THE ALASKA STORY
Nov. 4, 2026 – Florida gave Republicans two reasons to cheer on an otherwise rough election night. US Sen. Ashley Moody held her seat, and US Rep. Byron Donalds kept the governor’s office in Republican hands. Both races were close.
The wins stood out as Democrats captured both chambers of Congress and took Republican-held governorships in Texas, Georgia, Iowa and Ohio. Florida was one of nine states where Republicans held both a U.S. Senate seat and the governor’s office in Tuesday’s election, based on race calls.
Moody defeated Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon in the special election for the seat Moody was appointed to fill after Marco Rubio left the Senate. Moody had about 51% to Nixon’s 48% in the reported count. In the governor’s race, Donalds defeated Democrat David Jolly by about 1.3 percentage points in Florida’s unofficial returns.
South Carolina voters split their statewide verdict. Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson won the governor’s race, while Democrat Annie Andrews defeated Republican Darline Graham for the US Senate. Andrews’ win ended a 28-year stretch without a Democratic Senate victory in the state.
Where Republicans won both races
| State | US Senate | Governor |
| Alabama | Barry Moore | Tommy Tuberville |
| Arkansas | Tom Cotton | Sarah Huckabee Sanders |
| Florida | Ashley Moody | Byron Donalds |
| Idaho | Jim Risch | Brad Little |
| Nebraska | Pete Ricketts | Jim Pillen |
| Oklahoma | Kevin Hern | Mike Mazzei |
| South Dakota | Mike Rounds | Larry Rhoden |
| Tennessee | Bill Hagerty | Marsha Blackburn |
| Wyoming | Harriet Hageman | Eric Barlow |
Wyoming delivered one of the clearest Republican Senate wins, with Hageman taking about 65% of the reported vote. In Louisiana, Republican Julia Letlow held the Senate seat by less than two percentage points over Democrat Jamie Davis. Republicans also held Senate seats in Kentucky with Andy Barr, Montana with Kurt Alme and West Virginia with Shelley Moore Capito.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott also won reelection in Vermont, where there was no US Senate race on the ballot.
Alaska’s US Senate, US House and governor’s races remained unsettled Wednesday morning. Democrat Mary Peltola led Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan by 626 votes in the count reported earlier by The Alaska Story. Republican US Rep. Nick Begich led the House race just shy of a first-choice majority. Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins led the governor’s race, with Bernadette Wilson leading the Republican field. The Division of Elections has scheduled ranked-choice tabulation for Nov. 18. The Alaska Story’s Alaska results.
2 thoughts on “Where Republicans held their ground as Democrats swept Congress”
Who would have thought that disregarding and condescending your voters while loving another foreign country, the donors, and war would be disastrous?
I am looking forward to interacting with the neocons/zionists here over the next few days. Your tears will be delicious.
Please do not regard this as a gloat. It is intended to suggest a path forward. I am old enough to remember a time when Republicans came in all kind of ideological stripes. Yes even liberal Republicans. By that I mean people who could find the center of right. In other words liberal conservatives. The purge began with Goldwater 64 and accelerated in the Reagan 1980 campaign with a renewed call to purge the RINOs. Perhaps that was the end of the liberal R label and those who survived became the moderates. Then came the Tea Party purge and the MAGA purge. Fast forward to this morning. It is a calm, beautiful sunny morning in Washington. A town that thrives on governance that befits the greatest nation in the world. The greatest democracy ever created. And our collective blood pressure readings are returning to the near normal range for the first time since January 6, 2024.
Yes there are some “conservatives” who are still chomping at the bit to “own the libs” and “boot the RINOs”. But there are also bona fide conservatives with the courage to speak truth to MAGA. Among them the “Freedom Conservatives” to which I am a proud signatory. I encourage readers of The Alaska Story who have largely been fed a steady diet of one flavor of conservatism, that there is another flavor. That is the flavor that “Now seeks to conserve the American Experiment and combat the wrongheaded ideas of both right-wing populists and left-wing progressives” And the flavor that speaks truth to the excesses of the current President. Exhibit “A” submitted by Freedom Conservative signatory Tiana Lowe Doescher who wrote in the Washington Examiner:
What differentiated “an ordinary blue wave from the evident indigo tsunami that voters delivered to Republicans is how uniquely President Donald Trump manufactured the dismantling of his own Senate majority.”
In a world where John Cornyn, Thom Tillis, and J.D. Vance “all remained in the upper chamber and South Carolinians were allowed to vote for one of their own known politicians in an open primary,” she concluded, “Republicans would keep, at a minimum, four Senate seats that they lost tonight, save hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, and likely save their own majority from the poppycock investigations, stonewalling, and impeachments to come.”
It is not like the MAGA conservatives werent warned. It is that they could not hear the signal through their hubris. My words not Tina’s.
But it is morning in America, in Alaska, and in Washington. I find joy in the probability that Juneau will continue to be governed by a bipartisan coalition. And look forward to the announcement of JKT’s transition plans, assuming that they remain inclusive. I am optimistic that Senator Dan will prevail and with an eye to the post-Trump future fully embrace the thoughtful, wonky, bipartisan Stevensesqe leader that is engrained in his political DNA. And I pray that readers of The Alaska Story might find some love for Lisa Murkowski. Of whom Politico recently said,
“However the midterms shake out,it’ll be a good time to be Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).The Alaska Republican and leading Trump critic is poised to be the GOP’s top lawmaker on either one of two powerful committee perches. Murkowski is also likely to see her role as a dealmaker expand.” Yes I am biased but Lisa was made for a time like this. A time when Alaska needs a Senator who can lead across the aisle. A Senator who has the skill and credibility to advance Alaska’s interests.
For more information about Freedom Conservatism, please read today’s substack at
https://open.substack.com/pub/freecon/p/take-one?r=4qx82b&utm_medium=ios