Alaska Senate Race Gets Wilder | Anchorage News

0:00It's September 1st. Welcome in. This is Anchorage News Today, where local news meets AI. I'm Corey with the story. Alright, let's talk about this Alaska Senate race shake-up. So, the deadline to drop out of the general election passed, and we've got some shifts. The main event, the incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, is still in the running. But on the Democratic side, the fourth-place finisher, David Leslie, has pulled out. This is a big deal, because under Alaska's ranked-choice system, the top four who stay and move onto the general election. Now, with Leslie out, that opens the door for Gerald Hikes, a Republican who finished just behind him to get on the ballot. Hikes is a candidate who's been around, and get this. There's been some serious money spent trying to boost him, reportedly over $400,000 from a group called Right for Alaska. The strategy seems to be about weakening Senator Sullivan, and Hikes is now part of that equation. This whole situation has some interesting background. There's another Sullivan in the race, Dan J. Sullivan, who ran as a Republican and came

1:04in third. He faced some legal challenges from Republican groups who thought he was a plant to help the Democrat, Mary Peltola. He's denied that and plans to keep pushing his message against the incumbent Senator, talking about how Alaska's not doing so well in areas like child. Well-being and business rankings. Meanwhile, Gerald Hikes, the guy now on the ballot because Leslie dropped out, has also been a target. In a previous run for the House, a Democrat-backed group spent money highlighting his stance on abortion. He mentioned feeling pressure from various powerful institutions when explaining his decision to stay in the race. So as it stands, the general election ballot will feature incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan, Democrat Mary Peltola, Republican Dan J. Sullivan, and now Republican Gerald Hikes. It's a complex political landscape out there, and these moves definitely changed the dynamics heading into November.