Elections in Alaska |
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United States Senate elections in Alaska occur when voters in the U.S. state of Alaska select an individual to represent the state in the United States Senate in either of the state's two seats allotted by the Constitution. Regularly scheduled general elections occur on Election Day, coinciding with various other federal, statewide, and local races.
Each state is allotted two U.S. Senators elected to staggered six-year terms, which were originally selected by the state legislature. The Senate is divided into three classes to stagger the terms of its members such that one-third of the Senate would be up for re-election every two years. Upon Alaska's admission to the Union in 1959, the state was assigned a Class 2 seat and a Class 3 seat, first elected in 1958. Since the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, U.S. Senators are elected directly by the voters of each state. Special elections may be held to fill mid-term vacancies to elect an individual to serve the remainder of the unexpired term.
The list below contains results from all U.S. Senate elections held in Alaska, sorted by year. The next scheduled election for the Class 2 seat is in 2026, while the Class 3 seat will hold its next election in 2028.
Year | Winner | Runner-up | Others | Ref | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||
1958 | Bob Bartlett | Democratic | 40,939 | 83.83% | R. E. Robertson | Republican | 7,299 | 14.95% | 599 | 1.23% | [1] | ||
1960 | Bob Bartlett* | Democratic | 38,041 | 63.42% | Lee McKinley | Republican | 21,937 | 36.58% | [2] | ||||
1966 | Bob Bartlett* | Democratic | 49,289 | 75.54% | Lee McKinley | Republican | 15,961 | 24.46% | [3] | ||||
1970 (sp) | Ted Stevens* | Republican | 47,908 | 59.61% | Wendell P. Kay | Democratic | 32,456 | 40.39% | [4] | ||||
1972 | Ted Stevens* | Republican | 74,216 | 77.30% | Gene Guess | Democratic | 21,791 | 22.70% | [5] | ||||
1978 | Ted Stevens* | Republican | 92,783 | 75.59% | Donald Hobbs | Democratic | 29,574 | 24.09% | 384 | 0.31% | [6] | ||
1984 | Ted Stevens* | Republican | 146,919 | 71.17% | John Havelock | Democratic | 58,804 | 28.49% | 715 | 0.35% | [7] | ||
1990 | Ted Stevens* | Republican | 125,806 | 66.23% | Michael Beasley | Democratic | 61,152 | 32.19% | 2,999 | 1.58% | [8] | ||
1996 | Ted Stevens* | Republican | 177,893 | 76.70% | Jed Whittaker | Green | 29,037 | 12.52% | 1,009 | 0.44% | [9] | ||
Theresa Obermeyer | Democratic | 23,977 | 10.34% | ||||||||||
2002 | Ted Stevens* | Republican | 179,438 | 78.17% | Frank Vondersaar | Democratic | 24,133 | 10.51% | 9,369 | 4.08% | [10] | ||
Jim Sykes | Green | 16,608 | 7.24% | ||||||||||
2008 | Mark Begich | Democratic | 151,767 | 47.77% | Ted Stevens* | Republican | 147,814 | 46.52% | 18,142 | 5.71% | [11] | ||
2014 | Dan Sullivan | Republican | 135,445 | 47.96% | Mark Begich* | Democratic | 129,431 | 45.83% | 17,524 | 6.21% | [12] | ||
2020 | Dan Sullivan* | Republican | 191,112 | 53.90% | Al Gross | Independent [a] | 146,068 | 41.19% | 17,407 | 4.91% | [13] |
Since Alaska became a U.S. state in 1959, it has sent congressional delegations to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. Each state elects two senators to serve for six years, and member(s) of the House to two-year terms. Before becoming a state, the Territory of Alaska elected a non-voting delegate at-large to Congress from 1906 to 1959.
Frank Hughes Murkowski is an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator representing Alaska from 1981 to 2002 and as the eighth governor of Alaska from 2002 to 2006.
Nicholas Joseph Begich Sr. was an American counselor, educator and politician. He served in the Alaska state senate for eight years before being elected in 1970 as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Alaska. He is presumed to have died in the crash of a light aircraft in Alaska in October 1972; his body was never found. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
Mark Peter Begich is an American politician and lobbyist who served as a United States senator from Alaska from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as mayor of Anchorage from 2003 to 2009.
The 2008 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 4, 2008. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator and former President pro tempore Ted Stevens ran for re-election for an eighth term in the United States Senate. It was one of the ten Senate races that U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, predicted as being most competitive. The primaries were held on August 26, 2008. Stevens was challenged by Democratic candidate Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage and son of former U.S. Representative Nick Begich.
Although in its early years of statehood, Alaska was a Democratic state, since the early 1970s it has been characterized as Republican-leaning. Local political communities have often worked on issues related to land use development, fishing, tourism, and individual rights. Alaska Natives, while organized in and around their communities, have been active within the Native corporations. These have been given ownership over large tracts of land, which require stewardship. The state has an independence movement favoring a vote on secession from the United States, with the Alaskan Independence Party, but its membership has shrunk in recent decades.
The 1980 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 4, 1980. Incumbent Democratic United States Senator Mike Gravel ran for a third term in the United States Senate, but lost in the Democratic primary to Clark Gruening, a former state representative who was the grandson of Ernest Gruening, whom Gravel had defeated twelve years prior in an election for the same seat. Gruening later went on to lose the general election to Republican nominee Frank Murkowski, a banker.
Mary Sattler Peltola is an American politician and former tribal judge who served as the U.S. representative from Alaska's at-large congressional district from 2022 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as a judge on the Orutsararmiut Native Council's tribal court, executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Bethel city councilor, and member of the Alaska House of Representatives.
The 2002 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Republican United States Senator Ted Stevens ran for and won a seventh term in the United States Senate. He faced perennial candidate Frank Vondersaar, the Democratic nominee, journalist Jim Sykes, the Green Party nominee, and several other independent candidates in his bid for re-election. Ultimately, Stevens defeated his opponents by an overwhelming margin to win what would be his last term in the Senate, the highest percentage of the vote of any of his elections. This would be the last Senate election in the state until 2020 in which the winning candidate received a majority of the vote.
The 2004 United States Senate election in Alaska took place on November 2, 2004, alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives, various state and local elections, and the presidential election of that year. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Anchorage, sought election to her first full term after being appointed by her father Frank Murkowski to serve out the rest of the latter's unexpired term when he resigned in December 2002 to become Governor of Alaska. Her main challenger was Democratic former governor Tony Knowles, her father's predecessor as governor. Murkowski won by a slight margin. As of 2022, Lisa Murkowski’s vote total of 149,773 votes remains the most raw votes she has ever received during any of her runs for the US Senate. This victory made Lisa Murkowski the first woman ever elected in the Congress from the state of Alaska.
The 1998 United States Senate election in Alaska was held November 3, 1998. Incumbent Republican United States Senator Frank Murkowski sought re-election to a fourth term in the United States Senate. Murkowski easily won re-election against Democratic nominee Joseph Sonneman, a perennial candidate, earning nearly 75% of the vote.
The 1992 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 3, 1992. Incumbent Republican United States Senator Frank Murkowski sought re-election to a third term in the United States Senate. Tony Smith, the Democratic nominee and a former Commissioner of Economic Development, won his party's nomination in a crowded primary and faced off against Murkowski in the general election. Though Murkowski was held to a lower vote percentage than he received six years prior, he was ultimately re-elected.
The 2016 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Alaska, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
The 2016 United States House of Representatives election in Alaska was held on November 8, 2016, to elect the U.S. representative from Alaska's at-large congressional district, who will represent the state of Alaska in the 114th United States Congress. The election coincided with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections in the United States Senate, and various state and local elections.
The November 2022 United States House of Representatives election in Alaska was held on Tuesday, November 8, to elect a member of the United States House of Representatives to represent the state of Alaska. Democratic incumbent Mary Peltola won re-election to a full term in office, defeating Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III and Libertarian Chris Bye in the runoff count.
The 2024 United States House of Representatives election in Alaska was held on November 5, 2024, to elect a member of the United States House of Representatives to represent the state of Alaska from its at-large congressional district. The election coincided with the 2024 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the U.S. House, elections to the United States Senate, and various other state and local elections.