Alaska’s primary election for the governor’s office saw a diverse set of candidates qualify for the midterms. Mike Dunleavy (incumbent and Republican), Les Gara (Democrat) and Bill Walker (Independent) have secured their spot on the November ballot.

Votes have not been counted for the fourth spot, which can be claimed by frontrunners like Charlie Pierce and Christopher Kurka. Alaska is trying its “top-four” election format for the first time this year.

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Under a voter-approved elections process, party primaries have been scrapped and ranked choice voting is being used in general elections. The top four vote-getters in a primary race, regardless of party affiliation, are to advance to the general election.

Incumbent Mike Dunleavy secured more than 42% of the votes in Tuesday’s elections, with at least 49,700 ballots cast in favour of the Republican. The other two favourites — Bill Walker and Les Gara– are nearly tied. Both have received a little over 25,000 votes.

Alaska Republican and US Senator Lisa Murkowski and Kelly Tshibaka, her GOP rival who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, advanced from Tuesday’s primary.

Murkowski had expressed confidence she would advance and earlier in the day told reporters that “what matters is winning in November.” Tshibaka called the results “the first step in breaking the Murkowski monarchy’s grip on Alaska.”

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A Murkowski has held the Senate seat since 1981; before Lisa Murkowski, who has been in the Senate since late 2002, it was her father, Frank Murkowski.

Mary Peltola, Nick Begich and Sarah Palin were also competing in a special election to serve the remainder of the late-Representative Don Young’s term, which ends early next year. Young died in March. The special election was voters’ first shot at ranked voting in a statewide race. The winner of the special election may not be known until at least August 31.