Juneau, Alaska – Democrat Mary Biltola won the special election for Alaska’s only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, beating a field that includes Republican Sarah Palin, who has been seeking a political return to the state in which she was governor.
Biltola, a 49-year-old Yup’ik on Wednesday, will become the first Alaskan Native to serve in the home and the first woman to hold the seat. She will serve in the remaining months of the term of late Republican Representative Don Young. Young held the seat for 49 years before his death in March.
“I don’t think there will be another Christmas like today,” Biltola said.
“I really am so grateful to the Alaskans and all the Alaskans who put their trust in me to fill out the remainder of Congressman Young,” she said in an interview. “My desire is to follow Congressman Young’s legacy of representing all Alaskans, and I look forward to working.”
Biltola’s victory, in Alaska’s first statewide elective vote, is a boon for Democrats, particularly as a result of a better-than-expected performance in special elections nationwide this year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It will be the first Democrat to hold that seat since the late US Representative Nick Begich, who was seeking re-election in 1972 when his plane disappeared. Bigish’s death was later announced and Young was elected in 1973 to the seat.
Biltola ran as the builder of a coalition while her Republican opponents – Palin and Bejic’s grandson, also called Nick Bejic – sometimes stalked each other. Palin also criticized the ranked voting system put in place by Alaskan voters.
The three – Biltola, Balin and Begic – are candidates in the general election in November, and are seeking two-year terms beginning in January.
The results came 15 days after the August 16 election, in line with the deadline for state election officials to receive mailed absentee ballots from outside the United States, as the ranking selection tables were made on Wednesday after no candidate won more than 50% of the first-choice vote , with state election officials livestreaming the event. Biltola was up front heading into the streams, followed by Palin and then Begic.
State election officials plan to certify the election by Friday.
Alaska Democratic Party leaders cheered Biltola’s victory.
“Alaskans have made it clear that they want a rational, consistent, honest, and caring voice that speaks for them in Washington, D.C., not the opportunists and extremists associated with the Alaskan Republican Party,” Michael Weinstrup, the state’s Democratic chairman, said in a statement.
Wednesday’s results were disappointing for Palin, who was looking forward to a political comeback 14 years after she rose to the national stage when John McCain selected her as his running mate in the 2008 presidential election. During her run for the House seat, she won widespread recognition and garnered the president’s endorsement. Former Donald Trump.
After Beltola’s victory was announced, Palin described the classified voting system as “crazy, complicated, and confusing.”
“While we are disappointed with this outcome, Alaskans know that I am the last to ever back down,” Palin said in a statement.
In a statement, Bejic congratulated Biltola as he looked forward to the November elections.
During the campaign, critics questioned Palin’s commitment to Alaska, pointing to her decision to resign as governor in July 2009, as part of her tenure. Palin has gone on to become a conservative TV commentator and has appeared on reality TV shows, among others.
Palin insisted her commitment to Alaska was unwavering and said before the special election that she “fell in the long run.”
Biltola, a former state legislator who recently served on a committee whose goal is to rebuild salmon resources on the Cuscoquim River, presented herself as “normal” Alaska. “I’m not a millionaire. I’m not a world celebrity,” she said.
Biltola said she hopes the new system will allow more moderate candidates to be elected.
During the campaign, she emphasized her support for abortion rights and said she wanted to raise issues of ocean productivity and food security. Biltola said she got a boost after the special primaries in June when she won support from Democrats and independents who ran in the race. She said she believes her positive message resonates with voters.
“It was very attractive to a lot of people to have a message of working together, of positivity, of keeping each other together, of unity, and as Americans none of us are each other’s enemy,” she said. “This is just a message that people really need to hear right now.”
Alaska voters in 2020 approved an electoral process that replaced the party’s primaries with the open primaries. Under the new system, ranked voting is used in general elections.
Under ranked voting, votes are counted in rounds. A candidate can directly win more than 50% of the vote in the first round. If no one gets this far, the candidate with the fewest votes will be disqualified. Voters who have chosen this candidate as their best choice, their votes are counted for their next selection. Rounds continue until two candidates remain and the one who receives the most votes wins.
In Alaska, voters last supported a Democratic presidential candidate in 1964. The number of registered voters without party affiliation is greater than the number of registered Republicans or Democrats combined, according to the Electoral Division statistics.
The last Democratic member of Alaska’s delegation to Congress was Mark Begic, uncle of Nick Begich, who served one term in the US Senate and lost his 2014 re-election bid.
Alaska Senators, Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, congratulated Biltola.
Murkowski said Biltola “has a proven track record of public service to our great nation.” Murkowski and Biltola were in the state legislature together.
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