Unofficial Results Show Fringe Candidate Widening Lead

Unofficial results from the Municipal Clerks Office show fringe candidate David Bronson leading Forrest Dunbar in the Anchorage mayoral runoff election.

The 'lockup the homeless' candidate leads Dunbar 50.39% to 49.61%. 627 votes now separate the two candidates. According to the Anchorage Municipal Clerk, 81,113 ballots have been counted.

Dunbar has faced unprecedented challenges in his run for mayor. Recently the candidate's Instagram account was made private due to thousands of suspicious bots following Dunbar's campaign account, which could lead to the suspension of the account. Today, Dunbar wrote that the "bot wave has continued unabated."

It's unknown why or how Dunbar's Instagram account found itself besieged by bots in the final week of the campaign.

Dunbar has also seen his campaign signs consistently vandalized across the city, causing thousands of dollars in damages. His campaign has been the recipient of anti-Semitic comments — delivered to the Dunbar campaign PO Box and his Facebook page.

Dunbar's opponent, who enlisted outside Republican consulting firm, Axiom Strategies, seems to have incurred little to no damage to his campaign signs, nor have any of the fringe candidates' social media accounts reportedly found themselves besieged by bot accounts.

Bronson's campaign has, however, twice been fined by the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC), and the campaign quietly amended previously filed APOC reports after polls closed on May 11, 2021.

Over the past 24 hours, far-right supporters of the anti-LGBTQ candidate have bemoaned Dominion voting machines and made baseless allegations that Democrats were stealing the mayoral race. It's not clear if those comments will continue to be made this evening.