Former Anchorage Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance leads initial runoff results
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Initial results of the runoff election for Anchorage mayor released Tuesday night show Mayor Dave Bronson’s time as mayor may be coming to an end.
The municipality’s Department of Elections released initial results shortly before 8:30 p.m. that show former Assembly chair Suzanne LaFrance leading over incumbent Mayor Bronson.
Bronson has secured 22,997 votes, or 45.12%, while LaFrance leads with 27,970 for 54.88% of the vote.
More than 150 LaFrance volunteers and staff took to the streets Tuesday in the final hours before polls closed, encouraging voters to elect the former Anchorage Assembly Chair, according to campaign manager Katie Scovic.
Volunteers and staff knocked on doors, sent texts and made phone calls until the 8 p.m. deadline. More than 200 volunteers and staff have been part of LaFrance’s campaign since she announced her candidacy in May of 2023, Scovic said.
“I’m feeling excited and grateful and optimistic about the future,” LaFrance said Tuesday night. “It’s a nice place to be, and I’m just so grateful to our team and all our wonderful supporters and just really excited about where we’re at.”
Mayor Bronson was not dismayed by the early returns, comparing it to where his campaign was when he faced another runoff election in 2021.
“We’re about where we thought we very well could be. It’s about where we were three years ago, and we wound up winning by a small margin then,” Bronson said at a campaign event after the polls closed.
When asked if he thought later counts could favor his chances, Bronson said that it’s a possibility.
“Since we went to mail-in voting, people on the right side of the political spectrum by and large, in fact predominately, prefer to vote day-of, walk-in, drop if off, and people that tend maybe a little more on the left side would rather vote by mail-in early. And that’s fine, everyone gets to choose what they want to do.”
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