Eric Hafner

Eric Hafner is the Democratic nominee for Alaska's at-large U.S. House seat, having finished fourth in the August 18, 2026 top-four primary with 3.8% of the vote. He previously ran in a 2016 Republican primary in Hawaii and a 2018 Democratic primary in Oregon, and was on the 2024 Alaska general-election ballot. According to Ballotpedia, he was serving a 20-year federal sentence for threatening elected officials when the Alaska Democratic Party sued in 2024 to remove him from the ballot.[1][2][3]

The New Jersey Globe described Hafner in 2022 as a Toms River, New Jersey, medical marijuana advocate and reported that he was living outside the U.S. when the conduct at issue in his criminal case occurred, between 2016 and 2018.[3] In his 2018 Ballotpedia survey, he listed past work as a diplomatic advisor, criminal defense consultant, union organizer, hotel manager, real estate marketing assistant, medical cannabis policy advisor to Manalapan Township, New Jersey, political consultant and field organizer.[2]

Hafner lost a Republican primary for Congress in Hawaii in 2016, taking 44% of the vote, and a Democratic primary in Oregon's 3rd District in 2018, where Ballotpedia records 1.4%.[2][3] In May 2022, the New Jersey Globe reported that he pleaded guilty in federal court to threatening judges, New Jersey officials and law enforcement and to making false bomb threats; prosecutors said he sought to extort $350,000 from some victims.[3]

At the time of a 2024 Alaska Democratic Party lawsuit seeking to remove him from that year's ballot, Hafner was serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in New York for threatening elected officials, with a scheduled release in 2036. An Alaska Superior Court judge dismissed the party's lawsuit, ruling that ranked-choice voting eliminated any claim of harm from his presence on the ballot and that the court could not weigh in on whether he would reside in Alaska by Election Day.[2]

Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.