1611 Forecasting

Alaska

Alaska

U.S. Senate

Incumbent on the ballot

Forecast as of October 7, 2026. These vote totals equal the sum of the boroughs and census areas below. Not a poll average.

DMary Peltola, D

Mary Peltola

Democratic

151,540 votesWin probability 38.4%

RDan S. Sullivan, R

Dan S. Sullivan

Republican · Incumbent

141,186 votesWin probability 61.6%

RGerald Heikes, R

Gerald Heikes

Republican

15,500 votesWin probability 0.0%

RDan J. Sullivan, R

Dan J. Sullivan

Republican

15,495 votesWin probability 0.0%

Other

13,736 votes

Margin

R+2.0

Win probability

61.6%

80% interval

D+6.6 to R+10.4

95% interval

D+11.1 to R+15.1

Market

74%

Mary Peltola · win probability, not a vote share

Raw data Checking polls.

The office baseline and the polling term disagree by more than 8 points, so the interval is widened. The thin mark is the 95% interval. The thick mark is the 80%. The hairline is zero. 337,457 ballots, equal to the table.

Ranked choice

Alaska ranked-choice voting. The first round is the reporting-unit sum.

Transfer rates are a model input: about 72% stay with a remaining candidate of the same party, about 10% cross, and the rest exhaust. Not a ranked-choice poll. Applied to the first round.

First round

CandidatePartyBallotsShare
Mary PeltolaD157,97046.8%
Dan S. SullivanR147,17743.6%
Gerald HeikesR16,1584.8%
Dan J. SullivanR16,1524.8%
Exhausted—00.0%

Transfer from Dan J. Sullivan

Eliminated: Dan J. Sullivan

CandidatePartyBallotsShare
Mary PeltolaD159,64247.3%
Dan S. SullivanR153,04645.4%
Gerald HeikesR21,9806.5%
Exhausted—2,7890.8%

Transfer from Gerald Heikes

Eliminated: Gerald Heikes

CandidatePartyBallotsShare
Dan S. SullivanR168,95550.1%
Mary PeltolaD161,91948.0%
Exhausted—6,5832.0%

Final round

CandidatePartyBallotsShare
Dan S. SullivanR168,95550.1%
Mary PeltolaD161,91948.0%
Exhausted—6,5832.0%

Final-round leader: Dan S. Sullivan. The headline vote share stays the first round, which is the county sum.

Boroughs and census areas

Every reporting unit in the race. Sort any column. The votes above are this table added up.

Boroughs and census areas
Party
Anchorage MunicipalityMary PeltolaDD+0.548.2%132,899
Matanuska-Susitna BoroughDan S. SullivanRR+22.848.7%55,365
Fairbanks North Star BoroughDan S. SullivanRR+18.847.0%43,685
Kenai Peninsula BoroughMary PeltolaDR+8.943.5%33,376
Juneau City and BoroughMary PeltolaDD+24.860.4%16,977
Ketchikan Gateway BoroughDan S. SullivanRR+20.047.5%6,501
Kodiak Island BoroughDan S. SullivanRR+18.146.8%6,266
Valdez-Cordova Census AreaDan S. SullivanRR+26.950.3%4,616
Bethel Census AreaMary PeltolaDD+12.254.0%4,269
Sitka City and BoroughMary PeltolaDD+9.452.7%3,865
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census AreaMary PeltolaDR+5.145.4%3,491
Southeast Fairbanks Census AreaDan S. SullivanRR+41.156.2%3,475
Nome Census AreaMary PeltolaDD+8.352.1%2,793
Yukon-Koyukuk Census AreaMary PeltolaDD+21.658.8%2,377
Haines BoroughMary PeltolaDD+16.756.3%1,794
North Slope BoroughMary PeltolaDD+0.948.4%1,730
Petersburg BoroughMary PeltolaDR+4.145.9%1,698
Kusilvak Census AreaMary PeltolaDD+25.560.7%1,570
Hoonah-Angoon Census AreaMary PeltolaDD+31.763.8%1,515
Dillingham Census AreaMary PeltolaDD+9.252.6%1,505
Northwest Arctic BoroughMary PeltolaDD+11.153.5%1,501
Denali BoroughMary PeltolaDR+5.645.2%1,291
Wrangell City and BoroughDan S. SullivanRR+18.746.9%1,136
Skagway MunicipalityMary PeltolaDD+53.874.9%1,034
Aleutians West Census AreaMary PeltolaDD+15.955.9%971
Yakutat City and BoroughMary PeltolaDD+29.762.8%471
Lake and Peninsula BoroughMary PeltolaDD+2.749.3%442
Aleutians East BoroughMary PeltolaDD+4.250.0%432
Bristol Bay BoroughDan S. SullivanRR+12.444.4%412

Model

  1. Raw data

    2024 presidential baseline

    National R−D 1.5

    County presidential file. Not the 2026 result.

  2. Raw data

    Generic ballot

    D 50.8 R 42.6 R−D -8.2

    National Wikipedia aggregate, October 5, 2026. State generic ballots, where a public poll exists, replace a uniform national swing: ME, MI, NH, NY, OH. A state with no generic-ballot poll keeps the national number and is not assigned a neighbor's.

  3. Raw data

    Party identification

    Pew D+5 and Gallup D+10, blend R−D -7.3

    Pew NPORS 2026, identifiers plus leaners: Republican 43, Democratic 48. Gallup party identification plus leaners, first two quarters of 2026: Democratic 49, Republican 39. Pew is 55% of this blend and Gallup is 45%.

  4. Model input

    National block

    R−D -7.8

    60% generic ballot and 40% party identification. The swing versus the 2024 presidential margin is what gets transmitted.

  5. Model input

    Swing transmitted

    1.30 × -9.3 = -12.1

    Only the share of the national swing this state took in the last midterm is transmitted. Elasticity is shrunk halfway toward 1.

  6. Raw data

    2026 early vote

    None reported

    No verified 2026 returned-mail or in-person ballots for this state in the October 7 file. Nothing was imputed. Day-1 early vote is a signal, not a statewide margin. Applications and ballots that were only sent are not in this count. A day-1 pace gap is not a statewide margin.

  7. Model input

    History block

    R−D 32.1

    Weights 2018 5 / 2024 35 / 2020 20 / 2022 40. 2020 and 2022 results for this office are included in every state that had those races, including blowouts. A 2022 election is weighted ahead of 2018. If that office was not on the ballot, the 2020 result for the same office fills the year. Another office is not used. 2018 from 2020 R+37.3 w5, 2024 from 2020 R+37.3 w35, 2020 R+37.3 w20. This is the last result for the office, not the presidential margin. A 2024 county map is not copied forward unchanged. A 2018 model error is not used.

  8. Model input

    Electorate block

    R−D 8.4

    History reweighted by usual midterm turnout, plus half of the transmitted swing. Rural and presidential-only counties still move farther when the result is spread back to counties. The 2026 early-vote count is not inside this margin.

  9. Model input

    Turnout block

    R−D 10.9

    Each county is weighted by its 2018 ballots divided by its 2024 presidential ballots. Small counties shrink halfway toward the state median. 2020 mail shares are not used. No verified 2026 returned-mail or in-person ballots for this state in the October 7 file. Nothing was imputed. Day-1 early vote is a signal, not a statewide margin.

  10. Model input

    National environment

    R−D 6.0

    History plus the full transmitted swing from the 60/40 national block.

  11. Model input

    State environment

    R−D 8.7

    History plus 45% of the transmitted swing.

  12. Model input

    State partisan lean

    R−D 13.1

    The 2024 presidential margin of this state, or of this district for a House race. It is heavier than the old state-environment block and is not shrunk toward the polling term.

  13. Model input

    Trump popularity

    R−D -5.2

    New York Times approval average, October 7, 2026: 37% approve, 60% disapprove. Net approval -23. That is not a vote share. Four-tenths of the net is a margin, then scaled by this place's partisan lean (factor 0.56), so an unpopular president costs more in a Democratic state.

  14. Model input

    Candidate favorability

    R−D 5.0

    Dan S. Sullivan's record minus this place's partisan lean is R+18.9. Thirty-five percent of that gap, capped at 5, is the favorability term, R+5.0. The old margin is not reused.

  15. Model input

    Demographics

    R−D 6.0

    County college, rural, and nonwhite shares from the 2018 election-context file change how much of the swing a county takes. No separate microdata file.

  16. Model input

    Finance

    R−D 10.9

    No sourced spending edge, so the block starts on history. With a poll, it shrinks toward the polling term with the other non-poll blocks.

  17. Model input

    Issues

    R−D 10.9

    No sourced issue score. Same treatment as finance.

  18. Model input

    Polling

    R−D -3.3

    Individual polls -3.4 (80%) and the Wikipedia average -2.9 (20%). Named support R−D -3.4. Allocated support R−D -3.3. Named support does not move. Only the undecided line is split, 53.4% Republican and 46.6% Democratic. That is the 2024 two-party Republican share 56.8 moved halfway to 50 and capped at 60/40. A named third-party vote stays third-party. Banned individual rows excluded: 0. State miss shrunk 40% toward zero: 0.00. Public pollsters: 3. Outliers: 0. Recency half-life 16 days. Sample weight n/(n+350). A registered-voter poll is 0.90. An internal poll, or a poll sponsored by one party, is weighted 0.20, and only when a public poll is also in the race. An internal-only file is dropped. A poll that names both parties is not an internal. A poll more than 8 points from the median of the others is cut in half.

  19. Model input

    Candidate

    R+1.50 reaches the result

    Dan S. Sullivan keeps the incumbent term of 1.5 after shrinkage. Overperformance is a separate term and is not added again here. Dan S. Sullivan's 2020 race is already in the history block, so it is not applied again.

  20. Model input

    Halfway floor

    Not applied

    Not applied. At least three public polls from different pollsters, and none is an outlier.

  21. Model input

    Pooling

    60% of the way from each history block toward the polling term

    The office history and the state's partisan lean differ by more than 12 points, so the history blocks move 60% of the way to the poll. Lean, Trump popularity, and favorability are not shrunk.

  22. Model input

    Prediction market

    74% win probability

    Mary Peltola 74.3% is a win probability, not a vote share. Republican win probability 25.8 from Kalshi 24.5% Republican; Polymarket 27.0% Republican. A price of 50 is a tie. Each point above 50 is 0.35 margin points, capped at 12, so the raw margin is -8.5. That margin is shrunk 40% toward the pre-market margin 6.6, which leaves -2.5. It enters once, at 5.0%. The polling term is not nudged. Books under $10,000 and primary markets are ignored.

  23. Model input

    State bend

    None

    Not applied.

  24. Model input

    Weights

    polling 20.4% · history 7.4% · candidate 5.6% · electorate 4.7% · national 5.6% · stateEnv 3.7% · turnout 2.8% · demographics 2.8% · finance 1.9% · issues 1.9% · stateLean 16.8% · trump 11.2% · favorability 10.3% · market 5.0%

    History is lighter. State partisan lean, Trump popularity, and candidate favorability are their own terms. A market, when it qualifies, scales every other weight and is not taken out of polling alone.

  25. County-sum margin

    2.0

    Ranked choice. This margin is the final round, Republican minus Democratic, not the first-round party total. Borough rows are the first round.

  26. 80% interval

    -6.6 to 10.4

    10th to 90th percentile of 50,000 draws. Poll, national, state, turnout, and candidate error.

  27. 95% interval

    -11.1 to 15.1

    2.5th to 97.5th percentile. Senate and governor state errors in the same state share a correlation of 0.30. The band shown is the marginal interval.

Wikipedia, 2026 United States Senate elections (general-election infobox, checked against the state narrative) mustreadalaska.com/breaking-sen-dan-sullivan-formally-announces-his-campaign-for-reelection/