Begich wins U.S. House seat in final ballot count

Republican Nick Begich has won Alaska’s sole U.S. House seat, flipping it from Democratic to Republican control.

Results of the final ballot count Nov. 20 showed Begich defeating Democratic incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola, who first won the seat in a special election in 2022 after the death of Republican longtime Rep. Don Young.

Peltola was the first Alaska Native woman elected to Congress, and the first Democrat to hold the seat since Begich’s grandfather, Nick Begich, won the seat in 1972.

Begich captured 48.4% of first-choice votes in Alaska’s congressional race, leading Peltola by 6,779 votes, after 340,510 ballots were counted. Peltola had 46.4% of first-choice votes. Because Begich did not have an outright majority in the race, the outcome was determined by a ranked-choice tabulation, which placed Begich ahead of Peltola in a 51.3%-to-48.7% split.

Other candidates in the race included Alaskan Independence Party leader John Wayne Howe, who received 3.9% of the vote after campaigning on a platform of eliminating most forms of federal taxation. Democrat Eric Hafner, who was allowed to run for the seat despite serving a federal prison sentence in New York and never stepping foot in Alaska, received 1% of the vote.

In a prepared statement, Peltola said serving in Congress was the honor of her life. “I’ll tell you, working for all of Alaska isn’t easy,” she said. “The path ahead will not be built by one person or three people working for all of Alaska but by all Alaskans working together to build a future that works for all of us. No one in the Lower 48 is coming to save us. It’s up to us.”

In a written statement, Begich said “much work remains for Alaskans to fully realize” the state’s potential.

The results in Alaska’s elections won’t be finalized until the results are certified by the state’s oversight board, which is expected to complete its review by the end of this month. Once the results are certified, candidates or voters have up to five days to request a recount.

Begich is a member of a prominent family of Democrats in Alaska. His uncle Mark Begich served in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat until 2015. Nick Begich III, who was born in Alaska, was raised by his maternal grandparents in Florida and returned to Alaska as an adult, amassing a personal fortune by founding companies that focused on offshoring information technology jobs to other countries and advising other start-ups.

Begich worked for Young’s 2020 reelection campaign, then in 2022 announced that he planned to run against him — criticizing Young’s willingness to work on bipartisan legislation and his adherence to Coronavirus mitigation steps like mask-wearing — shortly before Young’s death.

Peltola was back in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 20 with Congress back in session.

One year after she began serving in Congress, Peltola faced a personal tragedy when her husband, Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola, died in a plane crash.

Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat made for one of the most expensive House races in the nation this year, as Republicans sought to protect their thin majority in the chamber, eyeing Alaska’s seat as a likely flip. Peltola was one of a few Democrats who held seats in districts that Trump had carried in 2020.

Ultimately, Trump again won Alaska decisively, carrying the state by a wider margin than he had in 2020. While Begich emerged victorious, he did so by a much slimmer margin than Trump’s. Begich received 24,829 fewer votes than Trump in Alaska.

This marks Begich’s first time winning elected office. He first ran for Congress in 2022, finishing third behind Peltola and Republican former Gov. Sarah Palin.

Early in his campaign, Begich was endorsed by the House Freedom Caucus, an ultraconservative group. It was not immediately clear last week if Begich would join the caucus as a member of Congress.

Republicans are slated to retain control of the U.S. House.

 

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