Midterms in the USA: Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins wins gubernatorial election in Alaska

With the election victory, the Democrats will occupy 30 of the 50 governorships in the USA - more than ever since 1993. This means they are in the majority again for the first time since 2010. Around three quarters of the US population will then live in states with Democratic governors.

Kreiss-Tomkins received about 51 percent of the first-preference vote, according to preliminary results. In Alaska, voters can select multiple candidates in order of preference. Among his three Republican competitors was Bernadette Wilson, supported by President Donald Trump. The Republican US Senator Lisa Murkowski, however, surprisingly spoke out in favor of Kreiss-Tomkins.

The Democrat had previously been a member of the Alaska House of Representatives for around ten years. He succeeds Republican Mike Dunleavy, who was not allowed to run again after two terms.

Alaska is the largest state in the USA in terms of area, but only has around 740,000 inhabitants. The largest city is Anchorage, the capital is Juneau. The midterm elections took place on November 3rd. The reasons for the lengthy vote counting were the many remote areas in the state and the ranked-choice voting system.