Winners and losers of the primary elections in Alaska and Wyoming: Complete results by state
As primary season is coming to a close, yesterday, voters in Alaska and Wyoming made their voices heard. Liz Cheney is out...
One of the most closely watched races that took place on Tuesday was for Wyoming’s single congressional seat where incumbent Liz Cheney faced a Trump- backed challenger, Harriet Hageman.
Hageman is expected to win the primary and currently holds a thirty-eight point lead.
Cheney is one of a handful of Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump after a mob stromed the Capitol to disrupt the electoral vote count on January 6th, 2021. The Wyoming Congresswomen also serves as the Vice-Chair of the House Select Committee investigating Trump’s role in the attack on the Capitol: how much he knew, how much was planned, and whether or not he holds personal criminal responsibility for how the events unfolded?
Some believe that Liz Cheney is looking at a 2024 run for president or may be looking to enter the realm of political commentary as a pundit.
Wyoming Governor’s Race
To show just how strong the GOP presence in the state, one look no further than the state’s governor race wherein Republican candidates have recieved over 200,000 votes with the Democrats only seeing a turnout around 6,000. Incumbent Governor Mark Gordon, who garnered over 100,000 votes, will face Democrat Theresa Livingston.
Gordon is expected to sweep during the election this November.
Alaska - Congressional Election
Similar to Wyoming, the congressional race in Alaska is the one many are most focused on. There are twenty-two candidates in the race with former vice presidential candidate and governor Sarah Palin.
If no candidate receives over fifty percent of the vote, which is unlikely with so many in the race, a rank choice system kicks in. This method could take days or weeks to tally. Voters are asked to rank their first, choice, and second options. Then the votes of candiates outside the top three are distributed to those leading in the total vote count.
Palin was endorsed by Trump and has been a vocal critic of the move to rank choice voting, arguing that it benefits RINOs, special interests, and specifically Senator Lisa Murkowski. After an alleged video of the Murkowski campaign admitting that rank choice voting would help their candidate, Palin released an “I told you so” type statement.
“I’ve said all along that Ranked Choice Voting was designed to benefit democrats and RINOs, specifically Sen. Lisa Murkowski (who stood no chance of winning a Republican nomination), along with other political-dynasty family members in Alaska,” said Palin. However, in the end, rank choice may end up benefiting in the Palin as she is currently in second place.
Votes can expect results on the election within two weeks according to state officials.