Senators likely to win reelection

MAT-SU — Incumbents are holding massive leads in elections for two seats in the State Senate representing the Valley. In Senate District F, Sen. Shelley Hughes received more votes than any other Valley candidate on Tuesday night and David Wilson holds a lead nearly as wide as Hughes’ in his bid for reelection in Senate District D.

“I serve the voters,” said Wilson. “Senate District D is the most conservative senate district in the state with District 8 being number one and District 7 being number three and so I think that they just voted their values and voted who they thought would do a good job.”

Senate District D encompasses House District’s 7 and 8 and received more than 7,000 votes more than his nearest challenger. There were 8,765 votes cast for Wilson in the race for Senate D, accounting for 72.81 percent of the 12,065 votes cast in that race. Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Dan Mayfield, running as a nonpartisan candidate, trails Wilson by nearly 60 points after receiving 1,653 votes. Democratic nominee Thomas Lamb received 1,360 votes accounting for 11.27 percent of the ballots cast. The 12,065 who voted on Tuesday represents a 36.79 percent voter turnout in Senate District D.

“We all knew that this upcoming year is going to be one of the most difficult years our state has faced or is going to face next year, just where we’re at with our revenue projections, with the COVID-19 situation and we just need Alaska to do what it does best and we’re full of resilient folks and we can rebuild better but we all have to come together and work. I think that’s what we’re going to see,” said Wilson.

In Senate District D, 5,620 early votes were cast, but 1,796 remain left to be counted. There were 5,204 absentee ballots distributed to voters in District D, but only 3,487 were returned and accepted. Even if Mayfield or Lamb were able to receive each early and absentee vote counted after election day, Wilson would still maintain his lead.

Hughes holds an even larger lead, breaking the 10,000-vote threshold as additional ballots were counted late Tuesday night in Senate District F which holds House District’s 11 and 12. Hughes received 10,120 votes accounting for 77.31 percent of all votes in District D. Democratic nominee Jim Cooper received 2,271 votes and Libertarian candidate Gavin Christiansen received 680 votes.

A whopping 40.75 percent of District F voters turned out to the polls on Tuesday, the highest voter turnout in any State Senate race. There were 6,561 absentee ballots distributed to Senate F voters and 4,974 have already been returned and accepted. There were 5,430 early votes cast in District F and 1,605 still need to be counted giving Hughes a lead secure enough to withstand absentee ballot counts even if every ballot went to Cooper.