Earlier this month, we discussed the efforts by the Democrats to use Alaska's obscene ranked-choice voting system to push through Democrat Mary Peltola for another term. The plan involved some liberal Super PACs in Washington flushing advertising money to raise the profile of three Republicans running against her for the seat. Only the top four vote-getters in the primary move on to the general election, so the theory is that if they can split the conservative vote between the three, Pelota might be able to narrowly hang on for another term. At the time, I suggested that the only way to defeat this plot would be for the three leading Republican candidates, Nick Begich, Nancy Dahlstrom, and Gerald Heikes to agree that only the one who received the most votes in the primary would move on and the other two would drop out. Yesterday, after failing to garner the most primary votes, Lt. Governor Nancy Dahlstrom did indeed drop out. (Fox News)

In what may be a surprise blow to Democrats' chances of holding a key red state seat in the U.S. House, Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom announced Friday she is suspending her campaign for Congress.

Dahlstrom was in what was essentially a three-way race with incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican Nick Begich III, who comes from a prominent political family in The Last Frontier.

While Dahlstrom did not immediately endorse Begich, she suggested in comments announcing her withdrawal that her reason for running was to see Peltola defeated.

"I entered this race because Alaskans deserve better representation than what we have received from Mary Peltola in Washington," Dahlstrom said in a statement.

You can see the final election results here. Surprisingly, Peltola did manage to just barely squeak over the 50% mark, likely because of the mixture of Republicans and third party candidates rattling around behind her. Begich defeated Dahlstrom by just over five points. Whether Gerald Heikes drops out or not likely no longer matters because he only drew 0.4 percent of the vote. (He wouldn't have been moving on anyway.) This development should set up Begich for what amounts to a head-to-head matchup in November. It will still likely be a closer race than most conservatives would like to see, but his chances should be markedly improved.

This seat in Alaska could turn out to be critically important to the GOP. The Republicans' hold on the majority in the House remains slender at this point. If a red wave fails to crest yet again this fall the same way that it did in the midterms, they will need every seat that they can sink their claws into. The Cook Political Report still rates Alaska as R+9. They only have one at-large House seat representing the entire state, so there is no way that the Democrats should have been able to put Peltola into office.

They probably wouldn't have been able to do it if Alaska hadn't lost its mind in 2020 and adopted ranked-choice voting. Proponents claim that the system gives voters the opportunity to put more moderate and independent voices into office. That is, of course, a load of malarkey. You'll notice that you won't be seeing any moderates or independents moving on to the final ballot in this House race. All ranked-choice voting has done is force the major parties to get more creative in how they fight their battles. It didn't have any impact on the presidential primary either. Donald Trump once again walked away with all of the state's delegates. 

I am simply befuddled by the fact that Alaskans haven't taken a look at the results of this experiment and recoiled in horror. They should be able to get a fresh initiative on the ballot and go back to the traditional way of holding elections. But there doesn't seem to be any sign of that happening yet. The only people profiting from this game are the Democrats. It's just frustrating to observe.