2026 United States Senate election in Alaska

2026 United States Senate election in Alaska

The 2026 United States Senate election in Alaska will be held on November 3, 2026, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Alaska. A jungle primary election will be held on August 18, 2026, from which the top four candidates will advance to the general election, which will be conducted under ranked-choice voting.

Incumbent Republican senator Dan Sullivan, who was re-elected in 2020 with 53.9% of the vote, has declared his re-election bid. Mary Peltola, a former U.S. representative from Alaska's at-large congressional district is also running for the seat as a Democrat.

No Democrat has represented Alaska in the Senate since 2015, and Alaska has not voted for a Democrat for president since (/wiki/1964UnitedStatespresidentialelectioninAlaska). Peltola is the only Democrat to have won a statewide election in Alaska since Mark Begich was elected to the U.S. Senate in (/wiki/2008UnitedStatesSenateelectioninAlaska).

Candidates

Declared

• Dan Sullivan, incumbent U.S. senator

Filed paperwork

• Dustin Darden, conspiracy theorist, city maintenance worker, 2022 U.S. Senate candidate in Alaska for the Alaska Independence Party, and perennial candidate

• Christopher Miklos, businessman • Fred C. Grauberger, retired motor vehicle operator • James Micheal Ryan, employee of Kosmos Energy

Declared

• Ann Diener, sales executive at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner • William Lee Hunt, former Fairbanks District Attorney’s Office Administrative Clerk and Independent candidate for President in (/wiki/2024UnitedStatespresidentialelection) and (/wiki/2028UnitedStatespresidentialelection) • Mary Peltola, former U.S. representative from Alaska's at-large congressional district (2022–2025)

• Richard Grayson, author and perennial candidate

Filed paperwork

• Sid Hill, political gadfly and candidate for U.S. Senate in (/wiki/2014UnitedStatesSenateelectioninAlaska) and (/wiki/2022UnitedStatesSenateelectioninAlaska)

Primary election

2026 United States Senate election in Alaska

Under Alaska's voting system, all candidates, regardless of party, will run on the same primary ballot. The top four candidates in the primary will advance to the general election, which will be conducted using ranked-choice voting.

Background

Incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan announced his run for re-election in early 2025. He was first elected in (/wiki/2014UnitedStatesSenateelectioninAlaska), defeating Mark Begich, the last Democrat to represent Alaska in the U.S. Senate. He was last re-elected in (/wiki/2020UnitedStatesSenateelectioninAlaska), prior to the implementation of Alaska's ranked-choice voting system. Facing few obvious swing state targets to regain the Senate majority in (/wiki/2026UnitedStatesSenateelections), Democrats began looking towards more Republican-leaning states, such as Ohio and Texas, as potential targets. Among these states was Alaska, where Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer heavily courted former U.S. Representative Mary Peltola, the last Democrat to win any statewide election in Alaska, to run for Senate. Peltola herself mulled between running for Senate and running for governor, but she ultimately decided to enter the Senate race in early 2026, setting up the race between her and Sullivan.

Campaign

Peltola's entry into the race immediately made the race competitive, according to most predictors. She still faces significant hurdles, such as Sullivan's incumbency and lack of a prominent Republican challenger, the unpopularity of the national Democratic Party in Alaska, and a reduction in cross-party support. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska's other U.S. Senator and a noted moderate Republican, had endorsed Peltola in her (/wiki/2022UnitedStatesHouseofRepresentativeselectioninAlaska) and (/wiki/2024UnitedStatesHouseofRepresentativeselectioninAlaska) bids for U.S. House, but she endorsed Sullivan in this race instead.

Fundraising

Campaign finance reports as of December 31, 2025
Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on hand
Dan Sullivan (R)	$7,365,342	$2,262,211	$5,834,874
Source: Federal Election Commission

Polling

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of error	Ann Diener (D)	Fred Grauberger (R)	Richard Grayson (G)	Sid Hill (I)	William Hunt (D)	Christopher Miklos (R)	Mary Peltola (D)	James Ryan (R)	Dan Sullivan (R)	Undecided
Alaska Survey Research	March 19–22, 2026	1,283 (LV)	± 3.0%	2%	1%	1%	3%	1%	2%	46%	3%	41%	–

General election

Predictions

<table><thead><tr><th>Source</th><th>Ranking</th><th>As of</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Inside Elections</td><td>Lean R</td><td>January 12, 2026</td></tr><tr><td>The Cook Political Report</td><td>Lean R</td><td>January 12, 2026</td></tr><tr><td>Sabato's Crystal Ball</td><td>Lean R</td><td>January 29, 2026</td></tr><tr><td>Race To The WH</td><td>Tossup</td><td>March 29, 2026</td></tr></tbody></table>

Polling

Source of poll aggregation	Dates administered	Dates updated	Dan Sullivan	Mary Peltola	Other/Undecided	Margin
Race to the WH	August 8, 2025 – March 22, 2026	March 29, 2026	44.7%	48.1%	7.2%	Peltola +3.4%

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of error	Dan Sullivan (R)	Mary Peltola (D)	Other	Undecided
Alaska Survey Research	March 19–22, 2026	1,590 (LV)	± 2.7%	44%	49%	7%	–
44%	50%	6%	–
48%	52%	–	–
Public Policy Polling (D)	January 16–17, 2026	611 (V)	–	47%	49%	–	4%
Alaska Survey Research	January 8–11, 2026	1,988 (LV)	± 2.2%	46%	48%	–	6%
Data for Progress (D)	October 17–23, 2025	823 (LV)	± 3.0%	45%	46%	5%	4%
Alaska Survey Research	October 10–15, 2025	1,708 (LV)	–	46%	48%	–	6%
Alaska Survey Research	July 29 – August 1, 2025	1,623 (LV)	± 2.5%	47%	42%	–	11%
Data for Progress (D)	July 21–27, 2025	678 (LV)	± 4.0%	46%	45%	5%	4%
Alaska Survey Research	April 21–25, 2023	1,261 (LV)	–	41%	44%	–	15%