JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Primary elections in Alaska last night set the stage for some big races in the fall. One's for a Senate seat that could be key in Democrats' efforts to take control of the Senate in the midterms, and Democrats could be getting some momentum going into the race for governor there. They're still counting votes, but joining us now with an update is Liz Ruskin with Alaska Public Media in Anchorage. Hey there.
LIZ RUSKIN, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: So, Liz, just to start, I know that Alaska has a sort of unusual primary system. Remind us how it works.
RUSKIN: Yeah, it's an open primary. All candidates are on the same ballot, and the top four of any party advance to the November ballot. And they will be counting votes from this primary for two more weeks. It's, you know, a big state with a lot of transportation challenges. Ballots mailed on election day have 10 days to arrive. Some are coming from villages off the road system that depend on small airplanes for mail service.
SUMMERS: OK, let's dig into these races, starting with the Senate. We know, according to The Associated Press race call that Republican Senator Dan Sullivan is in the top four. So is Mary Peltola, the Democrat trying to flip that seat blue. How's the race shaping up?
RUSKIN: Yeah, Peltola's a former congresswoman from rural Alaska. She and Sullivan are way ahead of everyone else. They will be on the November ballot. She's running a few percentage points ahead of him. Peltola was the first Indigenous Alaskan elected to Congress. She won a special election in '22, then a regular election that year. But she lost her seat to a Republican two years ago when Trump was on the ballot. Here's Peltola addressing supporters last night, sounding a national theme - affordability.
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MARY PELTOLA: We are getting crushed by corporate greed. Dan Sullivan, every single vote, votes along with corporate greed. He is there for every fat cat in the nation from healthcare to fuel to groceries.
RUSKIN: And Sullivan last night at his campaign event took a veiled jab at Peltola for her motto of, quote, "fish, family, freedom."
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DAN SULLIVAN: Some people talk about fisheries. Others, like myself, we act and get things done on fisheries - cleaning up our oceans, strengthening our salmon runs, banning Russian and Chinese trawl-caught fish from coming into our country.
RUSKIN: Sullivan said he's passed a lot of bills in Congress for Alaska.
SUMMERS: Liz, put this into context for us. How does this fit into the national picture for control of the Senate?
RUSKIN: This race is one of only four Senate seats in the country that the Cook Political Report rates as a toss-up. Right now, Republicans only hold the Senate by a few seats. So with control of the chamber at stake, we've already seen a lot of campaign money from people outside of Alaska.
SUMMERS: And I do want to end by talking about the governor's race. There are some signs that could be close. I will point out that that's a job currently held by a Republican.
RUSKIN: Yeah, two Democrats are leading the primary and have made the top four, per the AP. One is former state lawmaker Tom Begich, from a prominent political family. The other is Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. He goes by JKT. He's also a former legislator, and he's portraying himself as a dynamic, younger Democrat who can win the state. The other two spots in the top four have not been called yet. They'll almost certainly go to a couple of conservatives from a large pack of Republicans in the running. I'll note - the state hasn't elected a Democratic governor since 1998.
SUMMERS: Liz Ruskin of Alaska Public Media in Anchorage, thanks so much.
RUSKIN: Thank you, Juana. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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