It seems that 2026 really is the year of nostalgia. Whether it’s 2010s hair bump or the return of McDonald’s fried apple pie, people are looking to the past.
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Day: August 19, 2026
James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
Democratic governor candidates Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich, and Republican candidates Bernadette Wilson and Dave Bronson led in early vote counting for Alaska’s Tuesday primary election for governor.
Seventeen people, including two Democrats, 12 Republicans and three independents, are seeking to replace Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is term-limited and unable to run again this year.
As of 2 a.m. Wednesday, with 378 of 402 precincts reporting results from election day, Kreiss-Tomkins had 21.7% of the vote, Begich had 20.1%, Wilson had 10.5% and Bronson had 8.4%.
The first candidate outside the top four was Republican Treg Taylor, with 7.5%, followed by Republican Click Bishop, with 7.1%.
Ballot-counting is expected to continue through Aug. 28, the deadline for mailed absentee ballots to reach the Alaska Division of Elections.
Candidates who finish in the top four have until Aug. 31 to decide whether they will remain in the race or withdraw. In 2022 and 2024, several high-finishing candidates have withdrawn from statewide races in order to consolidate party support, and the leading governor candidates have said that they are considering their options.
Kreiss-Tomkins, 37, would be the youngest governor in Alaska history if elected in November and has campaigned as a progressive Democrat.
“Today, Alaskans took the first huge step in choosing a new direction for our state,” he said in a written statement Tuesday night.
Begich, a former state senator, has likewise run as a progressive Democrat. He is the son of former Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, brother of former Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich and the uncle of current Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III.
Wilson, a businesswoman from Anchorage, has been active in statewide Republican politics for decades but never before as a candidate. An opponent of the state’s existing open-primary/ranked-choice general election system, she has offered a platform similar to that of incumbent Gov. Dunleavy.
Bronson is a former mayor of Anchorage whose sole term was marred by repeated controversies and scandals before he was voted out of office. He has likewise offered a platform similar to Dunleavy.
While the two Democratic candidates are almost certain to finish with the highest vote tally in the primary, success in the primary doesn’t always signify a win in November.
Two years ago, incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola earned almost 51% of the vote during that year’s pick-one primary for U.S. House, outpacing all Republican candidates combined. In the general election, the result flipped and Republican challenger Nick Begich III defeated Peltola.
On Tuesday, the combined vote total of Begich and Kreiss-Tomkins appeared on track to be less than 50% of all votes cast.
Voter turnout appeared to be high; with only 60% of precincts reporting results, participation was already above the 2024 primary and inching toward the near-record turnout of 2022, when the primary coincided with a special election to fill out the term of U.S. Rep. Don Young, who had died in the spring.
As of Tuesday morning, voters had returned only 47% of the 21,266 absentee ballots that were sent out, indicating that thousands more ballots are likely to be added to the tally in coming days.
In the 2024 primary, 86% of absentee ballots were returned, and in the 2022 primary, almost 98% were returned.
Ahead of the election, President Donald Trump had sought to ban states from counting absentee ballots received after election day.
The Dunleavy administration did not oppose the Trump order in court, but other states did, and the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the president’s move for now.
In addition to the absentee ballots, there were 25,407 early votes, cast in person at 10 locations on the Railbelt, in Juneau and in Nome, between Aug. 3 and Aug. 17.
Only early votes cast through Aug. 13 were included in the election day count; ballots cast during the final five days of early voting are sequestered by the division to prevent double voting.
While the number of Alaskans casting ballots at early voting centers set a primary-election record, most votes this year came on election day, at more than 400 polling places spread across the state.
In Anchorage, candidates stood on street corners, waving signs alongside supporters — and competed for space with their opponents.
At one point, Begich — a Democrat — stood on a corner opposite from U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III, his nephew and a Republican.
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(The Center Square) – In Michigan, center of the U.S. auto manufacturing, just a week can make a dime’s worth of difference in the price of a gallon of gas these days.
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As the world continues to process Hayden Panettiere’s tragic death, mourning fans are learning more about where things stood.
Unfortunately, the actress had quietly gotten back together with Brian Hickerson, the guy who pleaded no contest to punching her just a few years ago. (One of multiple known domestic violence incidents.)
Now, a series of threatening texts that he apparently sent to Panettiere have been published.
Be warned, the sheer malice of these words is difficult to read, to say nothing of the violent context.
It certainly reads like an attempt to blackmail her into dropping charges
TMZ obtained documents stemming from Hickerson’s February 14, 2020 arrest for domestic battery.
(There is no good day to punch one’s partner, but choosing Valentine’s Day for such an evil act seems extra despicable somehow.)
Like Panettiere’s death, this happened at an Airbnb.
A court order following the closed-fist blow prohibited Hickerson from contacting his victim.
That did not stop him from sending her a series of threatening texts — texts that sound a lot like an attempt at blackmail.
Hayden Panettiere’s mother Lesley Vogel slams Hayden’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson:
“This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death, and that was Brian Hickerson.” pic.twitter.com/29dJvG6C3n
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 18, 2026
“Time to go to war I guess,” one of Hickerson’s alleged texts reads.
“After Wyoming and LA disappears so do the videos,” another message taunted.
“Even if i sit in a jail cell for ten years. All of the stuff that is vaulted overseas with my people will come out the second I step foot into prison,” what appears to be a clear blackmail threat announces.
“And all that does is hurt your name while simultaneously clearing my name,” Hickerson apparently claimed. “And at that point who actually cares?” Wow.
“Say something Hayd, so I don’t get defensive and start firing off emails to people to get ready,” another threatened.
The sentence that he received would be laughable if it were funny
“I thought his legal stuff would magically disappear,” another alleged text menaced. “We gotta figure something out, buddy.”
Hickerson’s texts continued in the report, reading: “It is very simple, it is a very simple fix, between me and you, you gotta make one phone call,” and “I don’t want to go to court, for you.”
An additional message threatened Hayden Panettiere with: “I will be f–king fine in court, trust me, it’s for you.”
Hickerson was sentenced to one year behind bars … and then the sentence was suspended, resulting in one year of probation.
The ways in which our society and legal system do not protect victims of domestic violence are staggering. The most evil men alive walk free while innocent people who have harmed no one spend years in prison for possession of a forbidden plant in some states.
We have no idea what video, if any, Brian Hickerson claimed to have of Hayden Panettiere. We also do not want to know.
To be clear, the Valentine’s Day 2020 episode was not his only time facing charges for domestic violence against Panettiere.
He ended up spending weeks in jail, years on probation. Hickerson was also ordered to take domestic violence prevention classes, a measure that many experts have pointed out is unlikely to work.
Domestic abusers do not actually “lose control” or simply misunderstand how to process their emotions or whatever else they may claim during the faux apology phase. Violence is a tool that they employ to get their way, to make them feel powerful and in control.
There are measures that a responsible society could employ to keep malefactors like Hickerson from harming anyone else ever again. But that would require caring about victims and justice and women and children and a lot of other things that do not seem to be priorities for lawmakers.
Brian Hickerson’s Threatening Texts to Hayden Panettiere, Exposed was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
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