House, Senate incumbents face upset in state elections

Two veteran Mat-Su legislators, Senator David Wilson and Representative David Eastman, were trailing their challengers in vote counts Wednesday night. Although most precincts had reported results, there were still absentee and challenged ballots to be counted, so results could yet change.

Wilson, who serves in Senate District N, had 28.7% of votes cast while his challenger, former Mat-Su Borough Assembly member Robert Yundt, had 53.5%.

“For all those that supported me, thank you. To those who didn't vote for me, I promise I'll work just as hard for you,” said Yundt on his social media page.

A third candidate, Stephen Wright, received 2070 votes. Most precincts were reporting, so this race may be decided.

In David Eastman’s House District 27, challenger Jubilee Underwood led with 51.1% of the votes to Eastman’s 47.7%. Underwood maintained a 211 vote lead as of November 6. Absentee ballots could change this.

“The support from the grassroots the last four weeks was phenomenal—more than we’ve ever seen. I could hardly be more proud. Where else do you see the grassroots able to go toe to toe with the state party who is using our own party money to silence a representative of the local party?” said Eastman following the election.

In House District 28, which saw three republican candidates vying for the seat, Elexie Moore has a narrow lead over Steve Menard with 2356 votes for Moore and 2276 votes for Menard. The third candidate, Jessica Wright, had 1601 votes.

In House District 30, incumbent Representative Kevin McCabe led his challenger, Doyle Holmes, with 53.9% of the vote to 44.75%. McCabe is likely reelected. Both are Republican.

In the race for U.S Representative, incumbent Mary Peltola appears to be in trouble. As of November 6, her challenger, Nick Begich, had 124,969 votes, giving him 49.6% of the vote, while Peltola had 114,511 votes, leaving her with 45.27%. There were two other challengers to the seat-Independent John Wayne Howe received 9791 votes and Eric Hafner, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in New York after pleading guilty in 2022 to phoning in false bomb threats and threatening judges, police officers and lawyers in his home state of New Jersey, received over 2400 votes.

With about 97% of precincts reporting by Wednesday afternoon, Begich led Peltola by about 10,500 votes, with the current vote tally just first-choice ballots. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, ranked choice tabulation will determine the winner on November 20.

Additionally, absentee ballots could change the numbers, and many of the votes yet to be counted are likely from rural communities where Peltola should make a strong showing.