Senate Race in Alaska Now in Play

The last time Democrats won a Senate race in Alaska was in 2008, when seven-term Republican incumbent Ted Stevens lost to his Democrat challenger, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, by 3,724 votes, or 1.2%.

That was eight days after Stevens was convicted in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., of seven counts of making false statements — a verdict that was set aside at the Justice Department's request for reasons that included false evidence, perjured testimony, and what the judge in the case called the worst case of prosecutorial misconduct he'd ever seen.

It would seem that in a state that is increasingly Republican, the election of Democrats to the Senate would only be under extraordinary circumstances such as those of 2008.

But to the surprise of just about everyone, the recently completed Alaska Survey Research poll shows former Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola leading two-term GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan by 49.1% to 42.5%. Further behind in the survey are another Republican, James Ryan, with 5.2% and perennial independent candidate Sid Hill with 3.2%.

Under the ranked-choice voting system in the Land of the Midnight Sun, voters rank their preferred candidates.

If no one wins a majority in the first round, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and the second choice of his or her voters is added to the totals of the remaining candidate. This process continues until one candidate gets a majority.

These figures — which left many Republicans from Anchorage to D.C. shell-shocked — came on the heels of reports that Peltola raised a whopping $8.9 million in the first quarter of the year.

During the same period, Sullivan raised $2.1 million, which means he has an aggregate $7.5 million in his campaign kitty.

As to how a House member defeated after one full term could be ahead of a two-term senator, Alaska sources who spoke to Newsmax generally agreed that President Donald Trump's reverting the name of the state's highest mountain from Mount Denali to Mount McKinley, along with cuts to new power systems Alaskans favor, is part of the explanation.

"Exploiting local concern on Trump issues will be Peltola strategy," former GOP Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell told us.

"This is a race where the Democrats will run against Trump and the Republicans will run against [former President Joe] Biden and [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer," he said.

"People are divided here as they are across America, but Trump has more support for his policies on resource development, LNG [liquefied natural gas] export, Arctic icebreakers and safety, military readiness, being tough on Russia and China on fishing. That will help Dan."

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.