Primary races across the United States are offering an early read on where voters want their parties to head before November’s consequential midterms. On Tuesday, voters in Alaska and Wyoming — two reliably Republican strongholds — head to the polls, with races that could send ripples well beyond their small electorates.
Although Alaska has long been safe Republican territory in federal elections, this year marks the third consecutive election cycle in which the state finds itself among a handful of states at the centre of the fight for control of Congress. In 2020, Alaska voters approved Ballot Measure 2, which effectively eliminated the traditional party-primary system for most offices. Instead, all candidates appear on a single, nonpartisan primary ballot, and the top four vote-getters advance to the general election.
The US Senate race carries the clearest national stakes because it could tip control of the chamber. Sixteen candidates are running for Alaska’s Senate seat, but the race has two chief frontrunners: incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan and former Democratic Representative Mary Peltola. Peltola, who represented Alaska in the US House from 2022 to 2025, demonstrated that a Democrat can win statewide there. The Cook Political Report ranks the race among the country’s most competitive Senate contests.
The race has drawn millions in campaign spending, including money being spent to elevate political unknowns who are unlikely to win the seat but could materially alter the November field. Super PACs have spent more than $2 million trying to boost candidates who are not considered serious contenders, according to Alaska Public Media. An Alaska Survey Research poll conducted in March found Peltola ahead of Sullivan among primary voters, 46.4 percent to 40.9 percent. In a simulated general-election matchup using Alaska’s ranked-choice system, Peltola also polled ahead.
There is an unusual Senate subplot: two Republicans named Dan Sullivan are on the ballot. One is the incumbent senator; the other, Dan J. Sullivan Jr., is a retired teacher from Petersburg. The state’s Division of Elections initially removed him from the ballot after determining that his candidacy appeared intended to confuse voters, but the Alaska Supreme Court later ordered officials to restore him. This creates a problem particularly acute in Alaska’s primary, which is not ranked-choice: voters select a single candidate, and the four highest vote-getters prevail. With two Dan Sullivans vying for the same electoral spot, even a relatively small number of mistaken votes could influence which candidate clears the hurdle.
Much of the attention around incumbent Dan Sullivan’s fundraising reflects the issues that have defined his Senate career, including his strong support for Israel and his hawkish approach to Iran. The 61-year-old has repeatedly backed military aid and closer US-Israel defence ties while vehemently opposing efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Israeli officials. His campaign has attracted substantial backing from high-profile political organisations, including the Republican Senate Leadership Fund, which has committed at least $15 million, and AIPAC, which helped funnel about $250,000 in individual contributions during the first quarter of 2026.
In deep-red Wyoming, the Senate primary is less a contest about whether the GOP will hold the seat than about which Republican candidate will win it. The Cowboy State has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, except for 1976. The race is an open-seat succession fight: incumbent Senator Cynthia Lummis declined to seek re-election, and Representative Harriet Hageman is relinquishing her House post to try to succeed her. This sets the stage for an unusually broad reshuffling in elected officeholders.
Hageman, the Trump-backed hard-liner who rose to national prominence after unseating Liz Cheney in the 2022 Republican primary, is the clear favourite. Among the other Republicans running are former Kirby Mayor Sam Mead and former environmental services business owner Jimmy Skovgard. In an April interview, Mead said that the endorsements Hageman received from Trump, Lummis and Barrasso come with an expectation that she will support the administration “no matter what.” Mead has promised to push back against Trump on public lands, tariffs and foreign wars when he believes the administration’s policies run counter to Wyoming’s interests.
Nine active candidates are competing for the Republican nomination to replace Hageman in the US House in what’s shaping up to be the most expensive contest on Tuesday’s ballot. The field includes former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, state Senate President Bo Biteman, businessmen Steve Friess and Reid Rasner, and Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray. These primaries offer a glimpse into the direction of US politics ahead of the midterms, with potential implications for the balance of power in Congress.
Source: www.aljazeera.com