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Redrawn maps shape Florida, Alaska and Wyoming votes
August 18, 2026
Voters in Alaska, Florida and Wyoming cast primary ballots Tuesday, while California's 14th District holds a special election to replace former Representative Eric Swalwell.
AP News reports that Alaska's open primary puts every candidate on one ballot and sends the top four to a ranked general election, and that more than a dozen candidates entered each of the three biggest races, for Senate, US House and governor. CNN reports the same crowded field. AP News also reports that one measure sits on the Alaska ballot, a proposal to bring back caps on campaign giving that a split federal appeals panel voided five years ago, and that spending by wealthy donors has become a flashpoint in Alaska races and beyond. In the state's only US House race, AP News reports the leading candidates are Republican Nick Begich, running for a second term, and Bill Hill, an independent from a small village in the state's southwest who fishes and formerly worked in education.
PBS News reports that Tuesday's voting in Florida, Wyoming, California and Alaska puts Republican-led redistricting and a fight between the Democratic establishment and the progressive left on display, an account CNN, AP News and NBC News carry as well. The New York Times frames its coverage of the day around the same three state primaries. NBC News reports that California's 14th District picks a replacement for Eric Swalwell, who resigned earlier this year, and that Florida, where a mid-decade redistricting push wrapped up in May, is central to Republican hopes of holding the US House next year. On the Florida governor's race, NBC News, PBS News and CNN agree that Byron Donalds, endorsed by Donald Trump, leads the Republican field to succeed term-limited Ron DeSantis, and CNN reports the primary has become a bitter intra-party feud with little suspense about its likely result. CNN also reports that Cynthia Lummis is retiring in Wyoming and that Harriet Hageman, who ousted Liz Cheney in 2022, is favored in a five-person field, an account PBS News carries too.
Two points sit unsettled. One account has an Alaska candidate who shares a name with the incumbent senator listed under the name Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. and carrying no party label, a choice a state elections official described as a way to hold down voter confusion; another account of that same ballot line does not agree. The second point is the makeup of the Republican field for Florida governor, both in who belongs on the list of candidates and in how the leading candidacy is framed. What holds across the accounts is the slate itself: three state primaries, a California special election, and redrawn maps that give Florida its weight in next year's fight for the US House.
Still developing
The Alaska ballot listing for the candidate who shares the senator's name is one point where the accounts diverge, along with the makeup of the Republican field for Florida governor. Results in the three primaries and the California special election were still outstanding at the time of draft.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- apnews.com — Dan Sullivan, another Dan Sullivan and an ex-congresswoman face off in Alaska's US Senate primary
- CNN — Voters weigh a DeSantis successor and other key races to watch in Florida, Alaska and Wyoming
- NBC News — Election live updates: Voters go to the polls in Alaska, Florida, Wyoming and California’s 14th District
- pbs.org — What to watch in Tuesday's primaries in Florida, Alaska and more