Mary Peltola

Fish, Family and Freedom

A lifelong Alaskan, Mary Peltola has experienced firsthand the life that many Alaskans lead. Mary is Yup’ik and grew up in the close-knit communities of Kwethluk, Tuntutuliak, Platinum, and Bethel. Mary began fishing with her father at age six and went on to work as a herring and salmon technician for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game during college. At 24, Mary was elected to the Alaska state House of Representatives. She served in the legislature for ten years, rebuilding and chairing the Bush Caucus, which helped to pass legislation and influence budgets that improved the lives in rural Alaska. In 2022, Mary made history by winning Alaska’s at-large congressional seat in a special election, becoming the first Alaska Native elected to Congress and the first Democratic woman to represent the state in Washington. 

In the vast expanse of Alaska, with its 228 Alaska Native Tribes, Mary has always gone above and beyond to represent every single Alaskan. Her mantra, “Fish, Family, and Freedom,” embodies the core values of the state.

Alaska First

Mary is dedicated to development, protecting fish, lowering energy prices, and building an Alaska where people can stay in Alaska, raise their kids in Alaska, and watch their grandkids grow up in Alaska. In Congress, she helped end 30 years of delays to secure the Willow Oil Project and create good-paying jobs across the state. After five years of delays, she secured a ban on foreign trawled fish. She brought home more than $9 billion for state infrastructure and rural broadband and hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate the Railbelt Energy Grid and lower energy prices. 

Now, she’s continuing to serve Alaska by running for Senate because Alaska needs leadership that puts the state first — not Washington politics or blind loyalty to national party agendas. 60% of the Alaska economy is tied to federal spending and the Republican recklessness is having real consequences for Alaskans. As a mother and grandmother, Mary knows that affordability, food security, and opportunity aren’t abstract policy debates — they’re personal. She has consistently focused on lowering costs, protecting Alaska’s fisheries, and ensuring responsible stewardship of the natural resources that sustain communities across the state. Mary knows that too many young Alaskans are being forced to leave because costs are too high and resources are stretched too thin. She will tackle affordability head-on, protect fisheries for future generations, and restore Alaska’s tradition of setting aside Lower 48 partisanship to work together on what really matters. 

A Real Opportunity to Flip Alaska and Win the U.S. Senate Majority

This race represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to flip a U.S. Senate seat in Alaska and build a Democratic majority that actually serves working families. Mary has already proven she can win statewide. First elected in the 2022 special election to fill the remainder of Congressman Don Young’s term, and then reelected later that year to serve a full term, Mary’s victory bestowed her with the title of the Democrat with the most Republican district in Congress. In the 2024 reelection campaign, despite a narrow defeat by 6,722 votes in a state Trump won by 13%, Mary overperformed the top of the ticket by 11% — giving her the highest overperformance in a Trump district in the country. With better atmospherics for Democratic candidates in 2026 and voters’ frustrations with how Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan has abandoned Alaska to fall in lockstep with Trump, Mary is well positioned to win this race and flip this critical seat.