Donald Trump has declared a winner in the nation’s most controversial Senate battle, although 25 percent of the votes remain outstanding as the race sits on a knife edge.
The president posted on Truth Social saying: ‘The Alaska Race is OVER. Dan Sullivan WON, BY A LOT!’ No one else has called the race.
The fight for the Last Frontier’s Senate seat has attracted international attention as Democrats in the state have been accused of recruiting a similarly named candidate to run against GOP Senator Dan Sullivan, allegedly intending to confuse voters and help Democratic nominee Mary Peltola.
But with only about 74 percent of ballots counted, Peltola currently holds a razor-thin lead of 637 votes over the Trump-backed incumbent as of Saturday afternoon – and it could still take until late November before a winner is declared.
The other ‘decoy’ Dan Sullivan has attracted 3,500 votes, making his candidacy potentially determinative.
The president’s post comes only around 30 minutes after Peltola posted a video on X in which she addressed voters, saying that she hopes they are enjoying the days with ‘no attack ads and no political mailers.’
She added: ‘We are being patient waiting for more ballots to come in. In Alaska, it just takes a little bit longer as we wait for all of the ballots to come in.’
President Trump claimed GOP incumbent Dan Sullivan won Alaska’s Senate race, although only 74 percent of votes have been counted so far and no one else has declared a winner
With 25 percent of votes still uncounted, the AP currently sees Mary Peltola at a slight lead over her GOP rival
As up to 70,000 potential votes are yet to be processed, both candidates have kept busy explaining to their supporters why they are more likely to benefit from the still outstanding votes.
Peltola posted a thread on X on Thursday saying that: ‘Tens of thousands of early votes and absentee ballots are still outstanding, and the data shows that these will break for Mary and extend her lead.’
Sullivan on the other side, published a statement on his website claiming that he will win if the state’s unique ranked-choice voting tabulation comes to play.
Under Alaska’s election system, if a candidate has more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, they win outright, without a need to use ranked choice voting. But if no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated.
Ballots that ranked a failed candidate as their first choice are then re-counted as first-preference ballots for the next-highest-ranked candidate in that round.
But it might take until the end of the month before Alaskans will find out who their next Senator will be.
On Tuesday, November 10, the largest amount of outstanding ballots are scheduled to come in.
The president’s announcement comes after he previously said he was going to accept the midterm results
Two Dan Sullivans appear on Alaska’s midterm ballot
That would become the earliest date a winner could be declared – if Peltola or Sullivan reach 50 percent of the votes.
The state’s deadline to finish counting all other absentee, mail-in and provisional ballots is on November 18.
And even then, the target date set by the Alaska Division of Elections to officially certify the election results is not before November 25.
An accelerated FBI criminal probe into the ‘decoy’ candidate scandal happening at the same time could further turn this election thriller into a dramatic saga and cast more unknown over the Last Frontier.
Two sources familiar with the investigation told the Daily Mail that agents questioned Peltola’s former campaign manager on Election Day.
The FBI approached Elisa Rios in Chicago on Tuesday, two sources revealed.
‘Full speed ahead,’ is how one source described the inquiry.
Rios was allegedly involved in recruiting the second Dan Sullivan in an apparent effort to confuse voters and peel away votes from the incumbent.
Peltola has denied any involvement in the alleged scheme.
This is a developing story…
