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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 In 2022 and 2024, several high-finishing candidates have withdrawn from statewide races in order to consolidate party support, and the leading governor candidates have said that they are considering their options.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.

By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon

Over a month ago, Shelley Cotton cast the first vote in Alaska’s statewide primary election, downloading a blank ballot and sending it quickly by mail from Texas to Alaska. 

Since then, more than 31,000 other Alaskans have cast their ballots, and starting at 7 a.m. today, tens of thousands more residents will vote in an election that will start to decide who Alaska’s next governor will be.

What’s on the ballot? 

Seventeen people are vying to replace Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is term-limited and unable to run this year. In that race and all others on the ballot, voters will pick one candidate. The top four vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to November.

There are 16 candidates for U.S. Senate, including Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola. 

There are 15 candidates for U.S. House, including Republican incumbent Nick Begich III, independent challenger Bill Hill, and Democratic challenger Matt Schultz, who suspended his campaign last month and decided to back Hill.2026 Voter Guide

The candidates, the ballot measures, and the tools you need to cast your vote.

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As in the governor’s race, voters pick one candidate for each of those races, and the top four candidates advance to November.

There are 40 state House races and 10 state Senate races; each part of the state has one House race, and only half of the state has a state Senate race.

If there are four or fewer candidates for one or both of the legislative races, all candidates advance to November. Only five of the 50 legislative races have more than four candidates. 

On the back of the ballot, there’s also an up or down vote on Ballot Measure 1, which would reimpose limits on how much money that people can donate to political candidates. 

Ballot Measure 2, which has been the subject of extensive advertising, isn’t until November.

Where do I vote and what do I need to vote?

You can find your polling place by entering your information here. Bring a governmental ID; it doesn’t have to have your photo. If you don’t have an ID, bring a piece of mail with your name and address. 

If you can’t make it to your polling place on election day, you can go to another polling place and vote there, but you’ll be asked to provide additional identity information because that polling place won’t have a way to immediately check that you’re registered to vote.

What do I do if I want to vote by mail?

It’s too late to request a blank ballot. If you already have your blank ballot and need to return it, DO NOT just drop it into a mailbox. Your ballot must be postmarked by election day, and in Alaska, it may take a day or more for a ballot to be postmarked after it is mailed. Instead, go into a post office with your sealed ballot and ask the postal clerk to postmark it by hand. 

If you’re near a polling place, you can also drop your sealed ballot in the box there. 

How many people have already voted?

As of noon Monday, according to statistics published by the Division of Elections, almost 22,000 Alaskans had already voted early, in person at 10 polling stations in the Railbelt, Juneau and Nome. Another 9,000 voters had cast absentee ballots. 

That’s less than 5% of all eligible voters.

In early voting, a voter’s ID is checked when they cast their ballot, guaranteeing that the vote is counted. In absentee voting, the voter’s ID is checked later, and their ballot could be disqualified if elections officials aren’t able to verify that it was cast by an eligible voter. 

In 2020, 2022 and 2024, absentee ballots leaned Democratic, with election day results favoring Republicans and then leaning away from Republican candidates as additional votes were counted. 

This year, through Sunday, the division had received absentee ballots from 2,702 registered Republicans, 1,996 registered Democrats, and 4,467 undeclared and nonpartisan voters. 

Importantly, of the 22,838 blank absentee ballots requested by Alaska voters, only 9,232 had been returned by Sunday, indicating many more filled-out ballots could still be in the mail.

When do we know the results?

The Division of Elections has said the first partial, preliminary results will be available on its website about 9 p.m. Tuesday night. As more votes are counted, those results will be updated until early Wednesday morning, when elections officials take a break and go to sleep.

More counting may be needed on Wednesday or later this week to complete the election day tally.

Mailed ballots will be counted through Aug. 28, with results updated regularly through then. 

Any candidate who finishes in the final four can withdraw until Aug. 31. 

Governor and lieutenant governor run on a single ticket, and a governor can change out his or her lieutenant governor candidate until then as well.

Entering election day, six big questions remain unknowns.

Who will be the finalists in the governor’s race?

Pre-election polling indicated Democratic candidate Tom Begich was likely to finish first among the 17 candidates for governor. Because there are only two Democratic candidates, fellow Democratic candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins also appeared likely to finish in the top four.

What was less clear was which of the 12 Republican candidates would finish in the top four, and whether independent former Gov. Bill Walker would also make the cutoff. 

Will there be voting problems in rural Alaska?

In previous years, the Division of Elections has struggled to find election workers in rural towns and villages across Alaska. On Monday, observers tracking the division said the polling station in the North Slope community of Point Lay would open late because workers would not arrive until the morning flight.

In addition, prior elections saw elections officials reject an unusually large number of absentee ballots cast in rural Alaska. It isn’t yet clear whether that trend will continue this year.

On Saturday, the early voting station in Nome failed to open on time, an issue that helped prompt the Alaska Federation of Natives — in conjunction with other groups — to issue a statement saying they were deeply concerned by potential staffing issues and any effects on rural voters.

How enthusiastic are Democratic voters this year?

In other states that have already held their primary elections, Democratic voters turned out in large numbers, motivated by the desire to vote for candidates who oppose Republican President Donald Trump.

If the number of votes cast for statewide Democratic candidates exceeds or approaches the number of votes cast for statewide Republican candidates, that could indicate strong Democratic enthusiasm in Alaska as well, something that could affect the November result.

Two years ago, Democratic candidates posted unusually strong results in the August primary — but Alaska still voted for Trump by six percentage points and elected Republicans to statewide office.

Will any incumbents be voted out early in the Alaska Legislature?

Of the 50 state House and Senate races on the ballot Tuesday, there are only five with more than four candidates. Three of those races — two in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and one in Eagle River — have incumbents. 

Incumbent lawmakers traditionally have an advantage in crowded primary elections because of name recognition and popularity, but it’s possible that one or more could lose. 

Rep. Garret Nelson, R-Sutton, was appointed to his office by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and is running for election for the first time against five challengers. Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, is facing four challengers, as is Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake.

In Bristol Bay, Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, is competing with four other candidates to replace Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, who is retiring as the longest-serving state legislator in Alaska history.

Seven people are competing to replace Edgmon in the state’s most crowded legislative race. 

Will donation limits return to Alaska’s state political campaigns?

In 2006, 73% of participating voters approved a ballot measure that limited the amount of money that a political candidate can receive from a person or group. 

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned those limits in 2021, and the Dunleavy administration declined to fight the issue further.

Now, voters will be asked to reimpose some limits. The new measure isn’t as comprehensive as the last measure, in part because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that states cannot limit third-party spending by groups acting independently of campaigns.

Those groups have flooded Alaskans’ mailboxes with mailers ahead of the primary, but stanching the flow could require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution or a new ruling by the Supreme Court.

By: Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon

Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday introduced a new natural gas pipeline bill that he characterized as a compromise between conflicting philosophies on oil and gas taxes that he wants lawmakers to pass during the ongoing special session.

The new bill would nearly eliminate property taxes that would be charged on the operator of a yet-to-be-built gas pipeline. Dunleavy and Glenfarne, the Texas-based investment company that is now the main sponsor of the gas pipeline project, have argued in recent months that such concessions are a major requirement for the project to be built.

The special session is due to end in less than two weeks. Lawmakers are still evaluating the proposal, but on Monday members of the Senate’s bipartisan majority expressed reticence to make quick decisions on a gasline bill.

Dunleavy’s new bill contains a concession to a tax previously sought by the Senate majority. It would also impose a small corporate income tax on certain private oil- and gas-producing corporations. Those companies, also known as S corporations or pass-through corporations, are currently exempted from such taxes in Alaska law. For now, the main corporation that would be affected is Hilcorp, a privately held Texas-based company that operated the Prudhoe Bay field and other North Slope assets that used to be owned by BP. Several legislators view Hilcorp’s exemption from corporate income taxes as a loophole that should be closed.

The governor said legislators should pass his bill in what is now the third special session he has called on the subject.

“I have never been in favor of new taxes on Alaska’s producers, and I still am not,” Dunleavy said in a statement. “This bill is a compromise that removes a significant barrier to moving the gas line forward. Given the robust discussion and work that has already gone into this bill, I am hopeful the legislature can swiftly pass a bill that will help the AK LNG project get the financing it needs to start construction as soon as possible.”

The 2% tax rate Dunleavy proposed on petroleum-producing S corporations is significantly lower than the lower than tax rates  legislative leaders have previously proposed, which went up as high as 9.4%.

Officials and energy companies in Alaska and elsewhere have been pushing since the 1970s — even before oil began flowing through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System — for a second pipeline to deliver the North Slope’s vast but stranded natural gas resources to markets. None of the plans has been economically feasible, even though politicians at various points over the past decades declared that construction was imminent.

The current iteration of the gas commercialization plan calls for a pipeline to run about 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to tidewater at Cook Inlet, where the product would be liquefied for shipment by tanker to markets. The estimated price tag is $65 billion to $70 billion, according to legislators.

A bill considered during an earlier special session, House Bill 381, proposed to grant the property tax concession, but it also included several conditions for any LNG sponsor to meet, such as timeline assurances, labor protections, alternative sources of state revenue and required financial support of local school districts.

The bill also included a bracketed income tax with rates up to 9.4% on petroleum-producing S corporations such as Hilcorp — significantly higher than the 2% that Dunleavy is now proposing.

That bill passed the state Senate narrowly last month but was rejected by the House.

One lawmaker on Wednesday said Dunleavy’s new bill, just like any oil tax legislation, should not be rushed.

“It would be wildly irresponsible to pass complex oil and gas legislation without due diligence to understand the consequences,” said Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage.

Leaders of the state Senate majority caucus, in a statement on Monday, expressed skepticism about the need for any further concessions to help Glenfarne’s plan.

“For more than fifty years, Alaskans have worked to bring our gas to market, and every member who has served in this building shares that goal. The Senate has done its part in good faith, passing two bills that would let this project move forward while protecting the people we answer to,” Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said in the statement. “A decision of this scale will outlast all of us, and it deserves to be made with care rather than in haste. We are ready to evaluate the project further once the producer, Glenfarne, and the Administration bring us the numbers this year. These are Alaska’s resources, and they must work first and foremost for Alaskans.”

The special session is scheduled to end on Aug. 25.