After Alaska result, all eyes on Georgia runoff
Independent candidate won’t concede yet as ballot counting continues
JUNEAU, ALASKA— Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan has won re-election in Alaska, defeating independent Al Gross in a race that attracted outside attention with control of the Senate at stake.
The race had been determined too early to call on election day, Nov. 3, due to a large number of outstanding absentee ballots. Election officials began counting more than 150,000 absentee and other ballots on Tuesday.
The result in Alaska means that control of the Senate won’t be decided until January Senate runoffs are held in Georgia.
Republican and Democrats are bracing for an unprecedented national-scale campaign in Georgia, a newfound two-party battleground where record turnout of roughly five million split almost evenly. Presidentelect Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by about 14,000 votes, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced plans Wednesday for an audit with a hand tally of ballots before certifying the results.
Georgia Sen. David Perdue, a staunch Trump ally first elected in 2014, led Democrat Jon Ossoff but fell short of the majority Georgia law requires for victory. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, appointed after Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson announced his retirement last year, trailed Democratic challenger Rev. Raphael Warnock in an all-party primary to finish out the final two years of a six-year term.
It’s a familiar trope for Republicans to blast Democrats, especially in traditionally GOPleaning states, as “too liberal” or even “socialist.” But the vehemence to open a two-month runoff blitz underscores the national stakes of Georgia’s unusual twin Senate contests and the sharp focus Republicans are putting on energizing core supporters for a second round of voting.
In Alaska, the Gross campaign on Wednesday did not indicate it was immediately ready to concede after The Associated Press called the race for Sullivan.
The Republicans in the toptier races on Alaska’s ballot — Trump, Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Don Young — held largely similar vote counts, and advantages, when election day results and early votes through Oct. 29 were tallied.
The Associated Press called all three races for the Republican incumbents on Wednesday, after initial results from absentee and other ballot counts were released late Tuesday. The counting continued Wednesday.
Sullivan had predicted he would win. Gross, who said his campaign encouraged Alaskans to vote absentee, had urged patience in seeing the through the counting of votes.
Sullivan during the campaign questioned Gross’ independent label and sought to tie him to Democratic members of Congress that Sullivan cast as outof-touch with Alaska issues. Gross, who won the Democratic nomination but said he wouldn’t be beholden to the party, called Sullivan a Trump “yes man.”
The largest bloc of registered voters in Alaska identify as independents, though the state has leaned Republican, sending one Democrat to the Senate since 1980: Mark Begich. Begich, who served a term, narrowly lost to Sullivan in 2014, another year when Senate control was at stake.