Jay Armstrong

Jay Armstrong

The 2022 Alaska's at-large congressional district special election was held on August 16, 2022. Democrat Mary Peltola won the open seat, thereby becoming the first of her party to win a U.S. House election in Alaska since 1972. Peltola, who is a Yup'ik woman, is the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, and the first woman elected to represent Alaska in the House. She defeated Republican former governor Sarah Palin in the state's first ranked-choice general election. The seat became vacant when 49-year incumbent Republican representative Don Young died on March 18, 2022. A special primary election was held on June 11, while the general election was held alongside the regular primary election on August 16. The filing deadline was on April 1. This was the first election to use the state's new voting system, approved for use with 2020 Alaska Measure 2. Under the new system, all candidates compete in a single blanket primary, with the four candidates receiving the most votes advancing to the general election, which is conducted using instant-runoff voting. The special primary election took place in June 2022, and the top four vote-getters were set to advance to a general election. The third-placed candidate in the primary, Al Gross, withdrew, so only the other three names were on the ballot in the general election. This election used ranked-choice voting, with the winner being the one who accumulated a majority of the votes (or a majority of votes in play at that point in time). The runoff count commenced on August 31, after all absentee and overseas ballots were counted. Peltola was declared the winner on August 31. The Democratic victory was widely considered an upset due to Alaska's strong Republican lean. Peltola became the first Democrat to win a statewide or congressional election in Alaska since Mark Begich in 2008. She was sworn in to the House of Representatives on September 13.

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