Dozens of enthusiastic supporters greeted Mary Peltola at a campaign kick-off event in Anchorage on Saturday, days after she announced her campaign for U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan.
The entry of Peltola — a former U.S. House member — into Alaska’s Senate race was heralded by national pundits as a boon for Democrats as they seek to win control of the chamber in the midterm elections. Alaska’s seat is on a short list identified by national Democratic operatives as winnable, in which high-profile candidates are set to benefit from a national fundraising effort.
But Peltola brushed off the national narrative as she hobnobbed with supporters Saturday at 49th State Brewing in downtown Anchorage — the same place she celebrated her victory in the 2022 U.S. House election and the same place she gathered with supporters the day she lost reelection to the House in 2024.
She said Saturday that the feeling in the room reminded her more of her 2022 campaign events than those in 2024, when she lost to Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich.
“The great thing about declaring on Monday is how many Alaskans feel like it was a get for Alaska,” she said. “There is no other place or group of people I’ll have in mind, both running and serving.”
Peltola said she wanted to use the national interest in the race, and the money that would flow to the campaign as a result, to raise awareness of Alaska’s cost of living.
“Just us being in this race elevates Alaskan issues. It elevates how much we’re paying for things,” she said.
“We care about the future of Alaska and we are going to show Alaskans that. We’re going to show the world that,” she told gathered supporters, including former Gov. Tony Knowles, one of a handful of Democrats who have won statewide office in a state that more often elects Republicans. “We are going to import Alaska to the rest of the world.”
Peltola told supporters that part of her strategy for the campaign would be to focus on increasing voter turnout, avoiding “insider baseball” and traveling to as many communities in the state as possible, including rural villages.
“This is a ground game. This is person-to-person, human-to-human, mukluk telegraph,” she said.
At the Saturday event, Peltola did not once mention Sullivan, her Republican opponent, or President Donald Trump.
“Once you get off the road system, most Alaskans don’t talk about national people or issues. We are so focused on our own region and our own state,” she said.
Sullivan, on the other hand, is closely aligned with Trump and mentions his agenda often, reasoning that it favors Alaska, in particular its resource development industries. Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office focused on expanding resource development in the state, and Sullivan has laid out his own platform to capitalize on Trump’s Alaska-specific policy priorities, regularly handing out printed copies of Trump’s Alaska executive order at formal events.
Peltola did not rule out working on those priorities, as well.
“Like Trump, I am also obsessed with Alaska. I have a weird obsession with Alaska, and I am happy to work with anyone who has Alaska’s best interests at heart,” she said.
Peltola said Saturday that over 900 people so far had signed up to volunteer with her campaign — compared with a total of roughly 1,000 volunteers over the entire length of the 2024 campaign, when she lost reelection to Begich.
Peltola also said earlier this week that her campaign had raised $1.5 million in the first 24 hours after it launched, amid a flurry of ads asking for donations. Already Sullivan, who has a fundraising lead over Peltola, has predicted that the Democrat will outspend him.
Peltola’s campaign announcement put an end to months of speculation in Alaska Democratic circles about whether the former congresswoman would run for Senate or the open governor’s race, which has drawn over a dozen candidates so far. Peltola said Saturday that “there was a lot of soul searching involved” in her decision.
“I feel uniquely qualified to be in this race — I’ve been a member of the congressional delegation,” she said. “There are so many things that need to be changed in Washington, D.C., and I’m happy to put my name forward to be part of that change.”
