2022 United States House of Representatives election in Alaska
Updated: Wikipedia source
The November 2022 United States House of Representatives election in Alaska was held on Tuesday, November 8, to elect a member of the United States House of Representatives to represent the state of Alaska. Democratic incumbent Mary Peltola won re-election to a full term in office, defeating Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III and Libertarian Chris Bye in the runoff count. This was the second race in Alaska held under the 2020 Measure 2 election procedure. Earlier that year, a special election was held to complete the term of Don Young, who died in office in March 2022, which Peltola won. In the race for the full term of the congressional seat, all candidates first ran in a nonpartisan blanket top-four primary. Each voter cast a single vote to choose who would advance to the runoff. Mary Peltola, Sarah Palin, Nick Begich III, and Chris Bye advanced to the runoff. Under the rules of instant-runoff, Bye and Begich were eliminated in the first and second rounds, after they received the fewest votes. These votes were then transferred to either Peltola or Palin, depending on who the voter ranked higher on their ballot. Peltola won with 55% of the vote, increasing her margin from the special election. Peltola's final-round vote share of 55% was the best performance for a statewide Democratic candidate in Alaska since the 1974 Senate race, and the best performance for any statewide candidate in Alaska since the 2012 House race. Peltola was one of only five House Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections who won (or flipped) a district that Donald Trump had carried in the 2020 presidential election. She outran Joe Biden's vote share by more than 20%, the highest overperformance of any House Democrat in the midterms. Social choice theorists commenting on the race noted that unlike the previous special election, the general election involved few election pathologies. Peltola won the election in the final round, with a majority of voters ranking her over Palin. Begich, however, was the Condorcet winner, with ballots indicating that he would've beaten either Palin or Peltola, had he advanced to the final runoff. Peltola was defeated for re-election by Begich in a rematch in 2024.