2026 Alaska's At-Large Congressional District Election
Compare candidates’ positions, polling, and sourced race updates.
Ranked-choice general election
Alaska's top-four primary sent up to four candidates to this ballot, and the general election uses ranked-choice voting: you may rank the candidates in order of preference. If no one wins a majority of first choices, the last-place candidate is eliminated and those ballots count for their next choice, until one candidate has a majority.
About this race
Alaska's lone U.S. House seat is on the Nov. 3, 2026, ballot under the state's top-four nonpartisan primary and ranked-choice general-election system. Certified results from the Aug. 18 primary put incumbent Republican Nick Begich III first with 44.6% and independent Bill Hill—a commercial fisherman and former Bristol Bay schools superintendent—second with 32.5%; after four higher-finishing candidates withdrew by the Aug. 31 deadline, Democrat Eric Hafner, incarcerated in federal prison in New York, and Libertarian Jim McDermott, a retired Air Force master sergeant and business instructor from Fairbanks, completed the four-candidate ballot.
The race contrasts Begich's Republican voting record with Hill's independent, Alaska-focused campaign on health care and living costs, with Democrats largely coalescing behind Hill after third-place finisher Matt Schultz withdrew. National forecasters (Cook, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, Decision Desk) rate the seat "Likely Republican," but the outcome could still matter to the partisan balance of the narrowly divided U.S. House.
Candidates
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Nick Begich III is the Republican incumbent U.S. representative for Alaska's at-large district, first elected in 2024 after defeating Democratic incumbent Mary Peltola. A businessman who founded the software firm FarShore Partners and a member of Alaska's prominent Begich political family, he is seeking a second term and led the Aug. 18, 2026 top-four primary with 44.6% of the vote. He has received President Trump's endorsement for reelection.
Eric Hafner is a Democratic candidate for Alaska's at-large U.S. House seat who is incarcerated in federal prison in New York while serving a 20-year sentence for threatening government officials and making bomb threats. A perennial candidate who previously ran for House seats in Hawaii (2016), Oregon (2018), and Alaska (2024), he finished fourth in the Aug. 18, 2026 top-four primary with 3.8% of the vote and advanced to the Nov. 3 general-election ballot after higher-finishing candidates withdrew.
Bill Hill is an independent candidate for Alaska's lone U.S. House seat. A Dena'ina Athabascan commercial fisherman and retired educator from Naknek, he served about a decade as superintendent of the Bristol Bay Borough School District and was named Alaska Superintendent of the Year in 2023. He advanced to the Nov. 3 general election as Republican incumbent Nick Begich's principal challenger after finishing second in the Aug. 18, 2026 primary with 32.5% of the vote and becoming the beneficiary of endorsements from Democrats who withdrew from the race.
Jim McDermott is a Fairbanks Libertarian, retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant, and University of Alaska Fairbanks business instructor who has lived in Alaska for more than 35 years. A former Republican who says he left the party over the Patriot Act and NDAA, he was the Libertarian nominee for Alaska's U.S. House seat in 2012, 2014, and 2016; he finished eighth in the 2026 top-four primary with 1.2% and advanced to the November ballot after four higher-finishing candidates withdrew.
Forecast
Nick Begich III favored
Nick Begich III: 83% modeled win probability with a +6.0 pts estimated margin
Polling
7 polls, newest firstAbout this research
Data compiled from public sources and analyzed using AI. Last updated October 9, 2026. Visit candidate websites for the most current information.