There’s a 'bright red light' flashing for Republicans in Alaska Senate race

In a nonpartisan U.S. Senate primary in Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola won 48 percent of the vote — compared to only 42 percent for Dan Sullivan, the race's leading Republican. Journalist Michael Cohen discussed the implications of that primary's outcome during an appearance on The New Republic's podcast, "The Daily Blast." And he laid out some reasons why it is a "bright red light" flashing for the GOP.

The fact that Alaska is a red state that Donald Trump won in three presidential elections in a row wasn't lost on either or liberal host Greg Sargent, a former Washington Post columnist. Sargent commented that while he doesn't "want to get too optimistic" about Democrats' chances of winning that U.S. Senate race in Alaska in November, he can "see a path to" a Democratic Senate majority if that seat really is in play for them.

Cohen told Sargent, "And it's not just Peltola being up, it's also Sullivan being, you know, in the low forties. An incumbent running for reelection — that's usually a pretty bright red light that suggests you're in serious trouble to win reelection. The thing with Peltola is that she's won statewide before, right? She did this in, what, 2018, I believe —she won statewide, and she won again in 2020. And then, she lost in 2022, in a bad environment for Democrats. So, I just think that she has a track record in Alaska."

On the podcast, Cohen noted that Sullivan "appears to be an unpopular incumbent."

"The national environment is just terrible for Republicans, Cohen told Sullivan. "So yeah. And she's leading every poll. So, it does seem like she's got a chance. But ... you have to remember, these are red states. And for Democrats — I mean, you could see Democrats win two or three Senate seats in red states."

Cohen continued, "I mean, I think we have to step back here and just realize for a second how unusual a situation we're in right now, where you have this many Republican seats — places where Trump, again, won by double digits in many cases — competitive. This is just very unusual in our modern political environment. Keep in mind, right now, for example, there's not a single Democratic senator in a state that Trump won three straight elections, right? There's one Republican senator in a state that Kamala Harris won in 2024, and that would be Maine — and that’s Susan Collins, and she looks like she might, might lose."