Rep. Tammie Wilson cruised to an easy win over fellow Republican incumbent Doug Isaacson in the District 3 Republican primary.
With all precincts reporting, unofficial results show Wilson beat Isaacson by about 11 percentage points, or 300 votes.
District 3 was rejiggered during the most recent round of redistricting with parts of the old districts 1, which Isaacson represented, and 2, which Wilson represented.
Wilson says her door-to-door campaigning gave her the edge over Isaacson.
“I think everybody always has questions,” she said. “And it just doesn’t seem rise to the top of actually calling you. But when you’re standing there, it’s a great chance to have those conversations.
Wilson says she and Isaacson tend to agree on a lot of issues. But she thinks her often-repeated message of smaller government resonated with the district’s voters more than Isaacson’s position, which she says seems more oriented toward using government to solve problems.
“I think my opponent was a little bit more on thinking that government really needs to have more authority, versus less,” Wilson said.
Isaacson says he and Wilson were running about even throughout the campaign. But he says Wilson won a lot of support late in the race with a last-minute mailer from the Alaska Outdoor Council that endorsed Wilson.
“And that may have played in, because they’re highly respected and they weighed in on a primary, and she’d gotten their nod in a primary,” he said.
Wilson will go on to face North Pole Democrat Sharron Hunter in the Nov. 4 general election.
