Mary Peltola Launches Alaska Senate Bid, Marking Major Recruiting Coup for Democrats

Former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska is launching a much-anticipated Senate run, marking a major recruiting victory for Senate Democrats.

Peltola, 52, is widely considered Democrats’ most viable candidate to take on Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska, boasting statewide name recognition and fundraising prowess. President Donald Trump won the state in 2024 by roughly 13 points.

While Sullivan, 61, will be a formidable opponent, Peltola’s bid will now force Republican campaign brass to expend resources on the race as they fend off other strong Democratic recruits in Ohio, North Carolina and Maine. Democrats need to pick up four seats in the 2026 midterm elections to win back the majority in the Senate.

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Known for her campaign slogan, “Fish, Family, and Freedom,” Peltola garnered a national reputation as a rare Democrat representing a largely rural state where Republicans have dominated statewide politics for decades. She was also the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.

“Our delegation used to stand up to their party and put Alaska first,” Peltola said in her campaign launch video. Linking herself to two longtime Republicans from the state, she added, “Ted Stevens and Don Young ignored Lower 48 partisanship to fight for things like public media and disaster relief because Alaska depends on them.”

“My agenda for Alaska will always be fish, family, and freedom,” she added, touting her familiar catch phrase. “But our future also depends on fixing the rigged system in D.C. that’s shutting down Alaska, while politicians feather their own nest.”

A former state legislator and tribal fisheries manager, Peltola replaced the late Rep. Don Young in the U.S. House in 2022 after his death that same year. She lost her seat in 2024 to Republican Rep. Nick Begich.

During her tenure in Congress, she championed several Alaska resource development initiatives, including a massive ConocoPhillips oil drilling project known as Willow. She was also a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of centrist Democrats that occasionally bucks party leadership.

Peltola’s campaign launch video previews her early Senate platform and suggests she will continue striking out from the Democratic establishment. Specifically, she endorses term limits.

“D.C. people will be pissed that I’m focusing on their self-dealing and sharing what I’ve seen firsthand. They’re going to complain that I’m proposing term limits. But it’s time,” Peltola said in her video. “Systemic change is the only way to bring down grocery costs, save our fisheries, lower energy prices and build new housing Alaskans can afford.”

Meanwhile, Sullivan defeated a well-funded independent challenger in 2020 and has stockpiled $4.7 million in his campaign war chest. He has served over a decade in the Senate where he, too, has focused on Alaska resource development, as well as national security issues as a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and former Marine.

Peltola and Sullivan worked together in Alaska’s tiny three-member congressional delegation for more than two years, including on the Willow project.

“Senator 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,” Sullivan campaign spokesperson Nate Adams said in a statement.

“Dan Sullivan delivers for Alaska,” he continued. “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.”

After losing her seat in the House, Peltola joined the prominent law and lobbying firm Holland & Hart but has long flirted with another run for public office. Her former chief of staff, Anton McParland, told NOTUS in March that he expected she would run for office again. In August, NOTUS reported that Peltola sent out a fundraising text blast that said she was mulling a campaign.

Peltola was also considered a front-runner for Alaska’s open gubernatorial race, so much so that Democratic candidate Tom Begich said he would withdraw his campaign if she announced a bid.

Alaska will hold an open primary on Aug. 18, meaning all candidates for Senate will compete against each other, regardless of party affiliation. The top four candidates will advance to the general election. In the general election, Alaska uses ranked choice voting.

The race will put Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has previously both endorsed and worked with Peltola and Sullivan, in a tricky position. She told Alaska journalist Nathaniel Herz last week that Peltola’s potential Senate bid would leave her in a “difficult spot.”

“Anybody who’s thinking about taking him on, I think, is setting themselves up for a very, very hard and a very expensive race,” Murkowski said.

On Thursday, Murkowski told Alaska Public Media that she is endorsing Sullivan.

Regardless, Peltola is charging ahead.

“No one from the Lower 48 is coming to save us, but I know this in my bones, there is no group of people more ready to save ourselves than Alaskans,” she said in her video. “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.”

This story was updated with a statement from Sen. Sullivan and additional information.