Ranked-choice vote counting done, Mary Peltola (D) and Lisa Murkowski (R) win in Alaska

Photos from Mary Peltola's twitter feed on
November 24, 2022, day after she was declared winner of 2022 midterm
one side of her mug says "made of salmon" and the other is
"Mary Peltola for Congress"

Here's the story about Peltola, about whom I've previously written here.  Peltola is from rural Bethel, and she talks rural--as well as fish--a lot.  Here's her tweet from the morning after her victory was declared, from which I took the photos above.  Here's another fun Peltola tweet reflecting her pro-fish campaign; it features dancing crabs. 

And here's the NYTimes story about Lisa Murkowski, who defeated fellow Republican Kelly Tshibaka, who was backed by Trump.  Democrat Pat Chesbro garnered nearly 10% of the vote in the first round of the state's rank-choice voting, which takes into account voters' second choices if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote in the first round. 

Murkowski now begins her fourth full term in the Senate.  Peltola has now earned her first full term in Congress.  As she did in this election, Peltola also defeated Sarah Palin and Nick Begich back in August to fill the seat Don Young (R) had held for nearly five decades.  Young died in March.  

Here is the Washington Post's coverage of these Alaska wins.  Of Peltola, Nathaniel Herz writes: 

Peltola ran a locally focused campaign with both traditional and unconventional Democratic platform planks — she touted her support for abortion rights and “pro-fish” views, along with her endorsement of a new Alaska oil project and the large gun collection that she and her family maintains.

This Washington Post story also has a good explanation of rank-choice voting, and its short history in Alaska.   

Postscript:  Here's an AP piece on the bipartisan coalition that will govern the Alaska legislature after the recent elections.  The lede follows: 

The Alaska state Senate will have a coalition of Democrats and Republicans serving as a majority caucus next January, officials announced. Friday.

The coalition will include nine Democrats and eight Republicans, leaving three members of the 20-seat chamber in the minority.

Gary Stevens, a Republican from Kodiak, will serve as Senate president. Among other leadership positions include Bill Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat, as Senate rules chair, and Cathy Giessel, a Republican who previously served as the body’s president and regained her Senate seat in this year’s election, as majority leader.