Alaska Republican Nick Begich defeated incumbent Democrat Representative Mary Peltola to secure the sole seat in the United States House of Representatives for the state of Alaska, enhancing the Republican control of the House.
The website “Decision Desk HQ,” which focuses on reporting U.S. election results, announced that Begich won the U.S. House election in Alaska statewide, capturing the state’s only House seat. This marks the Republicans reaching 220 seats, surpassing the 218 seats needed to control the House by two.
As of Saturday afternoon, Begich led Peltola by over 8,300 votes, with a vote percentage of 48.7% to 46.1% in favor of Begich. Two other candidates also garnered a certain percentage of the votes each.
According to estimates from the Alaska Division of Elections, there are still approximately 9,000 votes to be counted as of Saturday. However, based on the current gap between the two candidates, it is far from reaching the 0.5% threshold that would trigger an automatic recount.
Vote counting is scheduled to conclude on November 20 (Wednesday).
Begich announced his victory on Saturday and expressed on social media: “The people of Alaska have spoken. Having the opportunity to advocate for you in Congress will be the honor of my life.”
Alaska is a red state where Republicans have the advantage, but Democrat Peltola flipped the state’s long-held Republican seat in the U.S. House in the 2022 midterm elections. Begich also ran in that year’s election, but under the new nonpartisan, ranked-choice voting system, the Republicans were unable to consolidate their party’s votes to support a single candidate, leading to defeats for both Begich and the more prominent former governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in that election.
Begich comes from the most famous Democratic political family in Alaska but ran as a Republican in this election. Republicans united to help him successfully turn this seat red.
Former President Trump, who was re-elected, supported Alaska Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom in the primaries, but she later withdrew from the race to avoid party division, clearing the way for the Republicans to flip this seat and prevent a repeat of the 2022 scenario.