Alaska Reelects Governor

Mike Dunleavy stayed mostly out of sight during campaign
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 23, 2022 7:10 PM CST
Alaska Reelects Governor
Gov. Mike Dunleavy arrives for a televised debate in October in Anchorage, Alaska.   (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

Alaska has reelected Gov. Mike Dunleavy, in a result declared final Wednesday. Just over half of the first-choice vote went to the Republican incumbent, the Anchorage Daily News reports, so the governor's race did not go to ranked choice voting. It's the first time since 1998 that Alaska's governor has been elected to a second consecutive term, per the AP. Dunleavy ran a low-key campaign, appearing in a limited number of debates and essentially no other public events, after an attempt to recall him was dropped last year. The recall drive was driven largely by Dunleavy's proposals for state budget cuts.

The incumbent's public standing improved with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Dunleavy received credit for the state's death toll remaining low, per the Daily News. He defeated former Gov. Bill Walker, an independent; Democrat Les Gara, a former legislator; and Republican Charlie Pierce, a former borough mayor. His running mate was Nancy Dahlstrom, a former Alaska lawmaker who led the state corrections department; she'll become lieutenant governor. (More Mike Dunleavy stories.)

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