‘We believe we will win,’ says Al Gross in Alaska, lagging in Senate bid with half of votes counted
Senate candidate Dr. Al Gross, independent from Alaska Image by Al Gross/YouTube
(JTA) — Al Gross, the Jewish doctor whose challenge to Alaska’s Republican senator attracted deep support from across the United States, is lagging badly in early vote counts.
But with nearly half of ballots yet to be tallied, Gross is declining to concede, saying that he believes his campaign will ultimately prevail.
“The dynamics of the Alaska Senate race at this hour remain in a state of flux,” Gross tweeted late Thursday. “With approximately 44.6 percent of the ballots not yet counted, we believe we will win once every vote has been counted in the state.”
The vast majority of ballots that have yet to be counted were mailed in, Gross said. Across the country, most mail-in ballots have been for Democrats, who pushed mail-in balloting as a way to ensure voters’ safety during the pandemic.
Gross was polling neck and neck against Sen. Dan Sullivan through the campaign’s final months, as Sullivan faced a scandal and Gross benefitted from millions of dollars in donations from Americans who sought to flip the Senate from Republican to Democratic control. The other Jewish candidate in striking distance of flipping a Senate seat, Jon Ossoff in Georgia, is likely headed to a January runoff election after neither he nor his opponent drew a majority of votes.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
