Updated: 30 minutes ago Published: 37 minutes ago

Republican challenger Nick Begich III was narrowly ahead of incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska’s U.S. House race, with 44% of precincts reporting Tuesday evening. The final outcome likely won’t be known until Nov. 20, when Alaska election workers will tabulate the results of the ranked-choice election.

Begich had 49.7% of the more than 102,000 votes counted as of 9 p.m. Tuesday. Peltola had almost 44.5%.

If the highest vote-getter does not receive more than 50% of the votes, the election is determined in a ranked choice table. Many votes from predominantly indigenous areas of the state of Alaska, where support for Peltola is strongest, have yet to be counted.

Alaska’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is seen as one of the few seats that could be won by either a Republican or a Democrat. Millions of dollars were spent by out-of-state groups and donors to support both Begich and Peltola as the parties kept control of the Chamber.

That made for a campaign that was very different from the 2022 race, when both Peltola and Begich were on the ballot. But the appearance of another Republican in the 2022 elections — former Gov. Sarah Palin — prompted the two Republicans to devote much of their energy to attacking each other. That allowed Peltola to cruise to victory two years ago, with virtually no negative campaigns.

This year, Begich and other Alaska Republicans pressured another high-profile GOP member scheduled to appear on the November ballot — Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom — to drop out of the race after the August primary. That paved the way for a traditional battle between Republicans and Democrats, which boiled down to weeks of non-stop attack ads.

Dahlstrom’s departure from the race, along with the departure of another Republican who finished at the top of the ticket, paved the way for two unexpected congressional candidates to appear on the November ballot.

John Wayne Howe, chairman of the Alaskan Independence Party, campaigned on eliminating most forms of taxation and calling into question Alaska’s statehood. Eric Hafner, a serial candidate running as a Democrat, was allowed to appear on the ballot despite serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison in upstate New York. Hafner has never lived in or visited Alaska. Strict restrictions on communications entering and leaving the prison virtually barred him from campaigning. Neither candidate raised money for their campaigns.

On the ground, Begich and Peltola offered several plans for their work in the U.S. House. Begich saw himself as a cheerleader for the Trump agenda, who would vote for policies favored by the Republican presidential candidate and seek to promote new resource extraction projects in the state.

Peltola initially supported President Joe Biden in the presidential election, but then declined to support Vice President Kamala Harris when she took his place as the Democratic presidential nominee. Instead, she promised that — while she wouldn’t vote for Trump — she would try to work with whoever won the election. White House.

• • •