Breaking: Dahlstrom withdraws from race for Congress

By
Suzanne Downing
-
112
2430

Nancy Dahlstrom, the Republican who came in third in the congressional race in Alaska in the jungle primary, pulled out of the race on Friday morning.

She said Rep. Mary Peltola must be replaced and “At this time, the best thing I can do to see that goal realized is to withdraw my name from the general election ballot and end my campaign,” she said. She thanked her supporters and said she was committed to continuing to fight for the conservative cause

By leaving the race, Dahlstrom, who got 20,000 votes in the primary, helps salvage her own political future and that of the governor, who had backed her.

This leaves Nick Begich a more clear path to beat Peltola in the general election on Nov. 5, which is just 74 days away.

The grassroots Republicans across the state had been applying enormous pressure on her since she had earlier announced that she would advance to the general election ballot.

Joel Borgquist, chair of the political action committee Keep It Alaska, said the “Donors were excited to hear this and to have one candidate they can throw their support behind and beat Peltola.”

112 COMMENTS

    • Yep, Dahlstrom showed more class than Begich and his cult ever did when they sabotaged Palin’s run twice. After Peltola smashes little Nicky in November, one would hope he’d gracelessly retire.

      But who am I kidding? He’s a Begich. Clearly being paid to muddy the RCV waters and make sure an actual conservative never takes that seat.

      • You forget: NBIII threw his hat in the ring BEFORE Don Young passed away. I don’t think he had any notion of doing anything to ‘muddy the RCV.’

        Alaska Republican voters can’t get out of their own way. Save the acrimony for the R you don’t like and give it to the D you ‘really don’t like.’ Failing this, it is the stubborn, obstinate, acrimonious, self-righteous, conservative (?) voter who will lay this at the feet Alaska’s member of the Squad. I hope that’s not you!

        I didn’t know there was a ‘Begich Cult.’ I thought he would be good for ‘change.’ I still do. I would rather move forward with THIS Begich than THAT ‘Smelt-ola.’ [Some of the stunts she pulled during the last two years, truly stink to high heaven.]

        Have a nice day Apu.

      • Palin threw her name in the hat at an attempt to remain relevant in the political arena. Anyone ever knows where she is?

    • Robert, I agree. There is a lot of negativity being spilled on this board right now. Dahlstrom could have chosen to stay in the race but she chose to quit, albeit under a lot of pressure. I believe we should give her credit for doing the honorable thing for grassroots Republicans and the state. All the negatrons on here can kiss off.

      • Wayne, Alaska’s best interests were served with Dahlstrom’s announment. I once again commend Nancy Dahlstrom for putting Alaska before personal and party politics.

        Let us unite behind Nick and defeat those outside interests which fund and dictate Democrat policies.

    • Wow, how’s that bitter after taste in your mouth Chuck? She’s a loser and has always been a loser; not about her quitting. Doubtful anyone will call her a quitter

      • “……..She’s a loser and has always been a los………”
        Will that be true of Mr. Begich if he loses to Peltola in November?

        • Although daft, you and Chucky do realize the RaeLynn pitched a softball to you moronic trolls to watch your Marxist little heads turn red, don’t you?

          • Farthest thing from Marxist here, bub, you’re exactly the kind of ” all Nick ,All the time ” cultist I was alluding to! Unless someone bows. Down before The Almighty Nick!!!!” They’re suddenly a “Marxist” in your eyes

        • No, in that case, Alaska would be the loser. Peltola does NOT work for all Alaskans, and even works to sabotage our economy– when she’s not fishing while on duty.

    • I highly doubt that anyone with a brain is going to call her a quitter. She was not listening to the majority of the people and it is the People who should be choosing who represents her. I am very happy that she has stepped down because it will give the People a chance to get Peltola out of that seat.

  9. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen. Thanks to Nancy Dahlstrom for doing the right thing to help beat Peltola.

    And a special thanks to MRAK and Suzanne for putting the truth and pressure out there.

    Now, we all must unite behind Nick Begich III to win the one and only Congressional seat and assure that we can open up Alaska and its economy.

    • I echo your sentiments! Thank you to everyone who spoke up, wrote letters, and to the journalists that followed and reported on this story!

    • Thank you David Boyle for a logical and dignified comment. And thank those who seconded it. Dahlstrom did something positive in resigning her campaign. Let’s give her credit for that and leave her negatives out of it for this moment. Its called civility.

  11. Thank You, Nancy Dahlstrom. I have only had the opportunity to meet you twice and you were very important to me getting costs related to elections and I had high opinion of you. I want to thank you for dropping out, it is a very honorable and courageous thing to do and I know Alaska Appreciates you for doing it.

    Phil Izon

  12. Thank You Nancy. I know this was a hard decision for you but for the greater good it is the best decision. Now we can all focus our attentions and efforts on electing Nick to Congress and hopefully help right this sinking ship.

    Thanks Again From All Of Alaska

  13. Dahlstrom needs to get to work on her DAY JOB…the problems with our voter rolls and the problems in this primary election have been well documented!
    ALSO…working hard for Nick should be evident…IMMEDIATELY!
    A very weak statement so far!

  14. She could have saved herself a lot of grief by some common sense communication with the entire GOP and agreed to work with them instead of holding out for a miracle.
    It leaves a nasty taste in peoples views of her lack of interest in the best outcome for the party.

    • “She could have saved herself a lot of grief by some common sense communication with the entire GOP………”
      The Republican Party is embroiled in a civil war with itself nationwide. It is a re-run of the end of the Whig Party, and we have a ways to go before this gets resolved.

  15. The magnanimous thing to do now, Nancy, is to endorse Nick Begich. But your ego is very bruised and your selfishness on full display takes time to overcome. Thank you, Big Mike, for putting a few brain cells together and figuring this out for her. Even Democrats have to admit that your teamwork is right up there with………
    _____________________.

  17. Thank you,
    MRAK readers and hundreds of commenters who woke-up Nancy. Superb reporting by our revered leader who digs for the Truth, relentlessly, and knows how to put it into words better than anyone else in the 49th state. We are blessed to have MRAK.

    • Yes, thank you, Suzanne for letting MRAK readers work this task. Dahlstrom was an avid reader of MRAK. She finally saw the light.🙏

  19. No one will call her a quitter. What we will do is thank her for making the right choice by putting the people of this state ahead of her political ambitions. Thank you Nancy Dahlstrom for doing the right thing.

  20. Good news, indeed. Congratulations on making the right decision. You done good, Madam.

    As an aside, it would appear that Nancy wants to be governor, for at least a couple years should Trump win and select Mike for Interior. Cheers –

  21. Nancy can see no matter what we the people do it will be Mary by 167 votes thanks to Lisa & rank choice. Good bye integrity. IMAGINE what JESUS will do to all the oath breakers who mock FATHER & WE THE PEOPLE Lisa your RANK.

    • Do not forget that this was just the Primary. HOPEFULLY, more voters will be turning out for the General election and we will see a Republican taking back that seat then.

      • We’ve already read numerous comments on MRAK comments from both Dahlstrom and Begich cult members that they’d vote for Peltola over the other Republican. This happened with Begich/Palin/Peltola. This is what ranked choice voting was designed to do. Is this really that difficult to see? The root of the problem is stupidity. Hatred. Arrogance. Spite. You will never defeat it. It defeats you. Every time.

  24. Not to throw cold water on the good news, if you look up the totals for Nick, Dahlstrom and the third republican, we’re still short of Peltola’s total with 87% of the total votes tallied. The job our side has is to get the “Never Begich” crew to understand the gravity of their votes.

  25. Thank You Lt. Governor Dahlstrom.
    You put the State of AK first today and I know it was a hard decision for you.
    Thank You.

    Now lets elect Nick and DUMP “Rank Stink Voting”!!

  26. First decent decision she has made in 5 years !!!
    Thank you from all of Alaska….maybe we have a chance now of having a Rep in Congress who wants to represent ALASKA.

  27. I did not vote for Nancy, but she was my state house rep when I lived in Eagle River, and I am deeply saddened by how she was treated by some in our party, especially these past few weeks.

    How returning something at Nordstrom Rack after a long day of sign-waving can become “casually shopping at Nordstrom Rack” (while elections in rural Alaska fall apart) is beyond me.

    Sarah Palin was savaged and we got Peltola. Nancy Dahlstrom was savaged (on both good points and ridiculous points) and there’s too high of a chance now that we’ll get Peltola for two more years.

    Whether you voted for Palin or not, and whether you voted for Dahlstrom or not, these ladies were treated very poorly by some in our party.

    If, going forward, challengers will be forced to treat the outcome of the primary election as binding (and spend an excessive amount of effort to win it) or be savaged by our party, this will only help incumbents like Peltola.

    I say this as an incumbent myself.

    Remember, we no longer have primaries in Alaska thanks to Scott Kendall and Lisa Murkowski.

    Democrats can and do now vote against conservatives in our new “primaries”. We don’t have a single non-Republican running for any of our legislative seats here in the Mat-Su this election cycle. Democrats can either vote for a Republican or they can choose not to vote.

    And by the way, since Scott Kendall is now out publicly trumpeting that a Democrat is “supporting” my re-election, just remember that Kendall, in addition to supporting Ranked-Choice Voting, has spent the last few years publicly trying to convince the legislature to expel me from office and publicly tried to get a judge to do it in the last election.

    Kendall isn’t suddenly telling Democrats to support me, he’s still telling Republicans to oppose me, like he does every year.

    He didn’t suddenly become a Republican and now he’s trying to help make the legislature more conservative.

    Bottom line: Let challengers be challengers. Recognize that they already have an uphill battle on their hands going against an incumbent and let them figure out the best strategy for their particular race. If they raise money in the primary and feel like they have to save some or all of it for the general, in order to be competitive in November, that should be their choice to make, not their opponent’s supporters’ choice to make for them by savaging them in public and forcing them to withdraw for not “winning” in the primary.

    Democrats play in Republican primaries in Alaska, and in our party. Remember how Bill Walker ran for governor as a “Pro-Life Republican”? Remenber how Cathy Giessel ran as a “Pro-Life Republican”? Remember how the former communications officer for the ARP went on to became the full-time spokesman for the ACLU?

    Yeah, they play in our primaries and in our party. They are at work in Nick and Nancy’s race this year to help Mary, just like they helped play Nick and Sarah against each other to help Mary last time.

    Help us repeal Ranked-Choice Voting so that we can actually have primaries in Alaska again, like most states.

    • “……. I am deeply saddened by how she was treated by some in our party, especially these past few weeks…….”
      Thank you, sir. Excellent post. Too bad few will learn from it.

    • Rep. Eastman, I opposed Dahlstrom running because she has the job of ensuring that our elections are honest and fair. What has she done to ensure that our rolls were cleaned up, get rid of ERIC (as other states are doing), and ensuring that the state runs the elections smoothly? Should She have even been running as a candidate when she is supposed to be ensuring that the elections are honest and fair? I think that there was a conflict of interest there. I am glad that she stepped down.
      I hope that the People of this state eventually take back the election responsibilities and quit letting the state to run the elections. We got lazy and now we are paying for it as shown by messes like these we are seeing.

    • Sorry David. The Communists, I mean Democrats, have a firm grip on their candidates. Did they allow anyone to run against Mary? Nope. Republicans are all-in on RCV because they don’t have to tell anyone “No”. And since the Republican Party establishment isn’t too far off left-leaning moderate, they’re completely happy having a Mary Peltola represent Alaska in Congress.

      Once candidates like Nancy man up, take the loss, and put their support behind the leading candidate, then we proceed to the general with one quasi Conservative against one committed Communist.

      I truly appreciate Nancy’s decision to pull out and give NBIII the best chance at defeating Mary. If Sarah had had the intestinal fortitude to do that 2 years ago, NBIII may very well be running as an incumbent. Her ego wouldn’t let her, and we haven’t heard a peep from her (thankfully) in two years. I doubt she’s even been in the State. Sarah was never going to beat Mary. She was too disliked.

    • Representative Eastman makes good points in the first half of his comment, sadly the second half betrays the first the same way he betrays Republicans each and every year while in Juneau while carrying water for the Democrats and gaslighting conservatives.

    • Nope, it will still be four, the fifth place candidate will take her place. That is unless she waits until whatever the magic day is to officially withdraw that doesn’t allow for that to happen, that’s what the bear doctor did that kept Tara Sweeney from being on the ballot in one of the previous rank elections for Congress.

  29. Thank you for doing the right thing! We have a chance now to replace a horrible lefty who is just worried about fleecing the Alaska public for her own power and wealth.

  30. I still will never vote for her. She had years to address election integrity issues and didn’t. She had years to cull the voter rolls and didn’t.
    She failed at her job. That doesn’t warrant a promotion.

  31. Nancy: Thanks for doing the right thing. It was probably defeatist to make the commitment to drop out if you came in 3rd before the election, so that strategy was understandable. But you did it, and you stand taller now. Please give Nick a full-throated endorsement and we can get the wooden-headed Marxist Puppet out of Alaska’s seat in congress.

  32. Thank you, thank you, thank you Nancy!!!!! We just have to get Missing Mary Peltola out of DC for the sake of saving Alaska. The lively hood of Alaska is more than fish.

  33. Thank you, Nancy for doing the right thing. Now, please publicly endorse Nick and request President Trump to endorse Nick. And release full unredacted Kelly Tshibaka elect audit report.

  34. I am heaving a huge sigh of relief! I thought for sure that she was going to “Palin” this thing and we’d be stuck with Peltola again.

  37. Smart.
    If Dunleavy takes a job with the Trump administration, and Dahlstrom becomes Governor, she’ll now have a chance for united Republican support in 2026.

  38. I supported and voted for Nancy Dahlstrom. Her legislative experience would have been an asset working in congress. I will now support Begich. We must send a Republican to Congress.

  41. Now is the time for her to do the job of the Lt. Governor: FIX OUR ELECTIONS! She has not done anything in this area and everyone congratulating her for dropping out needs to understand that. She needs to clean our voter rolls, speak publicly to get rid of proposition 2, and seriously investigate all of the potential fraud we have seen in 2020 and 2022. I suggest she start immediately by doing a forensic audit of proposition 2!

  43. … Lisa, take note …
    … observe how a real republican composes their actions’ for the party …
    … but I’m sure you’ll jump ship sometime after 05NOV24, once RCV is gone …
    … and finally show your true political convictions …

  44. Thank you Nancy Dahlstrom. Now get Mary Peltola out! God Blessings on your run for Alaska’s next Representative, Nick Begich!

  45. Ok, now that this is behind us. Can we PLEASE stop acting like running in a primary is an attack on the R party?

    NOBODY has the RIGHT to run unopposed. Primaries are supposed to bring the cream to the top. Campaigns are organized, philosophies debated, and hopefully the best candidate wins.

    If you are bothered by either Dalstrom or Palin having the audacity to run against NB3 you are no better than the Democrat elite that just installed Cackles 2.0 without so much as a single vote in the primary election.

    NB3 is a very strong candidate and has a real shot at winning. If he can’t win without the Kamala method why would we want him in Congress anyway?

  46. Thank you, Nancy. You did the right and noble thing to withdraw from the race. Now, please support Nick Begich for the win. We need him, and you.

  47. WIthdrawing made sense for her if she didn’t think she had a chance to win in the general, but if it’s a response to the election system it makes no sense. People who want to see a Republican win should simply rank the Republicans over other candidates. If voters used the system to their advantage they would not have to worry about vote splitting.

    • That doesn’t work, we’ve seen it happen with Peltola and Murkowski. Thank you Ms. Dahlstrom, not an easy decision but you knew what was best for Alaskans. Hold no blame, RCV has changed the political landscape.

  48. I can’t wait until rank voting is voted out so we can get back to primaries where we actually select who we want to represent us in the general election instead of making backroom Biden deals that make a completely mockery of elections.

  50. My thanks to Nancy Dahlstrom.
    As Ranked Choice is still alive and well…
    Circling the wagons is our only defense.
    This is the most honorable thing she could have done.
    We will not forget.

  51. Thank you for your reporting Suzanne truth as always, and thank you Nancy for stepping down in order for Alaska to beat Peltola for congress. Dan

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