Why are some Republican candidates withdrawing from the Alaska general election? Strategy. • Alaska Beacon

On Friday, Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom said withdrew from the race for Alaska's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after finishing third in early results of the national primary election.

Although their actions surprised some observers, it is part of a larger trend this year: In some races with multiple Republicans, candidates are withdrawing from their candidacies to consolidate their support behind a single Republican.

Strategists and candidates say it is a reaction to the party's experiences two years ago.

In 2022, Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives Mary Peltola defeated Republicans Nick Begich and Sarah Palin. Part of that loss was due to many Begich voters either not choosing anyone in second place or voting for Peltola after Begich dropped out.

The Republicans won several general elections by narrow margins, but in these races many Republican voters refused to nominate a second Republicanresulting in a significant number of “exhausted” ballots that did not contribute to the final outcome.

The Republican Party tried to convince voters to “evaluate the Reds” in the primary campaign, but in the two years since the last election, this approach has been rejected by a significant number of Republicans.

They are now trying to restore the state's old primary system – in which only one candidate from a particular party advances to the general election – through voluntary withdrawals.

This strategy is evident in election campaigns in which several conservative Republicans run alongside a single Democrat or moderate Republican.

On the same day that Dahlstrom withdrew his candidacy, incumbent Rep. Tom McKay (R-Anchorage) announced that he would withdraw from the race for a seat in the Anchorage State Senate, despite finishing second.

McKay and former Republican state Rep. Liz Vazquez are each challenging Democratic Sen. Matt Claman of Anchorage.

“Liz and I are not that far apart, and I believe – especially after my 2022 race – that having two Republicans in there is not helpful,” McKay said. “And I think Liz really wanted to stay in the race, so I decided to drop out and look for other opportunities.”

Two years ago, McKay was behind Democratic candidate Denny Wells in voters’ first preferences, but won after the votes of his Republican party colleague were awarded to him as a second vote in the counting of the ranked-choice votes.

That fellow Republican, David Eibeck, received 1,039 votes, and McKay was listed as the second choice on 644 of those ballots. Wells was the second choice for 92 voters. On 303 ballots — nearly a third of Eibeck's voters — there was no second choice, and the ballots were exhausted and did not count for any of the remaining candidates.

“This shows me that you can't force people to look at rankings. Some of them just won't,” McKay said.

He won his race, but he believes it was closer than it should have been. Under Alaska's old electoral system, only one Republican and one Democrat would have advanced from the primary to the general election, and McKay believes those Eibeck voters would have voted for him.

This year, his chief of staff Trevor Jepsen encouraged candidates to Sign election promises They said they would drop out if they were not the leading Republican in the primaries.

“The data doesn't lie; due to exhausted ballots, 'Rank the Red' is a losing strategy in close races,” Jepsen said. “'One race, one Republican' should be the strategy, and it's good to see our Republican candidates understand that.”

More withdrawals are expected before the September 2 deadline, but some candidates are not waiting.

Former Republican Rep. Sharon Jackson has withdrawn from the race for Eagle River's Senate seat and is now supporting Jared Goecker, the leading conservative Republican challenger to incumbent moderate Republican Senator Kelly Merrick.

Jackson is the fifth, but her withdrawal means there will be no replacement if another lagging candidate withdraws.

In the 36th Congressional District, which covers much of Alaska's interior, Republican Cole Snodgress is in third place in a six-candidate race, enough to advance to the general election. But because he is trailing fellow Republican Rebecca Schwanke, he is withdrawing from the race.

“Instead of trying to stay in the race and split the vote for the general election, I made that commitment to the 36th District up front,” he said by phone Monday. “I said, 'Hey, if I don't finish first, I'm going to get out of the way and endorse a candidate for the general election.'”

He said he had already sent his resignation documents to the election authority.

“We both had our fair chance, and people have commented on it. And we're just going back to our traditional primary process, only now we have to do it in a home-run setting,” Snodgress said.

It is still unclear whether Snodgress will achieve his goal with his initiative. Republican Dana Mock is in fifth place in the vote and did not immediately return a phone call in which he announced his intentions.

If Mock does not withdraw his candidacy, he will slip to fourth place, meaning all ballots will be full in the parliamentary elections.

Republican Rep. Jesse Sumner of Wasilla also announced his withdrawal from the general election last week, but for family rather than strategic reasons.

Sumner supports the current electoral system and said it would not be beneficial if it became a partisan issue.

He believes it would be a mistake for Republicans to resort to strategic retreat tactics before the general election.

“People see that people are unranked, but that doesn't mean that they would have voted for the other candidate or even turned up to vote or voted for the lower ballot if the other candidate had been there,” he said. “A lot of times they just don't like the other person, you know?”