Ex-Alaska Democratic representative launches bid for US Senate seat

Former Alaska representative Mary Peltola announced on Monday she is running for Alaska’s US Senate seat, handing Democrats a major recruitment victory as the party battles to reclaim the chamber’s majority in this year’s midterm elections.

Peltola, who served as Alaska’s sole House member from 2022 until her narrow defeat in 2024, is considered one of the few Democrats in the Republican-leaning state capable of mounting a serious challenge to Senator Dan Sullivan, who is seeking re-election.

In her campaign announcement video, Peltola positioned herself as a political outsider focused on Alaska-specific concerns, including the state’s fishing industry and soaring affordability problems. She resurrected her “fish, family and freedom” slogan from previous campaigns, pledged to introduce term limits for members of Congress and said she would focus on “fixing the rigged system in DC”.

“It’s not just that politicians in DC don’t care that we’re paying $17 a gallon for milk in rural Alaska – they don’t even believe us,” Peltola said in the video. “They’re more focused on their stock portfolios than our bank accounts.

“When they actually work together on something, it’s usually to help themselves,” she said.

Her entry completes the recruitment puzzle for Senate-seeking Democrats, who need to flip four seats in November to secure their majority. The party has recruited candidates with political cachet to challenge Republicans in Ohio via former senator Sherrod Brown, North Carolina through former governor Roy Cooper and now Alaska, though competitive primaries continue in Maine, Iowa and Texas.

A survey from Data for Progress last August also found Peltola had the highest favorability of any of Alaska’s top elected officials should she run for governor.

The first Alaska Native elected to Congress, Peltola won a 2022 special election to fill the seat vacated by Don Young’s death, defeating former governor and Republican vice-president nominee Sarah Palin in an upset that flipped the seat to Democrats for the first time since the 1970s. She secured a full term that November through Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, prevailing over Palin and Republican Nick Begich III.

But Begich won their 2024 rematch by two percentage points, ousting Peltola and returning the seat to Republican control.

During her time in Congress, Peltola co-led the conservative-leaning “Blue Dog” Democratic caucus and frequently broke with her party, voting against the Democratic party line 14.4% of the time – among the highest rates in the House, according to a ProPublica database last updated in July 2024.

Among the several contentious votes she joined Republicans on included legislation to prevent the Joe Biden administration from withholding weapons transfers to Israel, a measure backed by only 16 Democrats. She also voted for the Detain and Deport Illegal Aliens Who Assault Cops Act and backed a resolution condemning the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border.

Peltola also supported oil drilling projects important to Alaska’s economy, sometimes bucking Democratic opposition to fossil-fuel development. After leaving Congress, she joined a law and lobbying firm specializing in energy and mining issues.

Despite her popularity in Alaska, Peltola will probably enter the election as an underdog due to the state’s conservative leanings, though Alaska voters do have a history of an independent and moderate streak over rightwing firebrands.

“No one from the lower 48 is coming to save us,” Peltola said. “But I know this in my bones: there is no group of people more ready to save ourselves than Alaskans.”