2026 Mid-Term Elections

[Arctish]

Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has surpassed the 50% threshold with not enough ballots still possibly in transit to affect the outcome. He will be Alaska's next governor, replacing the Trumpsucker Mike Dunleavy.

Speaking to the Resource Development Development Council in Anchorage on Wednesday, Kreiss-Tomkins listed his first priority as solving nuts-and-bolts problems — what he called “unsexy and non-glamorous” issues like wait times for state permits and government benefits like Medicaid. He said he hoped to “cultivate a culture of constant improvement in state government.”

“I really want to focus on making government work … making sure the basic processes and services that government is responsible for, that industry and others rely on, is working in the best possible way,” he said.

Alaska’s dependence on oil revenue lends itself to a feast-or-famine dynamic, he said.

“I know what the famine cycle looks like because that basically described all 10 years I happened to be in the Legislature,” he said. “But I have seen the history of what the feast cycle looks like, and I really don't want the pendulum to swing too hard the other direction.”

In that vein, Kreiss-Tomkins said he’s planning to pursue an amendment to the state Constitution to place stricter limits on how much the state can withdraw from the Permanent Fund each year. And he said he wants to deposit some of the coming year’s possible surplus into the state’s rainy-day fund.

But as Kreiss-Tomkins said numerous times on the campaign trail, there’s one area where he says he would like to see more spending: education.

“I think the state does need to make a course correction in terms of the degree we invest in public education,” he said.

Meanwhile, Peltola leads in U.S. Senate race, nearing 50% mark with almost all ballots counted.

If Peltola doesn't outright win in the first round of counting, the Division of Elections will eliminate the fourth place finisher and reallocate those ballots to those voters' second choices. Dan J. Sullivan from Petersburg came in fourth and early results indicate most of his supporters put Peltola as their second choice while some chose the other Republican in the race, Gerald Heikes. That's pretty slim pickings for the incumbent Sullivan.

The final tabulation will be on Nov. 18, the deadline for ballots mailed from overseas to arrive.