Former Rep. Mary Peltola is running for Senate in Alaska, handing Democrats a top recruit in the race against two-term GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan.
“Growing up, Alaska was a place of abundance. Now, we have scarcity,” Peltola said in a video announcing her campaign. “The salmon, large game, and migratory birds that used to fill our freezers are harder to find. So we buy more groceries, with crushing prices.”
Peltola enters the race after having represented Alaska in Congress as its lone House member, with a record of performing better than the average Democrat in the red state. Peltola, a former state legislator, first won a special election in 2022 and a full term later that year, becoming the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.
But Peltola lost her 2024 re-election bid by 3 points, as President Donald Trump carried Alaska by 13 points.
The path to the Senate majority is an uphill climb for the Democratic Party, which must hold on to several Senate seats in battleground states as well as flipping at least four states held by Republicans. Because of the mix of seats on the ballot in 2026, that would mean winning at least two states Trump won by double digits. The party does not currently have any senators from Trump double-digit states.
But Democrats think former Sen. Sherrod Brown could make Ohio competitive, they’re looking at Iowa and Texas as possible opportunities for underdog upsets, and they believe Peltola could put the Alaska race in play, leveraging her name recognition, fundraising and bipartisan bona fides.
As she works to appeal to GOP-leaning voters in the state, Peltola, in her launch video, pointed to two late Alaska Republicans, including her predecessor in the House, as examples for the state’s congressional delegation.
“Our delegation used to stand up to their party and put Alaska first,” Peltola said. “Ted Stevens and Don Young ignored Lower 48 partisanship to fight for things like public media and disaster relief because Alaska depends on them.”
Peltola is a former member of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition who ran her first race for Congress with the slogan “fish, family, freedom,” a slogan she echoed in her Senate campaign launch video. She has touted her support for gun rights, saying she owns 176 long guns, and has also stressed her support for abortion rights. In her 2024 race, Peltola faced attacks from Republican Nick Begich and his allies for supporting then-President Joe Biden.
Peltola decried a “rigged system” and voiced support for term limits in her campaign launch. And while the Democrat did not mention Sullivan by name in her video, she did reference one of Trump’s campaign slogans, saying, “Ted Stevens often said, ‘To hell with politics, put Alaska first.’ It’s about time Alaskans teach the rest of the country what ‘Alaska First’ and, really, ‘America First’ looks like.”
Sullivan, a Marine veteran who has Trump’s endorsement, has been gearing up for a potentially competitive race. His campaign had nearly $4.8 million in its account as of Sept. 30, according to the most recent campaign finance filings.
Sullivan was first elected in 2014 after defeating then-Democratic Sen. Mark Begich by 2 points. He won a second term in 2020 by a wider margin, defeating independent Al Gross by 13 points.
Sullivan campaign spokesperson Nate Adams said in a statement to NBC News that Sullivan “has spent years delivering real results for Alaska: historic investments in our state’s health care, major funding for our Coast Guard, helping protect those who can’t protect themselves and policies that are finally unleashing Alaska’s energy potential. “
“Dan Sullivan delivers for Alaska,” Adams added. “His opponent served a term and a half in Congress where she didn’t pass a single bill. Alaskans deserve a senator with a proven record of getting things done, and the contrast couldn’t be clearer in this race.”
Sullivan has largely supported Trump’s agenda, backing the president’s signature “big, beautiful” tax and spending measure. But Sullivan did recently join Democrats in supporting a proposal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies for an additional three years.
Democrats have already started to attack Sullivan on the airwaves, spending a combined $3.1 million on ads in the race so far, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Most of that spending has come from groups tied to Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
GOP groups have spent nearly $1.5 million on ads.
