Rep. Mary Peltola seeks to retain her role as Alaska’s sole U.S. House of Representatives seat. The Democratic incumbent made history as the first Alaska Native woman to serve in Congress when she was elected in 2022.
Peltola was initially elected to fill the vacancy left after Rep. Don Young died in March 2022. She ran to hold the seat for a full term in the follow-up general election, coming out in first place ahead of former Gov. Sarah Palin and businessman Nick Begich III after ranked-choice votes were tabulated.
A Bethel resident, Peltola served iin the Alaska House for 10 years from 1999 to 2009. After leaving office, she served on the Bethel City Council from 2011 to 2013 and as a tribal judge on the Orutsararmiut Native Council’s tribal court from 2020 to 2021.
Peltola seeks to continue her role with the consistent message that she puts Alaskans first before partisan politics and that she’s willing to work across party lines.
“I’ve shown an ability to successfully work in a bipartisan way,” Peltola said during an Oct. 22 candidate forum in Anchorage. I think that our state needs some healing. I think our country needs some healing.”
Peltola’s place in Congress includes a commitment to protecting subsistence fisheries, which have seen a massive decline on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers over the last several years.
“There’s nothing funny about fish,” she said during a candidate forum in Kodiak. “This is the way we feed our families, and this is our identity, and we need to make sure that we’re preserving this, whether it’s the bycatch issue or the myriad of other issues that are presenting challenges to our fisheries today.”
Peltola has been the loudest voice in the Alaska Delegation with opposition to the pending Albertsons-Kroeger merger. She consistently said the merger — which will impact the Safeway CARR and Fred Meyer stores in Alaska — would irreparably harm jobs and food security in the state. If the merger occurs, Kroger has signaled it would sell 18 of Alaska’s Safeways — including the ones in Fairbanks and North Pole — to another company as part of the deal.
Peltola supports an extension the Trump-era tax cuts passed in 2017, and supports existing legislation that extends those tax cuts to small businesses.
Peltola continues to voice support for the planned Alaska LNG pipeline, citing natural gas as a key energy source to bridge the expansion of renewable energy project.
Peltola supports several of the Biden-era packages, such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and Inflation Reduction Act. She said federal funds for those projects are instrumental in overhauling Alaska’s energy infrastructure and expand broadband access.
She noted she successfully helped with the approval of the ConocoPhillips-owned Willow oil project on the North Slope in 2023.
“I demonstrated the largest commitment to Alaska’s right to produce by helping to muscle through the second authorization of the Willow Project,” Peltola said during an Oct. 11 candidate forum in Fairbanks. “And I think everyone in the Interior of Alaska has seen the direct benefit.”
She said the bi-partisan efforts of the Alaska Delegation, including herself and Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, pushed the approval through.
“Willow would not have happened but for a bipartisan delegation, and I made that happen,” Peltola said.
However, she’s called a balanced approach between resource development and environmental safeguards. She opposes the proposed Pebble mine project in Bristol Bay and voiced concerns about the Ambler Road project, which would create a 211-mile private haul road from the Dalton Highway to mineral-rich resources in the Ambler Mining District.
“This one is uniquely challenging because it spans two different regions. It spans the Doyon region and the NANA region and both of those regions are very interested in making sure that they have good jobs like the ones at Red Dog,” Peltola said in the Fairbanks forum. “Both of those regions are also very invested in making sure that they have access to the limited fish and game resources that are available to them.”
She said a major stumbling block has been the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the state-owned corporation spearheading the Ambler Road project.
During a Oct. 11 forum in Anchorage, she said she’d oppose a federal ban on abortion.
“I do believe in women’s reproductive rights, I trust women and I trust their doctors,” Peltola said. “I don’t think politicians have any business being in this discussion.”
Peltola has declined to say whether she’d endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as president, but made clear she won’t vote for Donald Trump. During an Anchorage forum, she said it’s pointless to voice an opinion on the presidential race without knowing how they will staff their cabinets.
“I think that that’s a complete and total waste of my time,” Peltoa said. "That is not the race I’m in, and I’m focused on the race that I am in.”
Neither Peltola or Nick Begich III responded to the News-Miner candidate questionnaires.
