GOP House hopefuls vow to not target each other, like in 2022, in ranked-vote general election race to unseat Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska).
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) easily swept past their Republican rivals in deep-red Wyoming’s Aug. 20 primary elections.
In Alaska’s primaries, four House candidates—including incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska)—emerged from a 12-candidate nonpartisan scrum to secure general election berths in the state’s ranked voting system.
Barrasso, seeking a fourth Senate term, was declared the winner by The Associated Press (AP) with just 5 percent of the vote counted at 8:01 p.m. (MT) with 68.9 percent of the tally, or 3,342 votes. Rancher and businessman Reid Rasner had 23.3 percent and John Holtz less than 8 percent.
He faces Democrat educator Scott Morrow, uncontested in his party primary, on Nov. 5.
First-term incumbent Hageman, who defeated Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in 2022’s midterms, had no problems blowing by attorney Steve Helling in the GOP primary. The AP declared her the winner with 5 percent of ballots tallied at 8:01 p.m. MT, accruing 79.7 percent of the vote.
She’s not likely to be tested in the general election, either, in her match-up against progressive Kyle Cameron, who was also unchallenged in the Democratic Party primary.
Wyoming’s state legislature GOP primaries pitted Freedom Caucus conservatives against Wyoming Caucus moderates in a state where more than 89 percent of 220,000 registered voters are Republicans.
Of 62 House and 15 Senate seats on the ballot, 56 Republican primaries featured two or more candidates. The only contested seats were on the GOP side of the primary ledger.
Republicans control more than 90 percent of the legislature’s seats in Cheyenne. Wyoming voted for former President Donald Trump by a higher percentage than any other state in 2016 and 2020.
According to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s election data, only 16 Democrats are running for legislature seats, a 26-year low and far fewer than the 62 who ran in 2016.
Wyoming’s 2024 primary is also the first election since state lawmakers adopted a closed primary system, requiring voters to register with a party at least 90 days before a primary election.
Alaska’s open jungle primary, or ranked vote elections, are the opposite: all candidates run on the same ballot and any registered voter can participate.
Peltola, the first Democrat in five decades to win Alaska’s House seat in 2022, notched 43,o79 votes, 50 percent of total ballots cast, with 65 percent of the tally counted to lead the crowded field at 10 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time (ADT), two hours after polls closed.
She, along with Republicans Nick Begich, a 2022 candidate, and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, was declared by the AP as a qualifier for the Nov. 5 general election ballot, with Republican Matthew Salisbury and the Alaska Independent Party’s John Wayne Howe vying for the fourth and final berth.
Begich, whose grandfather, Rep. Nick Begich (D-Alaska), was the last Democrat before Peltola to serve in Congress—disappearing in a 1972 plane crash and succeeded by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who held the seat for nearly 50 years—had garnered 23,523 votes or 27.3 percent. Dahlstrom had accrued 17,696 votes, or 20.5 percent.
No other candidate, including Salisbury and Howe, had more than 0.6 percent, meaning the House contest will essentially be a three-way race between the incumbent Democrat and two Republican challengers.
Peltola won a special election in 2022, which featured 47 candidates, following Young’s death. She then won the 2022 midterms, defeating Republicans, including former governor and 2012 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Begich.
Peltola is among 37 Democrat-held incumbents targeted as vulnerable by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).
Dahlgren and Begich have vowed not to attack each other to avoid party in-fighting that Republicans say contributed to Peltola’s 2022 win.
Wyoming and Alaska are two of seven states with one statewide Congressional district. Florida also staged its primaries on Aug. 20 with 28 House seats and Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) seat on the ballot. All 27 incumbents seeking reelection, including 19 Republicans, advanced to the general election, as did Scott.
The three states are among the last to stage the 2024 primaries. Four states remain. Massachusetts on Sept. 3, and New Hampshire, Delaware, and Rhode Island on Sept. 10.