GOP Keeps Alaska Senate Seat as Attention Turns to Georgia

Republicans notched another Senate win on Wednesday, putting their majority at 50-48 ahead of two runoff elections set for Georgia in January.

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan defeated independent Al Gross, the Associated Press said Wednesday, after Mr. Gross didn’t significantly cut into Mr. Sullivan’s large lead as absentee votes were tallied. The call comes a day after the Republican Party pulled out a close race in North Carolina when Democratic Senate candidate Cal Cunningham conceded his race to incumbent GOP Sen. Thom Tillis.

Alaska has been slow to report its results because the state didn’t start counting absentee ballots until Nov. 10, a week after Election Day. The AP called the race with Mr. Sullivan leading 57.5% to 37.5%, with about three quarters of the expected votes tallied.

The AP also called President Trump as the winner in his race, where he led 57% to 39% over Democrat Joe Biden. Alaska has three electoral votes.

Two runoff races in Georgia in January will determine which party controls the chamber. If Democrats win both seats and make it 50-50, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, in her role as president of the Senate, could cast any tiebreaking votes. Coming into the November elections, Republicans had a 53-47 majority in the chamber.

In one Georgia runoff, Republican Sen. David Perdue is facing Democrat Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker. In the other, Democrat Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is challenging Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Ms. Loeffler was appointed last year by Georgia’s Republican governor to fill former Sen. Johnny Isakson’s seat.

Alaska had been considered a reach for Democrats. Public polls showed that Mr. Sullivan was favored to win, though Mr. Gross mounted a competitive bid running as an independent who would caucus with Democrats if elected. After the initial count showed him losing, he tweeted, “Victory is within reach,” citing the large number of uncounted ballots.

Mr. Gross faced an uphill battle in a conservative-leaning state that Mr. Trump won by 15 points in 2016. Alaska, though, has a history of rejecting party politics. Mr. Sullivan ousted a Democratic incumbent when he was first elected in 2014 and the state’s senior senator, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, has been known to break from her party. Most registered voters in the state are unaffiliated with either party.

An orthopedic surgeon and commercial fisherman, Mr. Gross played up his Alaska roots and often noted that he once killed a grizzly bear in self-defense. He billed himself as a centrist who would think for himself and work to expand access to health care.

Mr. Sullivan hammered his opponent for running as an independent, arguing that he was a liberal in disguise and an ally of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.). Mr. Sullivan ran on a platform of protecting jobs for the energy sector and defending Second Amendment rights.

Earlier

Sen. Gary Peters’ defeat of John James in Michigan’s Senate race leaves Democrats and Republicans with an equal number of seats. But with some states still too close to call, control of the Senate could be decided by Georgia run-offs in January. Photo: Carlos Osorio/Associated Press (Originally published Nov. 5, 2020)

Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8