UNITED STATES: On Wednesday, Donald Trump-backed candidates Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mary Peltola, a Democrat, both triumphed over their challengers to win re-election. These victories mark the most recent high-profile losses for those who supported the former president.
Officials in Alaska have completed counting all ballots from the Nov. 8 election using the new “ranked choice” method, which enables voters to rank candidates in order of preference. Peltola and Murkowski have won.
Since her election to the Senate in 2002, Murkowski, 65, has served as Alaska’s senator and has established a reputation as one of the few centrists in the body.
After Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an effort to stop Congress from confirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, she was the first Republican senator to demand Trump quit. Later, she cast a vote to remove Republican rival Donald Trump from office.
Sarah Palin, a previous vice presidential contender, and businessman Nick Begich were defeated by Todd Peltola, the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is a divisive figure in the Republican Party. Her unsuccessful bid for vice president in 2008 marked the beginning of the Tea Party movement in American politics and paved the path for Trump to be elected president.
Both Murkowski and Peltola received a majority of votes; therefore, they would have triumphed even under the previous electoral laws in Alaska.
The candidate with the lowest percentage of votes in each round of counting is removed in the ranked-choice method, and the ballots that gave them the top spot are then redistributed. After all ballots have been counted, the candidate with the most votes wins.
After Peltola defeated the same two candidates in a special election in August, Palin, whom Trump endorsed, and Begich put pressure on one another to withdraw so that the Republican who remained would have a greater chance of defeating the Democrat.
Each, however, was rejected, claiming that Alaskan voters would favour their brand of conservatism more. One of the largest percentages of independent voters in the nation is found in this state.
Given the political preferences of the voters who did not cast ballots for the top two candidates in each race, the outcomes of the contests were widely anticipated.
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