Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins enters The Broken Blender for an election night party in downtown Anchorage on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (Bill Roth/ADN) Democrat Mary Peltola widened her lead over Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in the Alaska Senate race after the state Division of Elections counted an additional 5,000 votes Thursday, bringing the total number of votes counted to more than 256,000. In the race for governor, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins garnered more than 50% of first-choice votes after the latest vote count, ahead of three Republican candidates. Kreiss-Tomkins said Wednesday that he hopes that after all the ballots are counted, he will have a comfortable majority of votes on his way to becoming the state’s first Democratic governor since 2002. Thousands of absentee votes still need to be counted in Alaska, and the final vote count is scheduled for Nov. 18. Kreiss-Tomkins in their respective races. Among the three Republicans in the race for governor, Bernadette Wilson has 28.7% of the first-choice votes; Dave Bronson has 13.7%; and Treg Taylor has 7.3%.[Kreiss-Tomkins previews policy priorities as he awaits final election results]In the Senate race, Peltola is on track to become the latest Democrat to flip a U.S. Senate seat previously held by a Republican. After Thursday’s vote count, he earned 49.1% of first-choice votes, ahead of Sullivan’s 46.8%. Democratic US Senate candidate Mary Peltola and incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. (Marc Lester and Anne Raup / ADN) Peltola, a former U.S. representative, saw his lead grow to 5,800 votes, about 1,825 votes more than his lead on Wednesday. If the top vote-getter in the ranked-choice election receives less than 50% of the first-choice votes, the result will be determined by tabulating the ranked-choice options. The remaining candidates on the Senate ballot are Gerald Heikes, a perennial Republican candidate from Palmer who has 2.1% of the first-choice votes, and Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg who has 1.6% of the first-choice votes. If the incumbent Sullivan were ranked by enough Heikes and Petersburg Sullivan voters, he could overtake Peltola. However, preliminary data indicates that Peltola would remain ahead of Sullivan even after a ranked election tabulation. In the race for Alaska’s only U.S. House seat, incumbent Republican Rep. Nick Begich is comfortably ahead with 48.5% of first-choice votes. Independent challenger Bill Hill has 41.1%. Eric Hafner, a New York felon who runs as a Democrat, has 7.5%. Libertarian Jim McDermott has 2.6%. Independent candidate Bill Hill (left) and incumbent Republican Rep. Nick Begich (right). (Marc Lester and Bill Roth / ADN) A ballot measure seeking to repeal Alaska’s electoral system failed to pass, with 52.8% of voters opposed. The measure had been backed by the Alaska Republican Party. A separate measure affirming an existing requirement that Alaska voters be U.S. citizens is on track to pass with a 68.9% vote in favor. Several state legislative races remain too close to call as vote counting continues. However, results so far indicate that Democratic-dominated bipartisan majorities will continue to control both the Alaska House and Senate.
