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Democrat Mary Peltola and incumbent Dan Sullivan lead in Alaska primary for US Senate

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.

We are still awaiting the full election results from Alaska, where it appears Mary Peltola is leading for the Democrats and Dan S Sullivan is leading for the Republicans in the contest for US Senate.

Incumbent Sullivan is running for a third term while Peltola is fighting to flip the seat and aid Democrats in their quest to retake control of Congress. The Tuesday vote in the non-partisan primary will see four candidates advance to the general election for the seat in November.

Peltola became the first Alaska Native and the first woman to represent Alaska in the House of Representatives when she won her bid for the state’s sole seat in 2022. Sullivan, on the other hand, faces the unique challenge of running against … Dan Sullivan. Dan J Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher and US Forest Service employee. Though Republicans argued that the 70-year-old challenger Dan Sullivan had only filed his candidacy as an interference tactic against Senator Sullivan, the state supreme court ruled in June that was qualified to run for the seat and ordered election officials to place him on the primary ballot.

With 66% of votes counted, Peltola is leading with 46.8% of the vote with the incumbent Sullivan trailing closely behind with 44.4% of the vote. Dan J Sullivan is in third with 2.4% of the vote.

In other election news:

Progressive Aisha Wahab is currently leading with 51% of the vote in the special runoff election to fill former representative Eric Swalwell’s seat in California. This comes after super Pacs tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) spent millions supporting Wahab’s closest competitor, Democrat Melissa Hernandez. According to the Associated Press, 62% of votes have been counted.
In Wyoming, the Trump-backed Harriet Hageman is leading the Republican primary for US Senate. Hageman, a conservative lawyer with a passion for thwarting environmentalists, had previously beat Liz Cheney for the thinly populated western state’s solitary seat in the US House of Representatives.
Byron Donalds won the Republican nomination and David Jolly the Democratic nomination for Florida governor. Donalds was endorsed by Donald Trump and will become Florida’s first Black governor if elected in November. Jolly is a former Republican who joined the Democratic party last year.
Progressive Angie Nixon won the Democratic nomination for Florida’s open Senate seat, defeating the heavily favored Alex Vindman, a retired army lieutenant colonel and an impeachment witness against Trump during the president’s first term of office. If elected in November, Nixon would be the state’s first Black senator. Nixon will compete against Republican Ashley Moody in November for the Senate seat Marco Rubio won in 2022.

Key events

Who is Natalie Harp? Trump’s closest and most devoted aide is in the spotlight

David Smith

Wearing shoulder-length blonde hair, gold earrings and a red dress, cancer survivor Natalie Harp introduced herself to the 2020 Republican national convention as “a formerly forgotten American from California” and compared Donald Trump with George Bailey, the everyman hero played by James Stewart in the classic film It’s a Wonderful Life.

“George Bailey’s father was right,” smiled Harp, her voice echoing in the Andrew W Mellon auditorium in pandemic-hit Washington. “All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away. Mr President, that makes you the richest man in the world.”

Six years later, Harp is now one of Trump’s closest and most devoted aides. Her official job title is special assistant to the president and executive assistant to the president on an annual salary of $150,000.

Her unofficial job title is the “human printer” for supplying him with print-outs of information. And for years she has only been a minor character in the Trump Cinematic Universe.

But all that changed this week when Jon Ossoff, a Democratic senator and possible 2028 presidential contender, accused Trump in a campaign speech of wanting to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie” instead of doing his job.

In case you missed it: NBC News reported yesterday that the US Department of Justice has issued subpoenas into whether Dan J Sullivan entered the Alaska primary for US Senate to confuse voters seeking to vote for incumbent Republican senator Dan S Sullivan.

Citing an unnamed law enforcement official, NBC News reports that the subpoenas are part of a federal investigation.

The justice department under Donald Trump has opened a number of investigations into his political adversaries. Democrats are hoping to flip the seat with Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, in their bid to retake control of Congress.

Congratulations have been pouring in this morning for Angie Nixon, the progressive who won the primary for US Senate in Florida in a major upset to the Democratic establishment.

“Congratulations @AngieNixon,” congresswoman Ilhan Omar posted on X. “We are so proud of you and can’t wait for you to be the next Senator of Florida. Democrats need to unite and send a message.”

“Democratic socialist state representative Angie Nixon, outspent more than 16 to 1, pulled off a HUGE upset to win the Democratic nomination for the US Senate in Florida,” senator Bernie Sanders posted on X. “Congratulations Angie!”

“In the Florida legislature, Angie Nixon has led the fight to lower costs for families and take on the rigged system. Now, she’s ready to take that fight to the US Senate,” Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, posted on X. “Congratulations, Angie! Onward to November.”

With 73% of the votes counted in Alaska, it appears that the November election for US Senate will include a showdown between Mary Peltola, former Democratic congresswoman, and incumbent Dan S Sullivan, a Republican.

“Tonight shows Alaskans are fired up and ready for an independent voice in the Senate who will fix the rigged system, lower costs, and put Alaska first,” Peltola posted on X. “We’re ready to win this thing on November 3rd.”

Peltola currently leads with 47.8% of the vote, with Senator Sullivan coming in with 44%. Next is the other Dan Sullivan, also a Republican, with 2.5% of the vote and then Democrat David Leslie with 1.1%. The non-partisan primary will see four candidates advance to the general election for the seat in November.

The Guardian’s Sam Levin and Richard Luscombe have more on Angie Nixon and her surprise primary win in Florida for US Senate.

Nixon, a state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, beat former army intelligence officer Alexander Vindman, despite having significantly less funding going into the primary – $975,000 to Vindman’s $16.3m at the end of July, according to Florida Politics.

Democrats have their sights set on upsetting Republican Ashley Moody in the US Senate general election. Moody, picked by DeSantis to replace Marco Rubio when he became secretary of state last year, won what was almost a token primary election to run in November to serve the remaining two years of Rubio’s term.

Nixon, who was born in Jacksonville, has aggressively opposed DeSantis’s policies, including with a sit-in at the governor’s office this spring to protest Republican redistricting, the Miami Herald reported. That demonstration resulted in her facing misdemeanor charges of trespassing and resisting, which she is fighting in court.

The Guardian’s Chris Stein has more on the Alaska primary:

Dan J Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher and US Forest Service employee living in the town of Petersburg in south-eastern Alaska, who is running as a Republican for the US Senate. Dan S Sullivan is a Republican US senator, who has represented Alaska since 2015.

Both candidates will appear on the ballot, one name after the other, when Alaskans vote in primary elections this week – a complicated quirk of the contest that has drawn howls from Republicans.

But the incumbent senator’s real threat, Alaska politics watchers say, is Mary Peltola, a Democrat who managed to twice win election to the state’s seat in the US House of Representatives, and is now vying to beat him in November’s midterm elections in the US Senate.

Democrat Mary Peltola and incumbent Dan Sullivan lead in Alaska primary for US Senate

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.

With 66% of votes counted, Peltola is leading with 46.8% of the vote with the incumbent Sullivan trailing closely behind with 44.4% of the vote. Dan J Sullivan is in third with 2.4% of the vote.

In other election news:

Progressive Aisha Wahab is currently leading with 51% of the vote in the special runoff election to fill former representative Eric Swalwell’s seat in California. This comes after super Pacs tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) spent millions supporting Wahab’s closest competitor, Democrat Melissa Hernandez. According to the Associated Press, 62% of votes have been counted.
In Wyoming, the Trump-backed Harriet Hageman is leading the Republican primary for US Senate. Hageman, a conservative lawyer with a passion for thwarting environmentalists, had previously beat Liz Cheney for the thinly populated western state’s solitary seat in the US House of Representatives.
Byron Donalds won the Republican nomination and David Jolly the Democratic nomination for Florida governor. Donalds was endorsed by Donald Trump and will become Florida’s first Black governor if elected in November. Jolly is a former Republican who joined the Democratic party last year.
Progressive Angie Nixon won the Democratic nomination for Florida’s open Senate seat, defeating the heavily favored Alex Vindman, a retired army lieutenant colonel and an impeachment witness against Trump during the president’s first term of office. If elected in November, Nixon would be the state’s first Black senator. Nixon will compete against Republican Ashley Moody in November for the Senate seat Marco Rubio won in 2022.