Sarah Palin trails in comeback bid for Alaska Congress seat

Sarah Palin is trailing in her bid for an Alaska congressional seat, but the winner will be determined by ranked-choice voting and is unlikely to be determined for at least two weeks.

The former governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate was stuck in second place with 32% of the vote, behind Democrat Mary Peltola with 37%.

Fewer than 70% of votes have been counted and mail-in votes can still trickle in until Aug. 31 in the special election to replace the late Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska).

Sarah Palin, a Republican seeking the sole U.S. House seat in Alaska, speaks during a forum for candidates May 12, 2022, in Anchorage, Alaska. (Mark Thiessen/)

The results are disappointing to Palin, who has the backing of former President Donald Trump in her effort to return to the national spotlight after more than a decade on the sidelines.

Palin led in a June primary from which the top four candidates advanced to Tuesday’s runoff.

Peltola, a Native American who made abortion rights a major issue, logged a surprisingly strong performance on Tuesday after she finished fourth with just 10% in June. A third-place candidate dropped out.

Even if Peltola leads in the count of first-place votes, Palin could still win the special election under the state’s ranked-choice voting system.

If no candidate wins an outright majority of the first-place votes, the third-place candidate will be eliminated and that candidate’s second-place votes distributed to the top two finishers.

Mark Begich, a Republican, is now running a strong third in the race with about 29% of the vote.

Assuming Begich stays in third place, the second choice of his voters will effectively decide the contest between Peltola and Palin to fill Young’s seat till January.

It’s tricky to predict how those votes might shake out. Begich is a conservative, but his father was a prominent Alaska Democrat.

Complicating things even further, Alaska voters were also voting in a primary election to fill the next full term starting in January.

Peltola, Palin and Begich finished in the same order in that election, with Republican Tara Sweeney finishing fourth with about 3% of the votes.

Regardless of the results of the special election, those four will compete in another ranked-choice general election in November.