# Eric Hafner **Eric Hafner** is the Democratic name on Alaska's 2026 ballot for the state's single seat in the U.S. House — and he is in federal prison in New York, has no known connection to Alaska, and could not take the seat if he won it. He matters because Alaska's House race is close, he draws a few percent, and someone has been texting Alaskans to vote for him without saying who they are. ## Who he is - **A federal prisoner.** Hafner pleaded guilty in 2022 to federal charges over threats against police officers, judges and others, and is serving a **20-year sentence** with release expected in **2036**. - **Not an Alaskan.** He has never lived in Alaska. The Constitution requires a member of the House to be an inhabitant of the state when elected, so he would be ineligible to serve. On his state filing he listed a South Dakota mailing address shared with his mother, Carol Hafner, herself a repeat out-of-state candidate in Alaska and Wyoming. - **A perennial candidate.** He has run for Congress in Hawaii, Oregon and, twice now, Alaska. ## How he got on the ballot, twice Alaska sends the top four finishers in its open primary to a [[Ranked-Choice Voting]] general election, so a candidate with a tiny vote share can advance when others withdraw. - **2024.** Hafner finished sixth in the primary with fewer than 500 votes, then moved onto the November ballot when candidates above him dropped out. The Alaska Democratic Party sued to remove him and lost; the courts kept him on. He took about **1 percent** in November, when [[Nick Begich III]] unseated [[Mary Peltola]]. - **2026.** He drew about **3.8 percent** in the August 18 primary. A Democrat who finished ahead of him, Matt Schultz, had already withdrawn and endorsed the independent [[Bill Hill]], so Hafner advanced again. The November ballot lists four names: Begich (R), Hill (independent), Hafner (D) and Jim McDermott (Libertarian). ## The spoiler question Hafner has no visible campaign of his own. What he has had is help from people who will not identify themselves. **What is on the record:** - **In 2024 the [[National Republican Congressional Committee]] promoted him.** On October 9, 2024, the NRCC posted a message on its website saying young, college-educated Democrats in Anchorage and Juneau "need to hear" that Hafner backed Medicare for All and defunding ICE — wording aimed at the people most likely to vote for Peltola. Alaska Public Media found no paid ads carrying that message at the time. - **In 2026, anonymous texts.** On August 14, four days before the primary, some Alaska voters received a text saying Hafner "stands with Bernie Sanders" and "will stop Trump." It carried none of the sponsor disclosure federal law requires of paid political messages. Similar unsigned texts arrived again in the last week of October. **What is alleged but not established:** - **Who paid for the texts.** Hill's campaign says national Republican groups are behind them; Hill says Hafner "is really there to help out a Republican campaign." No sender has been identified. The NRCC did not answer the *Anchorage Daily News* when asked whether it was responsible, and Begich, asked whether he or anyone he knows encouraged Hafner to run, said: "Absolutely not." **The counter-campaign.** The Alaska Democratic Party has endorsed Hill and is asking voters not to vote for its own nominee. PACs backing Hill have spent to tell voters the same thing — more than $450,000 by OpenSecrets' count, according to the *Alaska Beacon*. Hafner's own federal reports show no money raised or spent. ## Why it matters Under ranked-choice voting, a vote for Hafner is not lost: if no one clears 50 percent, the last-place candidate is eliminated and that ballot moves to the voter's next choice. So he matters chiefly to voters who mark him **alone** and rank no one else — a ballot that, from a voter drawn to a Democrat, would otherwise most likely have counted for Begich's main opponent. It is the same tactic Republicans have accused Democrats of in the state's Senate race, where a second candidate named Dan Sullivan is on the ballot — see [[AK-Sen-2026]] and [[United States v. State of Alaska]] — and the reverse of the one some Democratic-aligned groups are running elsewhere this year. The general practice, and where the legal line sits, is at [[Ballot Stacking]]. So far only the Senate case has drawn federal subpoenas and a lawsuit to block certification. ## See Also - [[AK-AL-2026]] — the race - [[Nick Begich III]] · [[Bill Hill]] - [[AK-Sen-2026]] — the Senate race and its second Dan Sullivan - [[Ballot Stacking]] · [[Ranked-Choice Voting]] - [[2026 Midterms Hub]]