Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins Makes Alaska Governor Race Breakthrough - Newsweek

Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins passed the threshold to avoid a ranked-choice voting runoff with the latest ballot count, pulling ahead of three Republicans with 50.2 percent of the total vote.

With 88 percent of votes counted as of Friday early morning, Bernadette M. Wilson, a television and radio host, trailed the former state representative with 28.7 percent of the vote, followed by Dave Bronson and Treg Taylor with 13.8 percent and 7.3 percent.

In 2020, a majority of voters in Alaska chose to adopt ranked-choice voting and an open primary system, which allows multiple candidates from the same party to advance to the general election. This is why there were four candidates on the ballot on November 3.

Kreiss-Tomkins, who had obtained 23 percent of the vote in the 17-candidate primary, was left as the only Democrat on the ballot after former state Sen. Tom Begich, who had placed second with about 21 percent of the vote, withdrew to avoid splitting the vote. Kreiss-Tomkins was left to face three Republican candidates who had obtained only between 10 and 7 percent of the vote in the primary.

Under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting, if a candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, they win outright.

If nobody gets over that threshold, the last-place candidate is eliminated and ballots cast for that candidate are transferred to voters’ next choices, their second-ranked candidate. The process continues until one candidate has a majority.

If Kreiss-Tomkins remains above 50 percent, the ranked-choice voting system will not be triggered and the results should be announced without tabulation or ranked choices. A victory would make him the first Democrat to be elected to lead the state in over two decades, after Alaska voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential election since 1968.

But more votes remain to be counted. Should the Democrat slip below 50 percent again, the state’s ranked choice process will occur on November 18 for all candidate races in the state where no candidate has reached a majority.

Still, Kreiss-Tomkins has a much wider margin over his competitors than fellow Democrat Mary Peltola has had in the state’s U.S. Senate race so far. CNN’s Decision Desk projects that Kreiss-Tomkins will win the gubernatorial race.

Kreiss-Tomkins, an Alaska native born and raised in Sitka, represented Southeast Alaska’s island communities for 10 years in the State House. He ran a campaign focused on affordability, expanding healthcare access and protecting the rural state’s fisheries. He received the key endorsement of Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who said that the future of the state is “too important to be hamstrung by partisan divisions.”

In a statement released by Kreiss-Tomkins campaign on October 27, she said: “Jonathan understands that governing requires listening to people with different perspectives and finding common ground to solve the problems all of us face.”

Kreiss-Tomkins was also endorsed by former Gov. Tony Knowles, the last Democratic governor of the state, who was in office from 1994 to 2002.

Newsweek contacted Kreiss-Tomkins campaign's team for comment via the candidate’s website on Friday morning, outside of standard working hours. Representatives for the Wilson campaign were contacted by email.

Alaska’s gubernatorial race proved more competitive than Democrats initially expected in a state which President Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2016, 2020 and 2024. Trump received 54.5 percent of the vote in 2024, a 13.1-point lead over former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

But voters in the Last Frontier have proven willing to give Democrats a chance, like many Americans across the country on November 3. In the state’s U.S. Senate race, Democrat Mary Peltola is currently in the lead over Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, with 49.2 percent of the vote over the incumbent’s 47 percent.

Neither Peltola nor Sullivan has passed the 50 percent threshold yet, with 88 percent of the votes counted. The state accepts ballots up to 15 days after general elections from overseas voters, which this year is November 18. If neither candidate receives over 50 percent of the vote, officials will conduct ranked vote tabulations.

The State of Alaska Division of Elections said its target date for certifying the race’s result is November 25.

It remains too early to call both gubernatorial and Senate races. If Kreiss-Tomkins and Peltola win their respective races, Alaska could become the latest red state to turn blue after the midterms.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and Cristina Diciu.