Early in-person voting for Alaska’s primary election begins Monday; here’s what’s at stake

Narrowing governor’s race to final four, ballot measure reimposing limits on candidate contributions are main contests; most other races will preview general election matchups

"I voted" stickers at the Alaska Division of Elections office in Juneau on June 12, 2026. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Alaska residents on Monday will begin casting early in-person ballots for the Aug. 18 primary election that will shrink the number of candidates for governor from 17 to four and decide if limits should again be placed on financial donations to candidates in state races.

The state’s open primary will also establish a final four field for U.S. Senate and U.S. House races — although the faceoff between the two main candidates in each is already known — and the general election contenders for all 40 state House seats and 10 state Senate seats. But since only six of those 50 Alaska Legislature races have more than four candidates, most will essentially be a poll for the current status of those contests.

In Southeast Alaska, for instance, District 3 incumbent Rep. Andi Story, D-Juneau, and challenger Annette Kreitzer, R-Haines, both will advance to the Nov. 3 general election as the only candidates on the primary ballot. So will District 4 incumbent Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, who is unopposed for a fourth term.

Official information for all candidates in the primary, including statements by candidates providing them, are available at the Alaska Division of Elections website.

Early in-person voting locations in Juneau through Aug. 17 are the State Office Building atrium at 333 Willoughby Ave. (from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends) and the Mendenhall Mall annex (8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, noon-4 p.m. Sundays). Mail-in ballots are also now being accepted.

While the official primary date is Aug. 18 and preliminary results are scheduled to be released that night, a final unofficial tally isn’t scheduled until Aug 28 so mail-in and other ballots submitted by the Election Day deadline can be tallied. Certification of the results is expected by Aug. 31.

The following are the competitive races on the primary election ballot in Juneau:

Alaska governor

Seventeen candidates in a race with no incumbent makes for a crowded field, but polls and fundraising totals suggest a much smaller number has a legitimate shot at the final four.

Both Democrats on the ballot — former state Sen. Tom Begich and former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins — appear to be among the contenders in polls, but Alaska hasn’t elected a Democrat as governor since Tony Knowles prevailed in 1998.

Among three independent or undeclared candidates, former Gov. Bill Walker has the highest name recognition — and plenty of detractors as well as supporters from his term that ended in 2018. Also running without party affiliations are Tlingit traditional healer Meda DeWitt and welder-fabricator Destry Payne Sr.

That leaves 12 Republicans likely seeking anywhere from one to three spots among the top four for the general election.

Business owner Bernadette Wilson is faring well in polls and fundraising as an anti-establishment candidate, while former state Sens. Click Bishop and Shelley Hughes, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, former state Attorney General Treg Taylor and former revenue commissioner Adam Crum are showing measurable support. Anchorage doctor Matt Heilala is listed among the top fundraisers, but nearly all of the income is self-funded.

Other Republican candidates are Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries, former state Sen. Lesil McGuire, retired teacher James Parkin, author Hank Kroll, and Michael Gilbert.

Ballot Measure 1

A federal court in 2021 overturned the state’s limits on contributions to political candidates. Voters are now being asked to restore them, although at a higher level than before.

The overturned restrictions limited financial donations to $500 per candidate annually. Ballot Measure 1 would set the limit at $2,000 per election for individual donors and $4,000 for group donors.

The limits would apply only to state races — governor and Legislature — since federal elections for Congress and president are governed by federal election laws. The limits in Ballot Measure 1 would be adjusted for inflation every 10 years.

A separate election-related ballot measure to repeal the state’s open primaries and ranked choice voting is set to appear on the November general election ballot.

U.S. Senate

The eyes of the nation — and the world — may be on this "toss up" race in November between Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola, if it turns out to be decisive in which party controls the U.S. Senate during the final two years of President Donald Trump’s second term.

But for the Aug. 18 primary one of the main questions is if another Sullivan — officially and controversially listed as "‘Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.’ — will make the top four and thus potentially take a few votes from the incumbent Sullivan that could affect the final outcome.

Sen. Sullivan is seeking a third term by claiming strong support for Trump has led to gains in natural resource industry activities, U.S. Coast Guard and other military operations, tax cuts in last year’s budget bill, and funding for a variety of infrastructure and other projects. Peltola, a former U.S. House member who served one full two-year term, says people are struggling with everyday issues such as affordability of fuel and other purchases, plus access to health care due to Trump administration policies.

The candidacy of Dan J. Sullivan, a retired Petersburg teacher, has attracted plenty of attention and controversy due to the Alaska Division of Elections decertifying him, claiming his purpose for running was to confuse voters, and the Alaska Supreme Court unanimously overruling his removal. State election officials then gave Sen. Sullivan an unprecedented "incumbent" label next to his name on the ballot, while taking the also-unprecedented step of not listing the Petersburg Sullivan’s Republican affiliation and not using the "Sullivan, Dan J." listing he requested.

The Cook Political Report rates the race a "toss up," citing Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy as a factor.

There are 13 other candidates on the ballot in the race.

U.S. House

This race also is expected to be a two-person faceoff, pitting Republican incumbent Rep. Nick Begich III against independent Bill Hill, after leading Democratic candidate Matt Schultz dropped out last month and endorsed Hill.

Begich, who defeated Peltola in 2024, is an enthusiastic Trump supporter who is touting a high success rate for legislation passed during the congressman’s first two-year term. Hill, a former Bristol Bay School District superintendent, is citing cost-of-living struggles and political corruption as primary campaign issues.

There are 12 other candidates on the ballot. Cook Political Report rates the race "Likely Republican."

Alaska House District 3

As with the U.S. Senate race, this could be a crucial contest in determining control of a legislative chamber. But the only thing the top candidate will get from the primary is bragging rights as the two contenders go into the fall campaign.

Kreitzer, who served as Haines Borough manager from 2021 to 2024, also spent 18 years as a legislative staffer and commissioner in the Alaska Department of Administration until retiring from that job in 2012. She is seeking to become the first Republican to represent Juneau in the Legislature since Cathy Muñoz represented the same district area in 2017.

She told the Chilkat Valley News in June she hopes to shift discussion in the Legislature away from education funding — one of Story’s cornerstone issues as co-chair of the House Education Committee — and toward revenue generation from new resource projects.

“I hear a lot of discussion about school funding,” Kreitzer told the Haines newspaper. “I think there has to be concurrent discussion about how we’re going to develop our massive resources, because that’s the foundation for a lot of this funding.”

A key question for some voters may be which caucus Kreitzer will join if the options are similar to what exists now: a 21-member bipartisan majority that has 14 Democrats, five independents and two Republicans; or a 19-member all Republican minority. Kreitzer told the Chilkat Valley News she isn’t ruling out joining a bipartisan coalition under such a scenario.

Story, who served five terms on the Juneau Board of Education and was president of the Alaska Association of School Boards before being elected to the House in 2019, has been unreserved about putting education at the forefront of her political agenda.

During the past two-year session she co-chaired an education committee that last year helped enact the first major funding increase in the per-student education funding formula in nearly 15 years. She was also the lead sponsor this year on an education bill making a range of funding and policy changes that passed the Legislature on the session’s final day.

"We really need to put something into place that gives the education system knowing the amount of money they have before they start school, so of course that's a big thing," Story told the Juneau Independent in May when she announced her candidacy for a fourth term. "I have some other issues that I'm fired up about, and I really believe in bipartisanship and working together, and we need that at the Capitol."

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.