ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska’s U.S. Senate race remained undecided Wednesday morning, with Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan holding a narrow lead over Democrat Mary Peltola in preliminary results and many ballots still to be counted.
The lead changed hands more than once as the first returns arrived Tuesday night. Peltola, a former U.S. representative, was ahead in the first batch of results, which leaned heavily Democratic. Sullivan moved in front later in the night.
With about 90% of precincts reporting and more than 211,000 ballots counted, Sullivan had 48.1% of first-choice votes and Peltola had 47.7%, a gap of fewer than 1,000 votes. Many of the precincts still out are in rural communities expected to lean toward Peltola, and the state will keep accepting ballots for several more days.
Alaska uses ranked choice voting. If no candidate tops 50% of first-choice votes, the outcome will be settled in a ranked choice count set for Nov. 18, so a final result likely will not come until mid-November.
Republican Gerald Heikes of Palmer was third with about 2.2%. Dan J. Sullivan, a retired Petersburg teacher who shares the senator’s name, drew about 1.7%. His candidacy has drawn federal and state investigations into whether he was recruited to confuse voters, along with a Trump administration lawsuit that has not succeeded so far. He appeared on the ballot with no party label.
Sullivan told supporters in Anchorage he expected to win once all votes are counted. Peltola told her supporters earlier in the night that the state was coming back to Democrats. The race drew record spending, along with Alaska rallies by President Donald Trump and his vice president on Sullivan’s behalf.
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