2026初选进入尾声：阿拉斯加与佛罗里达关键初选前瞻

The 2026 primary season enters the home stretch with only a handful of states remaining after polls close tomorrow in Alaska, Florida, and Wyoming. Our Politics Monday duo is here to break down those races and more. That is Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR. Great to see you both. Good to be here. Let's begin in Alaska, where voters will head to the polls in nonpartisan primaries tomorrow, you know, the top 4 contenders in the US Senate race head to the general in November.

Amy, this is a race Political and you have rated as a tossup just days before the primary, though, there was some reporting about a campaign staff shakeup by the Democrat in this race, the former Republican former Representative Mary Peltola, senior officials removed from their jobs. What is going on there? And can a Democrat win? Yeah, well, first, what's going on there? The Peltola campaign says this isn't really a lot about nothing.

This is just shifting job responsibilities of the campaign manager. to a different responsibility and putting the deputy campaign manager in into more of a day to day uh responsibility. Regardless, it gets to your bigger question, which is, can a Democrat win in this state. Now Mary Paltola has actually proven she can win in this state. She won here in 2022 as a congressperson, remember, Alaska has only one member of Congress, so she has had to run statewide before one statewide, and even when she lost reelection in 2024, she's still outran Kala Harris by 11 points.

Her bigger challenge is that even 11 points wasn't quite enough to get over the finish line. This is a very Republican state and for her, her biggest concern right now, even as Trump is less popular than he was in 2024. Is that the Democratic brand isn't any more popular. Already we saw this last week. former presidential nominee Kamala Harris sent out a fundraising email saying I want to contribute money to Mary Peltola, give to my pack so I can give her money.

The Peltola campaign said, yeah, thanks, but no thanks. We don't really want to be associated with those on the lower 48 who have a Democratic big D label attached to them. Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Tam, I know you're following this drama around the Dans Sullivan is a phrase I believe you coined here Two Republicans, one is of course the incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan. Both are on the ballot. What are you watching for here other than confusion on the air, right?

So there is Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher and Forest Service employee, and Dan S. Sullivan, the senator for the state, and they are both Republicans who will be on the ballot now. It's a top 4 primary, so it is quite possible that both Dans Sullivan will make it through to uh to that uh general election which then has Right Choice voting. There's actually been all kinds of interesting shenanigans in this race with outside super PACs spending money to boost unheard of, basically uh novelty campaigns and v