Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom joined the race for U.S. Congress on Tuesday, becoming the second high-profile Republican hoping to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola.
Dahlstrom joined Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s reelection ticket in 2022 after serving as the commissioner of the Department of Corrections during the Republican’s first term. In her announcement, she comes out swinging, branding herself as “a conservative Republican, law enforcement leader, military and veterans advocate.”
The distinction is important given that Republican candidate Nick Begich is also in the race, complicating the election politics in Alaska’s open primary system.
While the differences between Republicans have traditionally been sorted out in the Republican primary, voters did away with that system heading into the 2022 election. Alaska’s elections are now run with open primaries where the top four candidates advance to a general election decided with ranked-choice voting. There, voters may rank their choices for an instant runoff that occurs if no candidate wins an outright majority.
The first-ever test of that system came in the 2022 special election to fill the remainder of the late U.S. Rep. Don Young’s term. It was the first of two races that Begich—who faced Republican competition from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin—would lose to Peltola.
While the Alaska Republican Party supported Begich, Republican support never fully gelled behind either candidate. Instead, the race was primarily marked by Republican infighting as the Begich and Palin campaigns spent considerable time and resources battling each other rather than fighting Peltola or broadening their appeal.
In the 2022 special election, a surprisingly large chunk of Begich voters cast their second choice for someone other than Palin, with a sizable chunk of votes going to Peltola. That tightened up more for the regular election, but Peltola had extended her lead over the field by that point.
Since then, Republicans have generally blamed the system rather than their approach. Backers say the state’s open primary and ranked-choice voting system better represents Alaska’s faceted politics. In office, Peltola has been one of the more centrist Democrats in Congress, recently making headlines in Alaska for being one of only two Democrats to vote for defunding the Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
The Alaska Republican Party has yet to officially back any candidate against Peltola, but it’s likely that Begich’s track record of coming up short hasn’t endeared him.
An interesting wrinkle with Dahlstrom’s entry into the race is that one of a lieutenant governor’s few jobs is overseeing the state’s elections.
While the Division of Elections has traditionally been led by nonpartisan directors, Dahlstrom broke from tradition when she appointed Carol Beecher, a registered Republican who contributed to Dunleavy’s campaign and to the campaign of former President Donald Trump. When appointed, Beecher refused to say whether President Joe Biden was fairly elected in 2020.
According to conservative news blog Must Read Alaska, Dahlstrom doesn’t plan to step down and will continue in the role, overseeing an election she will participate in.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
