Tom Begich withdraws his campaign and endorses Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins

Tom Begich and Julia Hnilicka, who finished second in Alaska's governor primary, announced on Facebook Friday that they are dropping out of the race and endorsing Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, known to most Alaskans as JKT, who finished first.

"More than 34,000 Alaskans put their trust in us," Begich wrote. The unofficial count gives his ticket 34,149 votes, 20.8%, behind JKT and Zach Johnson at 36,961, or 22.5%.

The two were the main tickets on the left in a field of 17. Nearly everyone else ran from the center to the right. With Begich out, JKT, has that lane to himself, and the 71,110 votes the two Democratic tickets drew between them amount to 43 percent of the ballots cast. Nothing obligates a Begich voter to follow the endorsement.

"To hell with political infighting," JKT said in a statement released from his campaign, closing with a line borrowed from the signs behind Begich in Friday's video. "Let's build a future made in Alaska."

But the arithmetic that produced two Democrats splitting a plurality now runs the other way, and the Republican field it faces is unsettled.

On the other side, third-place Bernadette Wilson spent the primary campaign saying she would withdraw if she finished behind another Republican. She is the highest-placed Republican, at 16,456 votes, so the pledge does not apply to her. Fourth-place Dave Bronson posted two days ago that it does not apply to him either. "We are not backing down, we are not stepping aside, and we are not going anywhere," his campaign wrote. "We are staying in the race and we intend to see it through."

Alaska has been here before. In August 2024, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom finished third in the U.S. House primary and withdrew three days later, leaving Republican Nick Begich III as the sole Republican against Democrat Mary Peltola. Begich had pledged to withdraw if Dahlstrom outpolled him. She made no matching pledge, finished behind him, and withdrew anyway.

Ranked choice voting was adopted in part to make this kind of maneuvering unnecessary. Voters rank all four candidates in November, and when the last-place candidate is eliminated, their supporters' ballots transfer to those voters' next choice. A second Democrat or a fourth Republican on the ballot is not supposed to cost the others anything. Despite that, candidates have gone on pledging to drop out, and dropping out.

Alaskans will decide in November whether to keep the system. A measure to repeal the top-four primary and ranked choice voting is on the same ballot as the four candidates it produced.

Under state law, if one of the four tickets nominated during the primary withdraws after the primary and 64 or more days before the general election, the director of elections replaces that ticket with the candidates that finished fifth. This year the deadline falls Aug. 31, the same day the state aims to certify results.

Fifth place belongs to Treg Taylor and Bernadette English, at 11,924 votes.

However, to complicate the matter, on Wednesday the Alaska Public Offices Commission recommended that the lieutenant governor not certify Taylor's nomination for governor, finding that his 2026 financial disclosure statement did not substantially comply with state law within 30 days after the due date. The vote was 4-1, with Commissioner Richard Stillie dissenting. A full written order is due by Aug. 31.

The recommendation is not the decision. Certification rests with Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom.

However, and just because it could be important later, sitting in sixth place is Click Bishop and Greta Schuerch, at 11,509 votes, only 415 behind Taylor.

The withdrawal deadline, the certification of results and the written order on Taylor all fall in the same week.

Turnout in the governor's race was 27.75 percent. About 164,000 Alaskans voted, and 415 of them separate fifth place from sixth.