Ballot for Alaska’s U.S. House seat will include a convicted felon

Democratic incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican challenger Nick Begich will be joined on the ballot for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat by two serial candidates who received 1% of the vote combined in last month’s primary election.

With primary election results certified and the passage of the Monday deadline for candidates to withdraw from the November ballot, the list of names set to appear on the general election ballot has been finalized. Eleven candidates — mostly Republicans — dropped out of their respective races after the primary, including two Republicans who dropped out of the race for U.S. House.

Third-place finisher Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and fourth-place finisher Matt Salisbury both withdrew their names. Under Alaska’s “top four” primary system, that means that the first, second, fifth and sixth primary finishers will appear on the ballot for U.S. House.

In fifth place is John Wayne Howe, chair of the Alaska Independence Party, which opposes most taxes and argues that Alaska should never have been granted statehood. Howe received 621 votes in the 12-way primary for 0.57% of the vote.

In sixth place is Eric Hafner, a New Jersey Democrat who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for threatening elected officials, judges and law enforcement officers. Hefner has never resided in Alaska and has run for U.S. House multiple times in other states, including for an Oregon U.S. House seat in 2018 as a Democrat and in Hawaii in 2016 as a Republican. In both cases he lost in the primary. Hafner received 467 votes in Alaska’s primary, for 0.43% of the vote.

Hafner’s mother, Carol Hafner, previously ran for Alaska’s U.S. House seat in 2018 against former Rep. Don Young. Carol Hafner also ran unsuccessfully for Wyoming’s U.S. House seat in 2020. Both Eric and Carol Hafner provided campaign addresses in South Dakota when filing for office in Alaska.

Alaska law requires an elected U.S. representative to reside in the state, but the law does not prohibit a convicted felon from running or holding office. Another convicted felon, former President Donald Trump, is also set to appear on the November ballot.

Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher said there was nothing stopping Hafner from appearing on the ballot, despite the fact that he is serving an extended federal sentence, which would almost certainly make him unable to fulfill the duties of a Congress member.

“We don’t know if Mr. Hafner will be in the state if elected,” Beecher said in an email. “If not, the Department of Law would decide next steps at that time.”

The seventh-place finisher, who would have appeared on the ballot if Hafner had been deemed ineligible, is a Republican perennial candidate, Gerald Heikes, who had gained some notice for his uncompromising opposition to abortion in all cases. Heikes received 424 votes in the primary.

It wasn’t immediately clear how Hafner and Howe’s presence on the November ballot would change the November race. Neither had raised any reportable campaign funds ahead of the primary, and neither has articulated any plan to actively campaign in Alaska.

Peltola, who had 50.9% of the primary vote, has amassed more than $2 million in campaign funds to use ahead of the general election. She also had the backing of several dedicated independent expenditure groups, with organized support from Alaska Native groups and unions, among others.

Begich, meanwhile, had 26.6% of primary votes. Leading to the primary, Begich coalesced support from local Republican groups but had been snubbed by national GOP leaders who favored Republican challenger Dahlstrom. Many of the Republicans who had previously backed Dahlstrom switched their support to Begich after the primary, including Gov. Mike Dunleavy and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. Trump, who previously endorsed Dahlstrom, has not endorsed Begich.

Dahlstrom had just under 20% of primary votes. Salisbury, the other Republican who dropped out, had 0.6% of the vote.

Dahlstrom had faced significant pressure from within her party after coming in behind Begich in the primary, despite support from the national GOP establishment and large independent expenditures on her behalf.

Alaska’s House seat is seen as a priority race for Republicans seeking to expand their majority in the House. Is it one of only five seats nationwide currently held by a Democrat where Trump won in 2020.

After initial results were known in the primary, Salisbury showed no sign that he planned to drop out of the race. He said he planned to actively campaign on three issues, including ending bottom trawling in Alaska, funding Social Security, and ending corporate ownership of single-family homes.

But Salisbury said Tuesday he had met with Begich the previous week, and that in the course of the meeting he had been persuaded that Begich agreed with most of his positions. Salisbury said he voted for Peltola in 2022, when Begich was also on the ballot. Salisbury said Begich did not ask him to drop out of the race, but several members of the Alaska Republican Party had asked him to drop out.

Salisbury also said he did not want to appear on the ballot as a Republican.

“I don’t want to mislead anybody because I’m a registered Republican, but I don’t support Donald Trump and I didn’t want to be on a ticket with him, and I felt it was better to support Mr. Begich,” said Salisbury. While Begich has not been endorsed by Trump, he has repeatedly said he supports the former president’s agenda.

Alaskans will use ranked choice voting in a presidential election for the first time this year. The voting method was adopted in 2020 by ballot measure and first used in 2022.

Eight presidential tickets were certified for Alaska’s November ballot, including six third-party or independent tickets. Among them is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the most prominent third-party candidate this cycle, who last month suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump.

Under the ranked choice system, a candidate wins outright if he or she garners more than 50% of first-place votes. If the top vote-getter does not cross the 50% threshold, a ranked choice — or instant runoff — tabulation takes place.

In 2020, Trump won Alaska with 52.8% of the vote. The 2020 race also included five third-party or independent tickets, which collectively garnered less than 4% of the vote.