Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will advance to the next round of a special election to replace the late Rep. Don Young, CNN reports.
Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential nominee, leads a massive 48-person field in the wild race.
Alaska has a unique system that allows four candidates from any party to advance to the second round.
Palin led the first round with around 30% of the vote. Republican Nick Begich, who has around 19%, and independent Al Gross, who has 12.5%, are also expected to advance.
It’s unclear who the fourth candidate will be. Democrat Mary Peltola is currently in fourth place with around 7.5% of the vote while Republican Tara Sweeney is at around 5.3%.
August matchup:
The top four finishers will compete in a ranked-choice special election in August.
It will be Alaska’s first special election after voters approved a ranked-choice voting initiative in 2020.
If no candidate receives 50% of the vote, the last-place finisher’s first-place votes will be reallocated among the rest of the field.
Palin the favorite:
Palin as the state’s former governor is the best known candidate in the race
But she left a bad taste in some voters’ mouths after resigning as governor in 2019, less than three years into her term.
Democrats in the state, who occasionally back Republicans like Sen. Lisa Murkowski, are also largely strongly opposed to Palin.
