ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Republican Tara Sweeney said Tuesday she is dropping out of the U.S. House election, after garnering around 3.7% of votes counted so far in the primary race — enough to put her in fourth place and place her name on the November ballot.
Sweeney is a Republican who previously served as assistant secretary of the interior for Native American affairs under former President Donald Trump. An Iñupiaq who previously was an executive with the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., she had endorsements from Alaska’s largest Native corporations. She cited expected fundraising challenges in her decision to end her bid for Congress.
“Looking at the outcome of the regular primary election, I don’t see a path to victory, nor to raise the resources needed to be successful this November,” she said in a written statement. Sweeney had raised nearly $300,000 since announcing her candidacy last spring. A separate super PAC supporting Sweeney raised over $600,000.
With thousands of ballots left to be counted, Democrat Mary Peltola is in first place in the pick-one primary that was held Aug. 16. Peltola has around 35% of the vote. She is followed by Republicans Sarah Palin with 31% of the vote and Nick Begich III with 27% of the vote.
In fifth place is Libertarian Chris Bye, with 0.63% of the vote. Unless another candidate overtakes him, Bye’s name will appear on the November ballot.
More than 157,000 ballots have been counted so far. The Alaska Division of Elections is expected to release additional ballot counts Tuesday.
Sweeney placed fifth in the special primary held in June to replace Rep. Don Young, who died in March. Sweeney’s name remained off the special general ballot after independent candidate Al Gross dropped out of the race days after the special primary results were certified. Sweeney had continued to campaign, saying her focus remained on the November race to fill the seat for the term beginning in January. She announced earlier this month she had registered as a certified write-in candidate for the special general election, but certified write-in candidates received less than 1.5% of first-place voted in the ranked-choice election, with Peltola, Palin and Begich on the ballot.
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