Battle for the Great Land: Alaska Republicans Gunning for At-Large House Seat

Before 2022, the last time Alaska was represented in the House of Representatives by a Democrat was in 1972. From 1973 until he died in 2022, Republican Don Young represented the Great Land in the House. Then two things happened: First, Ranked-choice voting was put in place in Alaska by a razor-thin vote on a ballot initiative after out-of-state interests hoping to use Alaska as a test bed poured tons of money into advertising. Second, Alaska House member Mary Peltola ran for the seat, partnering with Republican Lisa Murkowski in advertising across the state and leveraging the ranked-choice system to land election victories for both of them.

This year, Alaska Republicans and the National Republican Campaign Committee are looking to take that seat back.

Rep. Mary Peltola, the first Democrat to represent Alaska in the House in nearly 50 years, is looking to retain her post in Congress after flipping the seat from red to blue in 2022.
It's been more than a year since Peltola, who previously served for a decade as a member of the Alaska state House, was sworn in as the singular voice for Alaskans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her purported loyalty to her party, however, has left Peltola unable to address constituent concerns on Capitol Hill, according to two leading Republicans who are looking to oust her from Congress.
"Voters are furious," Alaska GOP congressional candidate Nick Begich III told Fox News Digital about Peltola's performance in office thus far.

Nick Begich III said as much to me when I interviewed him in January. While Mary Peltola won't be running in partnership with the allegedly Republican Murkowski this year, she still carries a lot of pull not only in the blue towns of Anchorage and Juneau but also with Alaska's Native communities. But Peltola's voting record has been pretty lockstep with national Democrats (say what you will about Democrats, but they stick together,) many of whose policies don't go over well with Alaskans.

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As Nick Begich III also points out, Peltola ran to the center in her last election; but now she has a record to hold her accountable for.

"She was able to run a campaign that was pretty moderate in its tone and tenor in 2022," Begich said of Peltola. "She liked to continuously invoke Don Young, our late congressman, as a central part of her campaign messaging. But the reality is she's not voting anything like Don Young would have ever voted."

That may be key, but no matter the results of this fall's ballot initiative on repealing ranked-choice voting (assuming it makes it to the ballot) we still have to deal with that system in the Alaska primary and general elections. It's a bad system; confusing to many, and like open or "jungle" primaries, ranked-choice effectively allows, for example, registered Democrats to influence the selection of Republican candidates - or vice versa. That is unfair to partisan voters of both parties.

Last fall I had the opportunity to speak to a NRCC representative who happened to be in the Great Land for a few days. His main concern even then, last September, was "How can we get Mary Peltola out and a Republican in?" I said, "We need one strong candidate. That candidate needs to hammer Mary Peltola on her voting record, especially on energy issues. And we need to get rid of ranked-choice voting."

We'll see what happens, soon enough. But taking back Alaska's at-large House seat will be a key part of retaining control of the House of Representatives this fall.