After Chaotic Primary, Sen. Sullivan, Mary Peltola Head for the General Elections in Alaska

Former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) and incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) are set to face off in the general elections following Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary. The other two candidates in Alaska’s crowded 16-person Senate field have not yet been called. 

As of 8 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Peltola had 48% of the vote and Sullivan had 42.8% with 80% of votes in. 

The race, which could help determine party control of the Senate for the next two years, has already been filled with drama.

Former congresswoman Peltola — the biggest threat to Sullivan, fired multiple senior campaign staff days before Tuesday’s primary. One source with knowledge of the firings described the campaign as in “complete chaos,” according to the Alaska Landmine.

Peltola was first elected to Congress in a 2022 special election after Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Alaska’s longest serving House Republican, passed away. She was the first Alaska native to serve in Congress and first woman to represent the state in the House of Representatives.

Peltola served Alaska’s at-large congressional district from 2022 to 2025 before losing her reelection campaign to Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK). In January 2026, she officially launched her Senate campaign.

Dan J. Sullivan, who is also challenging the two-term senator, is another name that has garnered a lot of attention. He’d received 2.4% of the vote as of Wednesday morning.

The retired teacher entered the Senate race in May, much to the dismay of the incumbent. Senator Sullivan  claimed that his similarly-named challenger was a plant brought in by Democrats and Peltola’s Senate campaign to confuse voters.

“The Democrat party is talking about ‘we care about fair elections.’ It’s bullshit,” Sullivan, told a group of reporters, including TPM, in June. “The Democrats in DC, the Peltola campaign are complicit in trying to trick Alaskans — that’s an insult — to rig, and I say very strongly, rig an election in their favor.”

Shortly after, Alaska’s Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher deemed Sullivan ineligible for the primary, saying his candidacy “was not filed in good faith for the purpose of genuinely pursuing election as Alaska’s U.S. Senator.”

Sullivan challenged the decision in court, saying Beecher’s decision to disqualify him violated state and federal law.

In June, the Alaska Supreme Court sided with Sullivan, ruling that the retired teacher is qualified to run for the Senate seat and ordering state officials to place him on the primary ballot.

For the general election, Alaska will be using ranked choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates on the ballot in order of preference regardless of their party affiliation. A candidate needs a simple majority of the vote to be declared the winner of an election. If no candidate receives a simple majority, the candidate with the least amount of votes is eliminated from running. The voters who have picked that candidate as their first choice have their votes redistributed to their second choices. This process continues until one candidate receives the majority of the votes.