On August 23, Nancy Dahlstrom withdrew from the U.S. House race in Alaska, following the August 20 top-four primary. She had placed third. She is a Republican and the current Lieutenant Governor. Under a precedent set in 2022, this should mean that fifth-place finisher John Wayne Howe, the Alaskan Independence Party candidate, will appear on the November ballot.
U.S. House is the only statewide office on the ballot in Alaska this year, other than president.
Matthew Salisbury, the 4th place candidate, should also drop. That would allow the 6th place candidate, Eric Hafner, another Democrat, to be in the general election. Last time, two Republicans being in the race let the Democrat win. Having two Democrats in the race would probably allow the Republican to win this time around.
Alaska really needs to switch to a “one candidate per party” rule. Having back-to-back election seasons where the GOP and the Dems sabotaged their own party by splitting funding would cause a bi-partisan agreement to change the law to something that makes more sense.
@Thecommander Jeff… The general election uses instant runoff, vote splitting is not the cause of the Republican loss in 2022, it’s that enough of Nick Begich’s votes transferred to the Democrat to push her over 50%. If there’s two Dems, most likely one would just transfer all their votes to the other. You can see a flow chart of vote transfers for 2022 on the Wikipedia page for that election.