The field of candidates in an open primary to replace former Representative Don Young of Alaska, who died in March, is packed: eight Republicans, one
The field of candidates in an open primary to replace former Representative Don Young of Alaska, who died in March, is packed: eight Republicans, one Democrat and 13 other contenders, for a total of 22 names on the ballot on Tuesday. Four of them will advance to November.
The most famous name belongs to Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican nominee for vice president, who has been endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump. But there are two other strong candidates in the race: Nick Begich III, a former co-chairman of the Alaska Republican Party’s Finance Committee, and Mary Peltola, a Democratic former state lawmaker.
Those three are also on the ballot in a separate special election on Tuesday, which will determine who fills the seat until the current term ends in January. That contest is being held under a ranked-choice system and, because ranked-choice voting requires extensive tabulations, it may take a couple weeks to learn who won it.
Here is a look at a couple of the front-runners who are less nationally known.
Nick Begich III
Mr. Begich, 44, is the founder and chief executive of a software development company. He was a co-chairman of Mr. Young’s 2020 campaign, helped lead the “OneAlaska” campaign against a 2020 ballot initiative that would have increased taxes on some oil production, and has worked with conservative groups including the Club for Growth and the Alaska Policy Forum.
The Alaska Republican Party endorsed his campaign in April.
Mr. Begich opposes gun control laws, rejects vaccine mandates and other pandemic mitigation policies, and supports oil and gas production. On abortion, he said in a June debate that he agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade but that it should be up to states to ban or allow the procedure, suggesting he might not support a national ban.
More Coverage of the 2022 Midterm Elections
He has not endorsed Mr. Trump’s lies about the 2020 election but has not directly rejected them. In interviews, he has answered questions on the topic vaguely, mentioning many Republicans’ false belief that the election was stolen without saying it is unfounded.
“Unfortunately, Joe Biden is the president,” he said in response to a questionnaire from The Anchorage Daily News. “It’s clear that we have a crisis of confidence in our election systems, and restoring that confidence requires improved public transparency.”
If Mr. Begich’s surname sounds familiar, it may be because he is a nephew of former Senator Mark Begich, a Democrat who served from 2009 to 2015. Nick Begich Sr., the current candidate’s grandfather, was a Democratic member of the House from 1971 until his disappearance in a plane crash the following year. Tom Begich, the candidate’s uncle, is a Democratic member of the Alaska Senate.
Mary Peltola
Ms. Peltola — the only Democrat in the 22-candidate primary — served in the Alaska House from 2009 to 2019 before becoming the executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, which works with tribes to manage salmon resources. She has also served as a councilwoman in Bethel, a small city in western Alaska, and as a judge on the Orutsararmuit Native Council Tribal Court.
Ms. Peltola, 48, has put economic issues at the forefront of her campaign, calling for a renewal of the expanded child tax credit, universal prekindergarten as proposed in Democrats’ Build Back Better legislation, stronger labor protections and a public health care option. She supports abortion rights and wants to codify them in federal law.
On environmental issues, she has made a point to emphasize local input and control: “Decisions about where and how to harvest, drill or mine must reflect the priorities of people living closest to any proposed project,” her website says. In response to an Anchorage Daily News questionnaire, she said she would push for more oil supply to come from Alaska for now, but added, “For every dollar we invest in short-term nonrenewable fossil fuel development, we need to invest 10 times that amount in long-term renewable energy resources.”
Ms. Peltola, a Yup’ik Eskimo, would be the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress. Only five Indigenous people — two Cherokee, one Chickasaw, one Ho-Chunk and one Native Hawaiian — are currently serving in Congress from any state.
“It is long past time that an Indigenous person was sent to D.C. to work on behalf of Alaska,” she told The New York Times this spring.
www.nytimes.com