November 8, 2016 2022 → 44.3% 29.1% 13.2% 11.6% Date 8 November 2016 | 138,149 90,825 41,194 36,200 Murkowski
30-40%
40-50%
50-60% Miller
40-50% | |
 | ||
Winner Lisa Murkowski | ||
The 2016 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 8, 2016 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Alaska, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Contents
- Background
- Republican primary
- Declared
- Withdrew
- Declined
- Democratic Libertarian Independence primary
- Removed
- Subsequent events
- Failed to qualify
- References
Incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski won re-election to a third term in office. The primaries were held on August 16. She was challenged by several candidates, including: Democrat Ray Metcalfe, a former Republican state legislator; Independent Margaret Stock, an attorney; and Libertarian Joe Miller, who defeated Murkowski for the Republican nomination in the United States Senate election in Alaska, 2010.
Murkowski was re-elected with 44.3% of the vote, becoming the first person in history to win three elections to the U.S. Senate with pluralities, having taken 48.6% in 2004 and 39.5% in 2010. Miller's 29% finish was the best ever for a Libertarian candidate in a U.S. Senate election.
Background
After Republican U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski was elected Governor of Alaska in 2002, he appointed his daughter Lisa to the Senate to replace him. She was elected to a full term in 2004 but was defeated in the Republican primary in 2010 by Tea Party challenger Joe Miller. She ran as a write-in candidate in the general election and was re-elected to a second full term with 39.5% of the vote to Miller's 35.5% and Democratic nominee Scott McAdams' 23.5%. She is one of only two U.S. Senators to be elected via write-in votes, the other being Strom Thurmond in 1954.
Republican primary
As Murkowski was defeated in the Republican primary in 2010, it has been speculated that she will be challenged from the right again in 2016.
Declared
Withdrew
Declined
Democratic-Libertarian-Independence primary
Candidates from the Alaska Democratic Party, Alaska Libertarian Party and Alaskan Independence Party appear on the same ballot, with the highest-placed candidate from each party receiving that party's nomination.
Declared
Removed
Declined
Declared
Subsequent events
Cean Stevens was originally the only Libertarian to file, and was the sole Libertarian in the primary. Stevens withdrew after winning the nomination, and the Alaska Libertarian Party nominated Joe Miller as her replacement.