that means taking nick begich's voters and finding out who was their second choice and redistributing that redistribution, that's how peltola wins. she, the democrat won enough of nick begich's second choices of the voters who picked begich, enough of them picked peltola as their second choice over sarah palin. why? what else is playing into this? obviously the palin factor. what was a component in this campaign that her opponents were using against her was that sarah palin left the governor's office back in 2009, you'll remember. she kind of walked out on alaska, sort of the frame put around her. that's part of the baggage she carries with sort of the overall national baggage of the palin persona that still lingers for her. and it is peltola who makes history now. not only as the first democrat in all these years that you mentioned, first native alaskan, first woman to go and serve in this congressional seat for alaska, all of those history-making moments there will occur now. for this short period of time, from now through january. >> it is worth noting, again, when you dig into the

she won more votes than former vice presidential candidate and alaska governor sarah palin and nick begich who hails from a well-known political family. >> how did you do it? >> worked very hard. spent many hours a day on the phone with alaskan voters, and i traveled extensively to meet people face-to-face. >> reporter: the political upset has turned her into an instant congressional celebrity. >> thank you so much. >> reporter: and even earn praise in a congratulatory text message from palin, who she once worked with as a state legislator. >> refreshing to me she was able to congratulate me. >> i never retreat. i reload. >> reporter: come november, it's game on, as palin and begich will challenge her again for a full two-year term. >> working on momentum we gaine. we have shown that it is doable. >> reporter: hedging her bets for a repeat return to washington. nikole killion, cbs news, the capitol. >>> next on the "cbs weekend news" remembering an academy award winner who terrified movie audiences everywhere. >>> a gian today. his playing described as spiritual. he explored and expanded t

there you see the other, guy republican nick begich, who made a strong showing. hing a bit of bitter feud between the republicans in the race. in fact, do you know this? palin's former in laws even through begich a party instead of someone directs not a lot. and because alaska discharging rank choice voting, when voters rank their -- threshold, their vote instead goes to the second right candidate and so on. you would expect a lot of baggage voters to put pale in number two, by now than f did because there were some bad blood because they didn't like sarah palin. and so because enough republicans don't like sarah palin mary peltola, huge upset win for the democratic party. a win that has to buoy the spirits of democrats everywhere, in the midterms, it's not quite scott brown wins ted kennedy's seat in the reverse but it's a little in the ballpark. we will see. this comes on the heels of a democratic victory in new york 's 19th last week. democrats flip to see which had been republican called for almost 50 years tonight, in a red state special election. another sig

so, the race went into an instant runoff election, in which the last place candidate, nick begich, wasixed, and these voters were re-distributed to peltola or palin. in case you are wondering, yes, alaska will still use the rank choice voting process in -- joining me now is mark leibovitz, that writer for the atlantic and author of, thank you for your servitude, down from washington and the price of submission. this year seems like the prices of mission has been all for in this race. mark leibovich, sarah palin, i must read her statement after her loss this evening. ranked choice voting was sold as the way to make elections better reflect the will of the people. as alaska -- and america -- now sees, the exact opposite is true. then we are disappointed in this outcome, alaskans on the last one who will have a retreat. instead, i'm going to reload. because what would a concession statement be without a gun metaphor? mark, why do you think sarah palin lost tonight? >> well, i think she comes with a lot of baggage, obviously. i think there is a larger conversation about whether this speaks

sarah palin, nick begich, mary matola made it through the primary. they will be in the ballot. people will have this think how they are going to vote, how they will rank folkses but you find people put effort into a campaign are not necessarily interested in dropping. neil: governor, keep us posted what progress you're making. you and 23 other governors to put an end to the president's plan to forgive some of these students loans. draw your attention to the corner of wall and broad, dow jones industrials skid. mixed batch of economic news the gist of it, good enough to keep the fed ral reserve to keep hiking rates. maybe a full percentage point. even though that likelihood dipped tad. there are pockets of weakness there that give you the balance maybe have you thinking stocks should be up today. that is so far not happening. we have the aways to go. the read on this apparent rail strike will not happen now, come to an agreement. the is are not dotted or ts crossed or everyone involved writing off on this but the labor secretary is happy, and he is here after this. ♪. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

half of the people who voted for the other republican in this race, nick begich, did not list palin asetty remarkable. >> yes, it is, and i think what it says -- here is one interpretation, it says that sarah palin has appeal, but it's not broad, right? she appeals to a very narrow band of the constituency in the state in which she was the governor. ranked choice voting is intended to award candidates who are not the choice of a narrow band on the right or left but have broad appeal. there inn it says your first choice is x but tell us your second choice, y, and that factors into the final tabulation. i think we have to also point out that congresswoman elect peltola won in the first round and in the second round, so she continued that momentum that she had, but it was that second round and who is the second choice that put her over the top. >> looking now at the fetterman/oz senate race that you are paying such close attention to there in pennsylvania it's a role reversal because you have fetterman now not doing debates, he is recovering from a stroke, lots of questions about his heal

after pulling off a stunning and historic upset defeating republican sarah palin and nick begich in thection. all three will be facing off again in november's midterms. this time, for a full two-year term. joining me now is congresswoman-elect mary peltola of alaska. i cancon gratulate you on air as i had a chance to do off air. it's exciting. you get sworn in tomorrow. what time? >> 6:30 eastern standard time, 10:30 p.m. alaska time. >> that is exciting. i can imagine -- i did ask you, i will ask you again, have you picked out an outfit. i know this is completely shallow. >> it is important because that seems to be what people talk about most. but yes, i do have a dress that i have worn. i wore it to my son's boot camp graduation from the coast guard. it's nothing new but it's comfortable. it's going to be a long day, so comfort is the key. >> we were talking about jesse ross, he won the week after you won, and it is exciting for indigenous people who are the first people of this nation, have so little representation in presidential administrations, there's one person. and in congress.

nick beckage and petula led on the first preference question. then the question became, suspense became last night, running the rank choice tabulations, sarah palin, finished second, would she pick up enough votes to the begichvotes he got and reallocated them. begich second choice, palin got a vote. reallocated everything that way. when the process was finished, peltola won. a couple things went into this. reason i say this wasn't too surprising, sarah palin, saw it in polls, extremely high negative numbers in alaska. former governor, but even among republicans was a poariing figure. the begich didn't just go to sarah palin. most of those voters but a chunk of his voters who actually made peltola their second choice. >> wow. >> able to pick up some votes and i think key to the whole thing ended up being, there were 11,000 people who voted for begich, other republican in the first round, who did not put on their ballot a second choice. called those exhausted ballots. don't get counted in the send round. you could debate why that was. maybe just didn't want to vote for a democrat but didn't like palin, kind of shrugged, left, just voted for begich, but 11,000 folks who voted for the other republican just didn