WASHINGTON — Democrat Mary Peltola announced Monday that she’s running for U.S. Senate, taking on Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Peltola served one partial and one full term in the U.S. House, becoming the first Alaska Native person elected to Congress. She then narrowly lost her seat in 2024.
Her announcement Monday came with a video portraying her salmon-centered family life on the Kuskokwim River. She repeats her previous campaign slogan: “Fish, family, freedom.” She also hearkens back to Alaska senators who served in less partisan times.
“Ted Stevens often said, ‘To hell with politics. Put Alaska first,’” Peltola says on the video. “It’s about time Alaskans teach the rest of the country what Alaska first and, really, America first looks like.”
(Peltola modified Stevens’s oft-repeated quote. The late senator’s catchphrase was actually “To hell with politics. Just do what’s right for Alaska.”)
Nationally, Democrats believe that with Peltola on the ballot, Alaska presents one of their best hopes of flipping a seat. Political analyst and statistician Nate Silver said in a social media post last week that Democrats still have an uphill battle to win back the Senate majority but that Peltola’s candidacy moves their chances in Alaska from a long-shot to plausible.
Sullivan has already raised $6 million this election cycle. He has President Trump’s endorsement and maintains a strong alignment with Trump.
But, in what Democrats took to be a sign that he’s feeling the political heat, Sullivan last month unexpectedly voted to extend health insurance subsidies. He’s also touting a new bill that targets one of Peltola’s primary issues: Bycatch, or the accidental catch of salmon by the pollock fleet.
For U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Peltola’s candidacy presents a dilemma. They’re both moderates, and Murkowski endorsed Peltola in the past, despite their party differences. The senator declined to pick a side when a reporter asked before Christmas. But Thursday Murkowski said she’d made a decision: She’s endorsing her Republican colleague.
“We've had a pretty solid team here in the Senate for the past 12 years, so we want to figure out how we're going to keep in the majority,” she said. “And Dan delivers that.”
Both sides are expected to pour tens of millions of dollars into the race.
Sullivan’s last race in 2020 was one of the most expensive elections in state history, with spending by the campaigns and outside groups totaling more than $57 million.
Sullivan was outspent but beat independent candidate Al Gross by a substantial margin.
Peltola lost her House seat to Republican Nick Begich. After ranked ballots were tallied in 2024, she had almost 49% of the vote to his 51%. (The rankings had little impact on the final result in that race. Before voters’ second- and third- choices were counted, Begich’s lead was slightly smaller.)
Sullivan and Peltola will face off first in a nonpartisan primary in August. The top four candidates will advance to a ranked-choice ballot in November.
