Prior to the election, 13 of 14 news organizations making predictions considered this a state Trump would win, or otherwise a red state. Since it was admitted into the Union in 1959, Alaska has voted for the Republican nominee in every single election except 1964[3] in Lyndon B. Johnson's nationwide landslide, when he carried it with 65.91% of the vote.[4] However, some analysts believed Alaska could be competitive based on polling.[5][6]
Despite not being a swing state, Alaska was one of the last states to be called; the state did not start counting absentee ballots or early votes that were cast after October 29 until November 10.[7]Mail-in votes only had to be received by November 13 for them to be counted, and counting had to be completed by November 18.[8] As a result, Alaska was called for Trump on November 11.[9] He won the state by 10.06%, the closest margin in the state since 1992. Biden received the highest percentage of the vote for a Democrat in the state since 1964. It was also the second time a Democrat won over 40% of the vote in the state since 1968, the first being Barack Obama in 2012.[10]
Alaska shifted 4.67% to the Democratic nominee compared to the 2016 election. The state ultimately weighed in as 14.51 percentage points more Republican than the national average in 2020. Biden was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Anchorage since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, and the first Democrat to receive a majority in Haines Borough since 1964.
On September 21, 2019, the Alaska Republican Party became one of several state Republican parties to officially cancel their respective primaries and caucuses. The party argued that a primary would be useless with an incumbent Republican president.[11]
Of the 29 total delegates, 3 is allocated to the at-large congressional district, 10 to at-large delegates, and another 3 are allocated to pledged party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates). 13 bonus delegates were allocated.
The state party still formally conducted the higher meetings in their walking subcaucus-type delegate selection system. The legislative district conventions were held on the four consecutive Saturdays from February 8 to 29 to select delegates to the Alaska State Republican Convention. At the Alaska State Republican Convention, which took place from April 2 to April 4, 2020, the state party formally bound all 29 of its national pledged delegates to Trump.[12]
The 26 pledged delegates Alaska sent to the national convention were joined by 3 pledged PLEO delegates, consisting of the National Committeeman, National Committeewoman, and chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.
The Alaska Democratic primary was originally scheduled for April 4, 2020. On March 23, due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the Alaska Democratic Party canceled in-person voting, but extended mail-in voting to April 10.[13]
2020 Alaska Democratic presidential primary final results[14]
Several of Trump's environmental policies involved loosening restrictions on energy, hunting, and mining in Alaska: he instructed the Department of Agriculture to exempt Tongass National Forest from logging restrictions;[18] supported the construction of Pebble Mine, an unpopular[19]gold and copper mine in Bristol Bay (though the permit was ultimately denied);[20] rolled back limits on hunters in federal land in Alaska;[21] and opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.[22] While these policies expanded their respective industries, they were met with opposition among environmental groups and the Gwich'in, whose sacred land is partly within the refuge.[23][24] Biden pledged to reverse several of Trump's climate policies[25] and address the climate crisis, and he enacted a temporary moratorium on gas and oil leasing in the ANWR after being inaugurated on January 20, 2021.[26]
Trump's environmental and gun policy also included reviving hunting techniques in Alaska, an action condemned by several animal rights groups.[27]
In addition, write-in candidates were required to file a Declaration of Intent with the Alaska Division of Elections at least five days before the election. They were also obligated to file a financial disclosure statement. Write-in votes were not counted individually.[48][49] The following candidates were given write-in access:[50]
Dennis Andrew Ball / Richard A. Sanders, American Party of America – American National Committee
Barbara Ruth Bellar / Kendra Bryant, Republican
President R19 Boddie / Eric C. Stoneham, Independent
Demetra Jefferson Wysinger / Cedric D. Jefferson, WXYZ New Day
Electoral slates
The voters of Alaska cast their ballots for electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, rather than directly for the President and Vice President. Alaska is allocated 3 electors because it has 1 congressional district and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 3 electors who pledge to vote for their candidate and their running mate. Whoever wins the most votes in the state is awarded all 3 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than their candidate is known as a faithless elector. In the state of Alaska, a faithless elector's vote is counted and not penalized.[51][52]
The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 14, 2020, to cast their votes for president and vice president. All 3 pledged electors from Alaska cast their votes for PresidentDonald Trump and Vice PresidentMike Pence. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead, the electors from each state and the District of Columbia meet in their respective state capitals (the District of Columbia electors meet within the District). The electoral vote was tabulated and certified by Congress in a joint session on January 6, 2021, per the Electoral Count Act.
These electors were nominated by each party in order to vote in the Electoral College should their candidate win the state:[53]
As expected, there was a nationwide delay in reporting election results, due to the extreme influx of absentee and mail-in ballots as a public health measure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[54] In Alaska, these delays were especially severe. Alaska mailed absentee ballot applications to every voter aged 65 and over.[55] Mail-in ballots only needed to be postmarked by Election Day and received by November 13 (November 18 for overseas voters), further delaying the count.[56] Only early votes cast before October 29 and Election Day votes would be released on Election Night and the state could not even begin the counting of absentee ballots nor the remaining early votes until November 10.[55] Counting was expected to be complete by November 18. By November 4, the state still had at least 122,233 absentee ballots to count.[57][58] Alaska and New York are the only two states to begin counting absentee ballots after Election Day.[59] Gail Felunumiai, Alaska's Director of Elections, attributed the delay to the need to verify that voters who voted by mail and also at their polling places did not have their ballots counted twice.[60]
The delay in counting left many races undecided for weeks.[61] The extreme rural nature of the state only worsened the delay: with many local communities being accessible only by boat or plane, seven communities had to vote entirely by absentee ballots in the primary due to a last-minute shortage of election workers.[60] The Associated Press called the race for Trump on November 11 at 12:16 PM EST (8:16 AM AKST),[9][62] 4 days after President-elect Biden won the national election.
Results
2020 United States presidential election in Alaska[53][63]
Unlike every other U.S. state, Alaska is not divided into counties or parishes. Rather, it is administratively divided into 20 boroughs: 19 organized and 1 unorganized, which act as county-equivalents.[3] The Unorganized Borough lacks a borough government structure and itself is divided into eleven census areas.[64] Contrary to election results in most states, official results by borough are not available – rather, they are estimates based on precinct-level data.[65] However, the Alaska Division of Elections does release official results by State House district, which are listed in the table below. Trump won 21 districts to Biden's 19. Biden also won overseas ballots. The 5th, 23rd, 25th, 27th, 28th, and 35th districts swung from voting for Donald Trump in 2016 to Joe Biden in 2020.[66][67]
Biden narrowly won Anchorage, the state's largest city, outperforming local Democrats.[71] Biden was the first Democrat to win Anchorage since Johnson. This also made Trump the first candidate of either party to prevail in Alaska without winning Anchorage. James Brooks at the Anchorage Daily News attributed Trump's victory to strong performances in the Kenai Peninsula and Matanuska-Susitna Borough.[71]
The election corresponded with the 2020 United States Senate election in Alaska, with incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan being successfully re-elected against independentAl Gross, who was also nominated and endorsed by the Democratic Party.[72] Sullivan won by a 12.71% margin, outperforming Trump by 2.65 percentage points, consistent with a nationwide trend where down-ballot Republicans outperformed Trump.[73] In the United States House of Representatives election in Alaska, incumbent Republican Don Young underperformed Trump by 0.92 percentage points against Democrat-endorsed independent Alyse Galvin.[74]
Exit polls
Associated Press
The following are estimates from exit polls conducted by the University of Chicago for the Associated Press interviewing 689 likely voters in Alaska, adjusted to match the actual vote count.[75]
2020 presidential election in Alaska by subgroup (Associated Press exit polling)[75]
^ abFor an unknown reason, the number of write-in votes differs between the official statewide results and the official State House district-level results. The former counts 1,961 and the latter 3,831. Results for all other candidates are identical between the two sources.
Partisan clients
^Poll sponsored by Protect Our Care, a pro-Affordable Care Act organisation
^The Independent Alaska PAC supported Al Gross's campaign for the US Senate race in Alaska prior to this poll's sampling period
^AFSCME endorsed Biden prior to this poll's sampling period
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