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Democrats are going after Alaska’s Senate race this year, and they’ve landed probably the only candidate that can make it competitive: Mary Peltola.
The former congresswoman on Monday jumped into the race against GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, adding yet another hard-fought campaign to what Democrats hope is shaping up to be a wave year that could carry them in red states like Alaska.
Peltola certainly doesn’t sound like a typical Democratic candidate as she starts her bid: She’s proposing term limits, is campaigning on “fish, family and freedom,” and has already name-dropped former Republican officials in her state multiple times.
“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 says in her launch video, referencing the former GOP senator and House member, respectively.
“DC 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,” she says.
Peltola is clearly appealing to the state’s ranked choice voting system and its unique electorate, which elevated moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, over a candidate supported by President Donald Trump. The last Democrat to win an Alaska Senate race was Mark Begich in 2008, though Peltola won the state’s at-large seat twice — even defeating former Gov. Sarah Palin.
Sullivan defeated Begich in 2014, followed by independent Al Gross in 2020; Sullivan also recently voted to extend expired health care subsidies, a sign of the state’s independent streak.
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Peltola is a big recruit for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his quest to take back the chamber. Schumer has now landed former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina, former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Gov. Janet Mills in Maine, and Peltola in Alaska.
That’s on top of potentially competitive races in places like Iowa and Texas, though the Democratic primaries in those states and Maine are unsettled.
And Schumer’s party still faces long odds to take back the majority this fall. Democrats would have to flip four seats, while holding Georgia and Michigan, given the Senate map; House Democrats are more favored to flip their chamber.
But Peltola’s candidacy gives Democrats an incrementally better chance in that push. The National Republican Senatorial Committee immediately launched an ad hitting Peltola’s record in the House; an NRSC spokesperson predicted Alaskans “will reject Peltola again.”