The third place republican should withdraw. Why chance sending a dem to congress for 2 years when Alaska is a red state. This ranked voting system Alaska is complete bullshit. The top 2 vote getters should be the ones to move forward too. Head-to-head, it isn't a race.
See my previous post. I'm moving on to November. Glad you guys are having fun with the special election result though.
Please explain. Alaska voters decided they wanted rank voting and open primaries. Good for them on deciding how they want to run themselves. They decided on efficiency and ideas instead of some letter behind their names. The rank voting shows that the ultimate winner got enough second place votes — in other words, those voter didn’t want Palin. That seems efficient compared to a run off. Kudos to Palin. She had only positive things to say about Peltola.
Although they tend to elect Republicans more frequently than Democrats it would more accurate to describe Alaskans as libertarian leaning independents rather than as Republicans. In fact, more Alaskans are registered as independent/nonpartisan than Democrat and Republican combined (see below): In 2010 after she lost to a Tea Party Republican in the Republican primary, Lisa Murkowski ran as an independent write-in candidate and was reelected to the Senate. The rank choice voting system is actually much more representative for residents of Alaska than partisan primaries given that most Alaskans aren't eligible to vote in traditional partisan primaries but can vote in a "jungle primary" with rank choice voting.
The republican candidates ran a traditional campaign instead of a ranked choice one. This included attacking each other. It turned off their voters so much many just stayed home.
Sarah Palin is probably more popular among the Trump wing of the Republican Party (which includes the overwhelming majority of Republicans) outside of Alaska than she is in her own state. Keep in mind that Palin resigned as governor back in 2009 so that she could hit the speaking circuit where she was earning almost as much for a single speech ($100,000) as she did in a year as governor ($125,00) and in doing so left a bad taste with a significant percentage of her fellow Alaskans. Just a guess but the November election for the full House term will essentially be a repeat of the recent special election.
Also keep in mind the single most important industry in Alaska is oil and gas and Mary Peltola's position with respect to the extraction of petroleum is closer to that of Republicans than Democrats in the lower 48.
