Alaska’s House District 13, a section of midtown Anchorage, has voted unanimously to request that any and all Republican congressional candidate in Alaska’s primary election make the promise to withdraw from the general election ballot if they don’t come in as the top-voted Republican.
The district has asked all other Republican committees to issue similar resolutions.
“In an effort to support the will of the voting populace in the State of Alaska, the Republican District Committee members of House District 13 of the Alaskan Republican Party (ARP) wish to address all registered Republican candidates for U.S. Congress and/or State offices, as well as our fellow District Committees within the Alaskan Republican Party,” the district wrote.
“We urge all Republican candidates who are opposed by at least one other Republican candidate for the Same U.S. Congress or State office to publicly declare their willingness to withdraw from the General Election if the results of the primary election favor another Republican candidate,” the district wrote. “Let it be recognized that failing to withdraw despite unfavorable primary election results risks diluting the collective focus and resources of the Republican District Committees.”
Of the four Republicans running for Congress to unseat Rep. Mary Peltola, only candidate Nick Begich has vowed to drop from the congressional race if he does not come out as the top Republican after Aug. 20.
Begich has been down this road before and didn’t drop out in 2022 when he came in 2 points behind Sarah Palin, the first time the system was used, which took both he and Palin to the final ballot in November.
He’s lived the history of the open-primary, ranked-choice voting system. He is also the only congressional candidate to have signed the petition to repeal it.
Nancy Dahlstrom, serving as lieutenant governor since 2022, has refused to make that promise and Gerald Heikes, a relative unknown who is now being promoted by the Democrats, has not said he would withdraw.
Those are the three Republicans who are likely to face Democrat Peltola in November. Matthew Salisbury, a Republican from Palmer running for Congress, has not announced such a commitment.
The same request is being made of any state candidate in cases where there will be more than one Republican heading into the general election. Those races would include a couple of Senate seats and several House seats:
- Senate Seat H in Anchorage has two Republicans running
- Senate Seat L in Eagle River has four Republicans running
- Senate Seat R in the Interior has two Republicans running
- House Seat 6 has two Republicans running
- House District 9 has three Republicans running
- House District 10 has two Republicans running (one is false-flag Republican)
- House District 27 has two Republicans running
- House District 28 has four Republicans running
- House District 30 has two Republicans running
- House District 34 has two Republicans (one is a false-flag Republican)
- House District 36 has four Republicans
- View all the candidates who are running in the primary at this Division of Elections link.
Under the new open-primary, ranked-choice voting system being used in Alaska, Alaska Republicans are disadvantaged because they will typically have more than one Republican in the final four who come out of the non-partisan primary; they will appear on the November ballot, where ranked choice voting takes place and where they can split the energy and money that the party would normally put toward one candidate, and split the vote, elevating the Democrat. The split vote happens because many Republicans do not believe in the ranked-choice system.
While the National Republican Congressional Committee has just starting a $1 million radio and television ad now running across in Alaska to support Dahlstrom, she may be likely to drop out of the race if she comes in second to Begich, because if Gov. Mike Dunleavy goes into the Trump Administration, she would become governor. But so far, she has only said that after the primary she wants to sit down and have a discussion with the governor.
