What’s really going on in Alaska politics — that doesn’t involve Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin may have quit her job as Alaska's governor, but now she's running for Congress along with 40 other candidates. While Palin is going to test the endorsement of Donald Trump, that's not the most interesting thing about politics in the state this year, as the Washington Post's Amber Phillips explained.
Trump is also about to be tested when it comes to his ongoing war with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who is up for reelection in November. The state's GOP is already abandoning Murkowski, endorsing her opponent.
"But Murkowski is still competitive," wrote Phillips. "She has survived challenges from the right before: In 2010, she famously lost a primary, then won a write-in in the general election to keep her seat. She’s raising a lot of money, and Senate Republicans in Washington support her. (It’s one of several fascinating splits this election season between the Republican establishment and the grass roots.)"
There's also the matter of Murkowski's past write-in campaign. The last time the far-right went after a mid-term election was 2010 when the so-called tea party took over the GOP. Murkowski lost in the June primary, but when it came to the general election, she scored over 100,000 votes as a write-in candidate.
But that may not be the main reason that Murkowski could be saved from Trump's stink-eye. This will be the first year that Alaska uses ranked-choice voting. Phillips explained that the new rules, passed in 2020 will make it easier to hand Murkowski a victory because the top four vote-getters across the board in all parties will go into the general election.
"In the general election, Alaskans will rank their first four choices. (There is also a fifth space for write-in candidates.) If no candidate gets a majority of the vote, the last place candidate is eliminated, and that person’s votes are distributed to whoever that candidate’s supporters ranked as their second choice. And on it goes until one candidate is a winner," she explained.
The far-right is in the minority, so ranked-choice voting will likely elevate Murkowski over a Trump Republican, even in a state where he won by 10 points.