Democrat Mary Peltola wins House special election in Alaska – and the midterm game is afoot
When Democratic House candidate Pat Ryan outperformed the polls and won a special election last week where the Republican had been favored by ten points in the polls, it was a strong data point suggesting that the Democrats were indeed in real contention to win the House in the midterms. Now we have another remarkable data point.
Ranked choice elections are difficult to decipher as they play out, and it can be even more difficult to translate the results into how things would have gone in a traditional format. But regardless of how we got there, the reality is that Democratic House candidate Mary Peltola just won the House special election over Republican candidate Sarah Palin in Alaska. That’s right, a Democrat just won a statewide election in Alaska.
Again, ranked choice voting is weird. And Palin was such a bad candidate, even by Republican standards, so that was likely a factor as well. But let’s be real here: this is the first time a Democrat has won a House race in Alaska in fifty years. This, on the heels of the NY-19 special election, makes for a trend. The Democrats can win the House in November. But it’ll be super close, so they’ll need your help. Here are the other Democratic House candidates running in highly competitive races. Donate, volunteer locally or online from afar, and spread the word. They’re in three categories:
“Toss-up” means the race is on track to be decided by perhaps one point or less. These are the races where we can make the most difference, with even a small effort.
“Lean-R” means that if the election were held today, the Republican would be expected to win by a few points. With the political headwinds continuing to shift in the Democrats’ favor, we expect many of these “Lean-R” races to look more like toss-ups by November, so it’s important to get involved in them now.
“Lean-D” means that if the election were held today, the Democrat would be expected to win by a few points. These are races that we perhaps don’t have to worry about as much as the Toss-up and Lean-R races, but we’ve included the Lean-D races because the Republicans are trying to pick off the Lean-D seats.
So what can you do? If you have money, donate to these races. Many of them are lower profile, so even a small donation can make a big difference. If you have time, sign up to volunteer. They’re labeled by district, so you can pick the ones that are within driving distance. If you don’t live near any of these races, you can volunteer online from home. If you don’t have time or money to spare, you can help by sharing these candidate links on your Facebook and Twitter pages, so your followers with time or money will see it and contribute:
Toss-up races
Emilia Sykes OH-13 (Ohio): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Jamie McLeod-Skinner OR-05 (Oregon): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Jared Golden ME-02 (Maine): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Greg Landsman OH-1 (Ohio): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Adam Gray CA-13 (California): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Yadira Caraveo CO-08 (Colorado): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Eric Sorensen IL-17 (Illinois): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Frank Mrvan IN-01 (Indiana): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Gabe Vasquez, NM-02 (New Mexico): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Elaine Luria VA-02 (Virginia) Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Dan Kildee MI-08 (Michigan): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Matt Cartwright PA-08 (Pennsylvania): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Tony Vargas NE-02 (Nebraska): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Kim Schrier WA-08 (Washington): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Wiley Nickel NC-13 (North Carolina): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Sharice Davids KS-03 (Kansas): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Abigail Spanberger VA-07 (Virginia): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Elissa Slotkin MI-07 (Michigan): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Angie Craig MN-02 (Minnesota): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Chris Pappas NH-01 (New Hampshire): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Dina Titus NV-01 (Nevada): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Susie Lee NV-03 (Nevada): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Francis Conole NY-22 (New York): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Christy Smith CA-27: Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Steven Horsford NV-04 (Nevada): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Marcy Kaptur OH-09 (Ohio): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Rudy Salas CA-22 (California): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Chris Deluzio PA-17 (Pennsylvania): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Josh Riley NY-19 (New York): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Robert Zimmerman NY-03 (New York): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
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Lean-R races
Kirsten Engel AZ-06 (Arizona): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Bridget Fleming NY-01 (New York): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Susan Wild PA-07 (Pennsylvania): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez WA-03 (Washington): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Michelle Vallejo TX-15 (Texas): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Cindy Axne IA-03 (Iowa): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Jay Chen CA-45 (California): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Brad Pfaff WI-03 (Wisconsin): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Jevin Hodge AZ-01 (Arizona): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Tom Malinowski NJ-07 (New Jersey): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Will Rollins CA-41 (California): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
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Lean-D races
Hillary Scholten MI-03 (Michigan): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Nikki Budzinski IL-13 (Illinois): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Katie Porter CA-47 (California): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Jahana Hayes CT-05 (Connecticut): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Don Davis NC-01 (North Carolina): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Mike Levin CA-49 (California): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Greg Stanton AZ-04 (Arizona): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Josh Harder CA-09 (California): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Sean Casten IL-06 (Illinois): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Pat Ryan NY-18 (New York): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Annie Kuster NH-02 (New Hampshire): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
David Trone MD-06 (Maryland): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
Sean Patrick Maloney NY-17 (New York): Campaign website • Donate • Volunteer • Follow on Twitter
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About this list: The “volunteer” links are the volunteer page provided by the candidate’s official website. The “donate” links lead directly to the ActBlue donation page that the candidate has designated on his or her official website, meaning the money goes directly to the candidate. The Toss-up, Lean-R, and Lean-D rankings primarily come from Cook Political Report, which has had a strong track record with such predictions. The order of the candidates is random with each category, and is changed each time the list is republished, in an attempt at promoting them evenly. Broken or incorrect links? Email us.
