As Alaska’s House Primary Nears, Ranked-Choice Voting Still a GOP Quandary

Nancy Dahlstrom looks on as Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks to reporters at the Alaska Division of Elections office in Anchorage, Alaska, on May 23, 2022. (Mark Thiessen, File/AP Photo)

Republicans are preparing to contest Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) in the nonpartisan primary for Alaska’s only seat in the House.

Four years after voters approved it, the heavily Republican state’s ranked-choice voting system continues to vex and divide GOP candidates.

“Ranked-choice voting favors the party with the most discipline,” Nick Begich III, one of the Republicans vying for the seat, told The Epoch Times.

In the July 30 primary, voters will be able to pick one out of a dozen candidates on the ballot. The ranked-choice element only kicks in during November’s general election.

The top four primary finishers will advance to that contest. Voters will rank the names on their ballots based on preference.

What might party discipline look like under ranked-choice voting?

Ms. Peltola is the only plausibly electable Democrat in the primary. The other Democrat who has filed, Eric Hafner, is serving twenty years in prison for making bomb threats and other threats to politicians and others.

By contrast, Mr. Begich is one of several Republicans in the race. His top rival, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, scored an endorsement from former President Donald Trump.

“I think President Trump looked at my background,” Ms. Dahlstrom told The Epoch Times, saying she believed the party’s standard-bearer had realized that she “can stand strong against very heavy winds.”

In his endorsement on Truth Social, the former president wrote that Mr. Begich has “Democrat tendencies.”

Other Begichs who have won elected office in Alaska, including former Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Rep. Nicholas Begich, Sr. (D-Alaska), were Democrats.

“Try being a Republican Begich in Alaska,” Mr. Begich said.

He said he was brought up in Florida by his mother’s parents, who he described as deeply conservative Republicans. He said he has “always been a Republican,” emphasizing that he still strongly backs the former president.

Different Views on Dropping Out

Former President Trump’s Truth Social post also blamed Mr. Begich for costing Republicans the House seat in 2022, when Ms. Peltola won the general election in a surprise victory. He stayed in that race even after former Gov. Sarah Palin, who was also running, called on him to drop out.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin makes a joke about the size of the state of Texas compared to Alaska during her appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, on Aug. 4, 2022. (LM Otero/AP Photo)

Now, two years later, Mr. Begich is the one calling for only one Republican to stay in the race after the primary.

In his interview with The Epoch Times, the businessman suggested he would not have handled it differently if he could do it all over again. He pointed to academic research published on a Cornell University website that found he was “more broadly acceptable to the electorate than either of the other two candidates” despite being eliminated in the first round.

Matthew Salisbury, another Republican on the ballot, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times: “I am always confused at the argument made that it takes away from Republican votes, since Senator Murkowski won the most recent Senate election. Rank the Red, and your vote is guaranteed to go to a Republican!”

A strong opponent of bottom trawling, a fishing practice known to disturb the seafloor, Mr. Salisbury said he would not concede to another Republican if he makes the cut for the general election.

Gerald Heikes, another Republican on the ballot, told The Epoch Times that his decision to remain in the race after the primary would “[depend] on the one that wins the spot.”

“If I don’t like their stance on abortion, I’ll just stay in,” he said.

Neither Mr. Begich nor Ms. Dahlstrom met with his approval, suggesting he’s not likely to disappear.

Ms. Dahlstrom was a little cagier.

While she wouldn’t commit to leaving the race if she fails to place first among Republicans, she said she would “like to get together with Nick, with the party chair [Carmela Warfield], and with the governor, and look at the numbers” after the primary concludes.

Alaska Gov. Michael Dunleavy in Washington on Oct. 29, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

An initiative that aims to repeal ranked-choice voting could appear on the November ballot. Backers of the measure scored a key victory earlier this week in a legal battle over the way initiative petition booklets were handled.

Ms. Dahlstrom stressed her neutrality on ranked-choice voting because of her position as lieutenant governor.

Begich, Dahlstrom See Eye-to-Eye on Issues

In their interviews with The Epoch Times, Mr. Begich and Ms. Dahlstrom said that they agree on the vast majority of things—in the words of Mr. Begich, “95 percent of issues, maybe 100 percent.”

“We’re not going after each other. I’m going after Peltola and Biden,” Ms. Dahlstrom said of the dynamics among Republican House aspirants this cycle.

While the 66-year-old lieutenant governor and former state representative pitched herself as a seasoned public official, Mr. Begich argued that, at 46, he could stay in the House for many years, enough time to command real influence on committees.

The two stressed Alaskan energy, faulting the incumbent president for numerous executive orders that limited oil and gas exploration in the Arctic state.

Ms. Peltola, who was first elevated to the House in a 2022 special election after the death of Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), has sought to cultivate a moderate and pro-hydrocarbon image. That sets her apart from many Democrats in the lower 48.

In 2022, she joined Republicans in supporting the Willow Project to drill oil in Alaska’s North Slope. She has also declined to back Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential bid.

On July 25, Ms. Peltola was one of just six Democrats who joined House Republicans in a resolution condemning Ms. Harris and the Biden administration for their handling of the border.

U.S. House candidate Mary Peltola speaks with reporters at her campaign party at 49th State Brewing in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 16, 2022. (Kerry Tasker/Reuters)

Her Republican foes point to some of her other stances. She voted “present” on Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, a bill to open up oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Ms. Peltola had originally co-sponsored the legislation.

Republicans have also taken issue with her recent absence from the House to stock up on fish back in Alaska.

“Mary’s family—as well as Mary’s late husband’s family—relies in part on her for subsistence duties,” the congresswoman’s spokesperson said in a statement.

“If somebody wants to go engage in a subsistence lifestyle, they’re free to do that, but not be a member of Congress at the same time,” Mr. Begich told The Epoch Times.

Ms. Peltola did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Alaskan Nationalist Weighs In

Another man running for the at-large House seat is John Wayne Howe of the Alaska Independence Party, an Alaskan nationalist faction.

He told The Epoch Times he believes his state should take ownership over more issues currently under federal authority.

“The state is a puppet of the feds,” he said.

The advocate of state-level sovereignty said that in the federal-level House, he would “make noise and give the Alaskans hope that there was a way out of this quagmire that we live in.”

His party was once more influential than it is today. In 1990, Wally Hickel won the governorship under its aegis.