With more than 98% of precincts reporting Wednesday morning, Democrat Mary Peltola held a slight lead over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska's U.S. Senate race.
Peltola and Sullivan had traded the lead as early returns came in.
"I'm confident when all the votes are counted, I will have the honor of representing you in the United States Senate again for six more years," Sullivan told supporters at his campaign party at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage.
The high-stakes contest has been consumed in recent days by a ballot controversy involving a second Dan Sullivan in the race. His candidacy has prompted federal and state investigations and a legal battle.
By early Wednesday, Peltola had 48% of the vote and Sen. Sullivan had 47.7%. The other Dan Sullivan — retired Petersburg teacher Dan J. Sullivan — had 1.7%.
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The state will still accept ballots for days. If no candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice votes, the winner will be decided by ranked choice voting, with tabulations scheduled for Nov. 18.
Follow results in other Alaska races here.
Peltola celebrates early lead as election night unfolds
After the first round of results dropped Tuesday, which skewed heavily Democratic, Peltola addressed a crowd of cheering supporters in a ballroom at the Sheraton Anchorage Hotel.
"We are winning our state back," she told the crowd. "There's just a few precincts in. But tell me, does this not feel good?"
Spirits were already high before she entered the room. A blue tsunami swept the country, beating the forecasts.
"It just feels so good to let go and be part of this wave," Peltola said.
She turned around and took a selfie with the crowd of hundreds.
"I'm going to text this picture to all of you. You know I have your number," she joked.
The Peltola party ended at 10 p.m. As they left, some guests checked their phones. Their outlook dimmed. Peltola's lead had shrunk to 200 votes.
Later in the night, Sullivan pulled ahead.
Sullivan confident despite national blue wave
Meanwhile, at a joint party with Rep. Nick Begich III at the Hotel Captain Cook, Sullivan told supporters he was growing more confident as votes came in from around the state, although the national results were grim for Republicans.
"We're seeing a blue wave in the Lower 48," he said. "That's not good. But we all know the great state of Alaska is different."
Sullivan pointed to signs of a strong turnout in Republican parts of the state, including lines at polling sites on the Kenai Peninsula as polls closed.
"This is a little depressing out there, but we don't think that blue wave is going to crest up in Alaska, right? Because of your hard work," he said.
He also criticized Peltola over the controversy surrounding her campaign, saying the contrasts between his and her campaigns are clear.
"We have run a campaign based on our record, and character, and truth, and integrity, and respect for Alaskans, and that's what Alaskans want," he said. "By contrast, my opponent has run her campaign literally from the beginning, purposely misleading Alaskans, cheating, and then lying for the last year and a half."
Ballot-stacking accusations hang over tight race
Sullivan's comments came as a ballot controversy dominated Alaska's Senate race in its final days.
The New York Times last week reported that the candidacy of Petersburg's Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. was the result of a sophisticated Democratic recruitment operation. The reporting was based largely on a former campaign manager Peltola fired. Alaska Public Media has not independently confirmed the reporting.
Peltola, speaking to reporters in Anchorage and Bethel, denied any knowledge of the plan but said that she didn't know if her aides were involved.
"I'm sure that I was kept out of it because they know I would never allow this," she told KYUK Sunday.
The Justice Department is pursuing a lawsuit to block election certification if Sen. Sullivan loses, pending an investigation to see if votes that went to the other Sullivan were cast by mistake. A judge dismissed the case Sunday, saying no such investigation is possible without violating ballot secrecy. The Justice Department is appealing. U.S. Attorney for Alaska Michael Heyman also announced a criminal investigation, though he said Friday he was not assuming a crime had occurred.
Ballot-stacking and promoting spoilers is generally legal in Alaska, and relatively common. Super PACs aligned with Republicans and Democrats spent more than $2 million on "ballot composition" efforts in Alaska this year, sometimes to elevate people with no connection to Alaska. The Alaska Republican Party went to court two years ago to keep Eric Hafner, a federal inmate serving a long sentence in New York, on the ballot as a Democrat. He was running for U.S. House against Peltola then and is on the ballot this year, too.
None of the other alleged spoilers this year have the same name as one of the major candidates, though.
Voters weigh allegations differently
For Anchorage voter Colin Palmer, the ballot-stacking accusations and related fallout did not change his mind. In an interview outside of a Midtown polling place Tuesday evening, he said he voted for all Democrats, including Peltola.
"I think it was kind of a stupid decision on her part, but it doesn't really impact my vote," he said. "I mean, there's more important things for me personally, like the war, civil rights, voting rights and the economy in general."
But some Sullivan supporters, including Mike Mitchell, cited the allegations among the reasons they say Peltola should not return to office.
"I've met Sullivan. He's represented our state well. He's a military vet. That's big," Mitchell said. "His major opponent, well, you've heard what's going on in the news lately, and the last time she was there, we got rid of her before."
Peltola lost her bid for reelection to the U.S. House in 2024 to Begich. She had first won the seat in 2022 in a special election following the death of longtime Alaska Congressman Don Young and went on to win a full term.
Peltola and Sullivan offer contrasting visions
By Wednesday morning, with more ballots tallied overnight, Peltola led Sullivan by 626 votes.
Peltola would be the first Alaska Native to serve in the U.S. Senate. She would also be the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Alaska since Mark Begich in 2008.
Peltola campaigned mostly on the themes that Democrats around the country focused on: affordability, health care costs and accusing Republicans of flagrant corruption.
With a campaign motto of "fish, family, freedom," she also spoke of the salmon crisis in Western Alaska, an issue that propelled her to statewide prominence in her first U.S. House race. In this campaign, she pitched herself as the candidate who would crack down on salmon bycatch by the Bering Sea pollock fleet.
Sullivan is a Marine veteran in his second Senate term and previously served as Alaska's attorney general. He is a staunch advocate for augmenting the military and Coast Guard's presence in Alaska.
In Dutch Harbor, voter Ryan Burnias said he also likes Sullivan's work to create jobs in Alaska's natural resource sector.
"He supports expanding oil, gas, minerals, timber, renewable energy development in Alaska," Burnias said.
Sullivan has been a steadfast ally of President Trump. The president held a rally for him in Wasilla last month. But polls suggest Trump's popularity in Alaska has plunged since 2024, when he won the state by 13 points, so standing on stage with Trump might not have provided the lift Sullivan was looking for.
"In the past I have voted Republican, but I am a staunch opponent of almost everything Republican now," said Art Konefao, a voter in Fairbanks. "The Republican Party has been hijacked. I think they have had some good times in the past. They are being held hostage right now."
Sullivan also had Sen. Lisa Murkowski's endorsement, though she is controversial among Alaska Republicans, in part for her occasional Trump-defying votes. She kept a low profile in Sullivan's campaign.
Alaska will accept mailed ballots for 10 days, or 15 days if mailed from overseas. If neither candidate has more than 50% of the vote on Nov. 18, the Division of Elections will tabulate ranked choices.
The state says it will make its ballot data file available during the counting process, so the Associated Press could conduct its own tabulation and call the race sooner.
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