This is a developing story and will be updated
Unofficial results are in for this year's state primary election. Voters decided on which candidates would advance in the general election. The top four vote-getters will advance to the General Election in November. But, there aren’t any races on the Kenai Peninsula with more than four candidates.
Four house districts and one senate district have races this year in the Kenai Peninsula Borough. The U.S. Representative seat is also up for election this year.
The following results were updated by the Alaska Division of Elections at 10:16 p.m.
District 5
With 1,324 votes, Incumbent Louise Stutes of Kodiak holds a 60 point lead in the district covering Kodiak, Seward and Cordova. All 12 precincts are reporting results with around 12% voter turnout. Challenger Leighton Radner, a Libertarian from Seward, trails behind with 277 or nearly 20% of the vote.
| Louise Stutes (R) | 1,324 | 80.15% |
| Leighton Radner (LP) | 328 | 19.85% |
| Total | 1,652 | 100.00% |
District 6
Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, took the lead after the first round of results, and she held the lead as the evening continued.
With all nine precincts reporting in the district that covers the southern Kenai Peninsula up to Kasilof, Vance has 1,829, or about 42.9% of the votes. Challenger and Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly President Brent Johnson of Clam Gulch trails behind by about 9 percentage points at 1,471 votes.
Newcomers Alana Greear and Dawson Slaughter take up the rear with 16.8% and 5.8% of the vote, respectively.
Voter turnout is at about 23.5% for the district.
| Sarah Vance (R) | 1,829 | 42.90% |
| Alana Greear (NP) | 718 | 16.84% |
| Dawson Slaughter | 245 | 5.75% |
| Brent Johnson | 1,471 | 34.51% |
| Total | 4,263 | 100.00% |
District 7
Preliminary results show incumbent Rep. Justin Ruffridge leading by more than 20 percentage points. With four of six precincts reporting, he’s received 1,180 votes, or about 60.1% of all votes cast. That’s as compared to challenger Ron Gillham, who received 783, or about 39.9% of votes cast.
| Justin Ruffridge (R) | 1,450 | 60.17% |
| Ron Gillham (R) | 960 | 39.83% |
| Total | 2,410 | 100.00% |
District 8
After the first round of votes were reported, just 23 votes separated candidates Bill Elam and John Hillyer. By the end of the evening, though, Hillyer pulled ahead. Both candidates are new to state politics, and are running as Republicans to fill the state House seat that covers the northern Kenai Peninsula.
With all precincts reporting, Hillyer carries a slight lead over Elam. Hillyer received about 50.8% of the more than 3,500 votes cast. That’s compared to Elam, who received about 49.2% of votes.
| John Hillyer (R) | 1,521 | 50.78% |
| Bill Elam (R) | 1,474 | 49.22% |
| Total | 2,995 | 100.00% |
Senate D
Incumbent Republican Sen. Jesse Bjorkman carries a lead of about three percentage points in the race for the Senate District D seat. With all precincts reporting, Bjorkman received about 43.9% of the more than 5,000 votes cast.
The next highest vote-getter was Ben Carpenter, also a Republican, who received about 41.2% of votes cast. They were followed by Democratic candidate Tina Wegner with about 12.2% of votes cast, and Independent candidate Andy Cizek with about 2.6% of votes cast.
| Jesse Bjorkman (R) | 2,605 | 43.93% |
| Ben Carpenter (R) | 2,445 | 41.23% |
| Tina Wegener (D) | 724 | 12.21% |
| Andy Cizek (I) | 156 | 2.63% |
| Total | 5,930 | 100.00% |
