Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, won reelection today after a tougher-than-expected race against an independent candidate threatened to cost him a second term and imperil his party’s chance of holding its majority.

President Donald Trump today also won the state and its three electoral votes, which will have no effect on President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Sullivan’s victory, which came on the heels of the apparent win of Sen. Thom Tillis in North Carolina, put Republicans a step closer to keeping control of the Senate. The fate of the Senate now hinges entirely on two runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5; if Republicans win either one, they keep their majority.

The race in conservative-leaning Alaska was not on the national map of competitive contests at the start of the election cycle. But Al Gross — a commercial fisherman, former orthopedic surgeon and political newcomer who ran with the backing of the Democratic Party and said he would align himself with them — mounted an aggressive challenge that, along with Trump’s sagging approval ratings in the state, helped attract national financial support from Democrats.

Tillis was on track to win in North Carolina, according to results tabulated by Edison Research, and his Democratic opponent conceded Tuesday.

Gross accused Sullivan during the campaign of failing to recognize how bad Alaska’s economy had grown amid the coronavirus pandemic and failing to act aggressively enough to turn it around. He pledged to use his medical background to take a leading role on health care in Congress and hammered Sullivan for voting repeatedly to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

Sullivan painted Gross as too liberal for the state. He warned that if Democrats took control of the White House and Congress, they would pursue an “anti-Alaska” agenda that would further damage the state’s economy and put new restrictions on the energy production that is critical to its financial health.

The Republican also stressed Sullivan’s efforts on behalf of military installations in the state and his work persuading Trump to sign off on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration — a long-sought goal in Alaska. In a last-minute appeal to Alaska voters, Trump also lifted restrictions that had long prevented logging in the state’s Tongass National Forest.

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