Republicans win in Alaska, now hold 53 Senate seats

Republican Dan Sullivan defeated Democratic incumbent Mark Begich for the Senate seat that was up for grabs in Alaska, giving the GOP starting in January 53 seats in the U.S. upper house.

NBC on Wednesday declared Sullivan the winner by more than 8,000 votes over Begich, despite the fact that thousands of ballots remain to be tallied in the state after the midterm elections on Nov. 4.

On his Twitter and Facebook pages, Sullivan declared himself to be “deeply honored” to have been elected to represent Alaska in the Senate, but Begich has not commented on the matter and is not expected to do so until all the votes have been counted.

The ballots that remain to be counted come mostly from the huge state’s remote corners, and many of them were cast by Indians.

Alaska has a conservative tradition, but since 2009 it has been represented in the Senate by Begich, the former Democratic mayor of Anchorage, which is the state’s most populous city.

Since the start of the election campaign, the speculation had been that Alaska could be one of the states that might tip the balance to the Republicans for control of the Senate, given that Sullivan and Begich appeared to be tied in virtually all of the voter surveys.

However, on election day, the Republican Party gained control of the Senate without the need for Alaska to swing to the red side of the spectrum with victories in other key states such as Arkansas, South Dakota, Montana, West Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina and Iowa.

Louisiana is the lone state where the Senate race has not yet been decided, but that will occur on Dec. 6 in a runoff election.