2010 United States Senate election in Alaska
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Borough and census area results Murkowski: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% Miller: 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% McAdams: 30–40% 40–50% | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in Alaska |
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The 2010 United States Senate election in Alaska took place on November 2, 2010. Incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski was re-elected as a write-in candidate despite having been defeated in the Republican primary.
Primary elections were held on August 24, 2010. Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams became the Democratic nominee, while attorney and former federal magistrate Joe Miller defeated Murkowski to become the Republican nominee. Miller was endorsed by the Tea Party movement and by former Governor Sarah Palin.
Murkowski announced that despite her defeat in the Republican primary, she would run in the general election as a write-in candidate. In the general election, Murkowski garnered more than 100,000 write-in votes. Miller challenged 8,000 of those votes. The Associated Press and the Alaska GOP called the race in Murkowski's favor on November 17. Miller did not concede the race and instead filed legal challenges in federal and state court.
On December 30, 2010, Alaska state officials certified Murkowski as the winner of the election. On December 31, Miller announced at a news conference in Anchorage that he was conceding the race. Murkowski is only the second person since the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to win a U.S. Senate election as a write-in candidate against candidates with ballot access (the first was Strom Thurmond in 1954). Murkowski also became the first person since 1970 to win election to the Senate with under 40% of the vote.