-July, compared with more than $2 million for Sullivan.
Outside groups have also spent heavily promoting lesser-known candidates, including Carol Hafner, Richard Grayson, Gerald Heikes, Earl “Skip” Southworth and David Leslie. The apparent aim is to influence which additional candidates join Sullivan and Peltola in the final four, though the two leading contenders are widely expected to advance.
In the House race, Republican incumbent Nick Begich is seeking reelection. His most prominent remaining challenger is Bill Hill, an independent first-time candidate backed by many Alaska Native and labor groups. Democrat Matt Schultz suspended his campaign in July, although his name remains on the primary ballot. Fifteen candidates are listed in the House contest, so four will proceed to November.
Ballot Measure 1
Measure 1 would cap individual donations at $2,000 per candidate per election cycle, limit donations to political parties at $5,000 per cycle, and adjust the thresholds for inflation every decade.A “yes” vote restores statutory limits; a “no” vote keeps Alaska’s present system of unlimited individual contributions to state and local candidates.
A yes vote would limit an individual’s contributions to:
$2,000 per candidate during an election cycle
$4,000 for a joint governor–lieutenant governor ticket
Amounts would be adjusted for inflation once each decade.
Alaska has permitted unlimited individual donations to candidates since 2021, when a court invalidated the state’s former $500 cap as too low. The measure therefore asks voters whether to re-establish a higher statutory limit rather than retain the current unlimited-contribution system.
Other election-related initiatives—most notably a proposal to repeal ranked-choice voting and reinstate traditional primaries—are slated for the November general-election ballot, not this primary.
What the primary decides
The Aug. 18 election does not select officeholders. Instead, it narrows each contest to four candidates, regardless of party. Those finalists will appear on the Nov. 3 general-election ballot, when voters may rank candidates in order of preference rather than choose only one.
For a state accustomed to close statewide races and an unconventional election system, the primary will offer an early measure of whether Alaska’s next governor is likely to emerge from a Republican-heavy field, an independent candidacy or a divided Democratic vote—and whether Peltola can turn the Senate contest into the year’s most competitive federal race.
