ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Right-wing Republican Kelly Tshibaka narrowly led Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski after early returns were posted Tuesday night, but Murkowski said she was confident she'd overtake her Trump-backed opponent once absentee ballots were counted and ranked-choice votes tabulated.
Tshibaka had just over 44% of first-choice votes while Murkowski had nearly 43%, with 387 out of 402 precincts reporting.
In order to win under Alaska's new ranked-choice voting system, a candidate must gain more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate crosses that threshold in first-choice votes, as appears to be the case in this race, the last-place candidate is eliminated and the second-choice votes of their supporters are tallied.
