Democrat flips Alaska governor's mansion after Trump-backed GOP infighting

Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has won Alaska's gubernatorial election, defeating Trump-endorsed Republican Bernadette Wilson and flipping the governor's mansion.

The Associated Press called the race for Kreiss-Tomkins, a former state lawmaker, Friday evening local time. He is the first Democratic governor in Alaska since 1998.

Alaska's gubernatorial election became an unusual contest as Republicans battled among themselves over who should succeed Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who was barred from seeking a third consecutive term.

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Wilson, a conservative activist and former political operative, received President Donald Trump's endorsement during a campaign in which multiple Republicans competed for the governor's office.

Trump publicly criticized fellow Republicans Dave Bronson and Treg Taylor, accusing them of dividing conservative voters and potentially jeopardizing the party's hold on the governorship.

Bronson, a former Anchorage mayor, and Taylor, a former Alaska attorney general, remained part of the Republican field, creating a complicated general-election contest.

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Kreiss-Tomkins, a former state representative from Sitka, emerged as the Democratic contender, seeking to return his party to the governor's mansion after Dunleavy's two terms.

The election unfolded under Alaska's ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference.

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If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the lowest-performing candidate is eliminated and those ballots are redistributed according to voters' next preferences. The process continues until a candidate secures a majority among continuing ballots.

The system has added an unusual dynamic to Alaska politics, allowing multiple candidates from the same party to compete in the general election without a traditional partisan runoff.

The contest also came as Alaska remained a reliably Republican state in presidential elections, despite occasionally electing Democrats and independents to statewide office.