ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Associated Press on Wednesday morning called the Alaska election for incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, Republican incumbent Rep. Don Young and President Donald Trump. Other national news organizations on Wednesday morning also called the race for Sullivan.
Entering the day, Alaska had about 156,000 uncounted votes, or 45% of all ballots cast in this year's election. More than 70,000 were counted by the end of Tuesday, and additional counts are expected later this week.
Young leads Democratic-endorsed independent challenger Alyse Galvin by 16 points, down from 26 on Election Day. Sullivan led Democratic-endorsed independent Al Gross by 30 points on Election Day and now leads by 20 — 57% to 37%.
At the top of the ticket, Trump leads Democratic candidate Joe Biden by almost 18 points, or 57% to 39%, down from 29 points on Election Day.
Entering Tuesday, Gross, Galvin and Biden needed to win about 70% of all remaining votes in order to overcome Republican leads on Election Day. Instead, they won between 53% and 57%. That means they must win a much greater percentage of the remaining 80,000-90,000 uncounted ballots to win. Any absentee ballots that arrive before the end of the day Friday will be counted as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.
Following the first batch of results on Tuesday, the Gross campaign sent out a statement saying the race remains too close to call. When asked if he is confident that future batches will more heavily favor Democrats, Gross campaign manager David Keith said "absolutely."
Gross would have to win more than three-fourths of the remaining ballots to win the election.
Matt Shuckerow, Sullivan's campaign manager, said the numbers reflect what the campaign anticipated, and Sullivan continues to hold a strong lead. He said he doesn't want to be critical of the Gross campaign's optimism, but eventually the numbers are undeniable. "I think ultimately our opponent is going to begin being far more realistic at what is happening," Shuckerow said.
The Galvin campaign declined to immediately comment on the new batch of results.
Statewide turnout is on pace to break the all-time record, with about 350,000 votes expected. The old record, set in 2008, saw 327,341 votes cast.
