The greater Pacif­ic North­west­’s con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion appears to have just got­ten more diverse and more Democratic!

Today, the Alas­ka Divi­sion of Elec­tions released the final tab­u­la­tions in the state’s spe­cial elec­tion for the Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and it turns out that Demo­c­ra­t­ic hope­ful Mary Pel­to­la has pre­vailed over sev­er­al Repub­li­can rivals — includ­ing Sarah Palin! — to fin­ish out the unex­pired term begun by the late Con­gress­man Don Young, who passed away sev­er­al months ago.

Pel­to­la, forty-nine, is the first Alas­ka Native to be elect­ed to Congress.

The results do still have to be cer­ti­fied, but things look sol­id for Pel­to­la. She appears des­tined to become the first fed­er­al offi­cial in Alas­ka to be elect­ed under the state’s new ranked choice vot­ing sys­tem, which allows vot­ers to rank can­di­dates in the order they pre­fer rather than vot­ing for just one candidate.

Here’s how the rank­ing exer­cise played out:

• In Round One, Repub­li­can Nick Begich got 28.52% of the vote, Repub­li­can Sarah Palin got 31.28% of the vote, and Pel­to­la got 40.20% of the vote. Begich was elim­i­nat­ed because he received the fewest votes.
• In Round Two, Palin received 48.53% of the vote, while Pel­to­la remained in first place with 51.47% of the vote. Pel­to­la is the vic­tor and Palin is the los­er. Pel­to­la was able to win because some of Begich’s vot­ers pre­ferred her as their next choice over Palin, a mil­i­tant extremist.

Specif­i­cal­ly, 27,042 Begich sup­port­ers’ votes were trans­ferred to Palin, while 15,445 Begich sup­port­ers’ votes were trans­ferred to Peltola.

That left Pel­to­la with 91,206 votes at the end of Round Two, while Palin had 85,987 votes. There were 3,401 blanks, 11,222 exhaust­ed bal­lots, and 342 over­votes, for a non-trans­fer­able total of 14,965.

It is a rare event to be able to report that a Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date has won a statewide elec­tion in The Last Fron­tier. The last time a Demo­c­rat won fed­er­al office in Alas­ka was in 2008, when Mark Begich (anoth­er mem­ber of the Begich fam­i­ly) defeat­ed Ted Stevens for a six year term in the Unit­ed States Senate.

And, as men­tioned, this is the very first time an Alas­ka Native has won an elec­tion for fed­er­al office in the nation’s forty-nine state. It’s a tru­ly his­toric night.

“It is a good day,” Pel­to­la’s cam­paign declared after the results were announced.

“We’ve won tonight, but we’re still going to have to hold this seat in Novem­ber. Donate today to help us make it happen.”

In an ear­li­er tweet, she told back­ers: “When Alaskans work togeth­er, we win. That’s why I know the broad coali­tion we’re build­ing has the real chance of build­ing the momen­tum we need to win in Novem­ber. For the sake of our nat­ur­al resources, our work­ers, and our right to choose, we have to.”

“From the onset of her cam­paign, Mary unabashed­ly artic­u­lat­ed her posi­tions on the issues most impor­tant to Alaskans. We can’t stress enough how deeply her mes­sage res­onat­ed with vot­ers in light of tonight’s elec­tion out­come,” said Alas­ka Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Lind­say Kavanaugh.

“Tonight rep­re­sents a vic­to­ry for democ­ra­cy and Alaskans. We stand behind Con­gress­woman-Elect Pel­to­la as she pre­pares to head to Wash­ing­ton, D.C. and begin her work fight­ing for a bet­ter Alaska.”

“Mary has run a tremen­dous cam­paign and in the process, won over the hearts and minds of Alaskans. She has refused to shy away from her demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues and has been noth­ing less than her authen­tic self,” said ADP Par­ty Chair Michael Wen­strup. “Alaskans have made clear they want a ratio­nal, stead­fast, hon­est, and car­ing voice speak­ing for them in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., not oppor­tunists and extrem­ists asso­ci­at­ed with the Alas­ka Repub­li­can Party.”

As you might expect, Palin isn’t tak­ing the loss well.

She’s already blam­ing RCV for her defeat.

“Ranked-choice vot­ing was sold as the way to make elec­tions bet­ter reflect the will of the peo­ple. As Alas­ka — and Amer­i­ca — now sees, the exact oppo­site is true,” Palin groused. “Though we’re dis­ap­point­ed in this out­come, Alaskans know I’m the last one who’ll ever retreat. Instead, I’m going to reload.”

Begich, mean­while, declared that the out­come shows Palin is a weak candidate.

“The biggest les­son as we move into the 2022 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, is that ranked choice vot­ing showed that a vote for Sarah Palin is in real­i­ty a vote for Mary Pel­to­la. Palin sim­ply doesn’t have enough sup­port from Alaskans to win an elec­tion,” said Begich. “As we look for­ward to the Novem­ber elec­tion, I will work hard to earn the vote of Alaskans all across the state.”

Begich’s com­ments refer to the upcom­ing vote for this same office for a full two-year term. What Pel­to­la has just won is an unex­pired term last­ing a few weeks. She’ll only be in office until Jan­u­ary unless she can con­vince Alaskans to retain her in the quick­ly approach­ing gen­er­al elec­tion to decide the com­po­si­tion of the next Con­gress, which will be seat­ed right after the new year.

The next time we pub­lish a House roll call vote here on The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate, we’ll be able to include the vote cast by Mary Pel­to­la. How about that!

This tru­ly is a his­toric night for Alas­ka, the Pacif­ic North­west, and the country.