A judge’s decision has permitted Eric Hafner’s candidacy, presently serving a 20-year jail sentence, to continue running for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat in the general election. The Alaska Democratic Party submitted the removal request, citing Hafner’s 2022 guilty plea for threats against New Jersey judges and police officers. In this closely watched race, U.S. Representative Mary Peltola is up against Republican nominee Nick Begich and Democratic opponent Hafner, who has no ties to Alaska.
Alaska Democratic Party attorneys alleged that state election authorities made a mistake by including Hafner on the ballot. They said that Hafner was ineligible to serve in Congress according to the Constitution, that his presence may mislead voters, and that this would reduce support for Peltola. In addition, they made it clear that although Hafner’s campaign was classified as Democratic, the party did not support it.
Under Alaska’s open primary system, the top four candidates advance to the general election regardless of party. Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and Matthew Salisbury withdrew from the race, leaving Hafner, a Republican, to run on the ballot. Hafner had only received 467 votes to place sixth in the primary. In the primaries, Peltola, Begich, and Dahlstrom received a combined 97.4% of the vote.
Begich, a vocal critic of Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, has urged conservatives to unite to unseat Peltola in the general election. Additionally, John Wayne Howe of the Alaskan Independence Party, who finished fifth in the primary, secured a spot on the ballot. Candidates for the U.S. House must fulfill several constitutional conditions, such as residing in the state in which they are running, being at least 25 years old, and having been citizens of the nation for 7 years. For Eric Hafner’s candidacy, his mailing address is a federal prison in New York.
This news story was originally published by AP News.
