BOOM: Dems Land Candidate They Think Can Win Them A Senate Majority

Former Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska announced Monday morning she would challenge incumbent GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan in the 2026 midterms, a decision placing the Last Frontier at the center of the battle for the Senate.

Peltola, who won Alaska’s lone House seat in a 2022 special election and held it before losing in 2024, has a record of winning over voters in her state that no other Democrats can. She first won the seat by running with the motto “Fish, Family, Freedom,” and has performed strongly with the state’s fishing and Indigenous communities. Even in her loss, Peltola convinced 7% of Alaskan voters to split their ballots between her and President Donald Trump.

In a two-minute launch video, Peltola focused on the cost of living and combating corruption, marrying popular Democratic messaging with a focus on local issues that have won her elections in the past.

“Systemic change is the only way to bring down grocery costs, save our fisheries, lower energy prices and build new housing Alaskans can afford,” she said. “No one from the Lower 48 is coming to save us, but I know this in my bones, there is no group of people more ready to save ourselves than Alaskans.”

Peltola’s decision to run for Senate ― she was also considering a bid for governor ― is a victory for Democratic leadership in the upper chamber, who view her as the party’s best chance to win a 51st seat and deny Republicans a majority for the second half of Trump’s term.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has seen his popularity with members of his own party plummet during Trump’s second term, can argue he has successfully recruited four top-tier candidates: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Peltola and Maine Gov. Janet Mills. (Progressives who back oysterman Graham Platner, of course, may argue with him about Mills.)

Peltola, a moderate, supports gun rights and has backed increased drilling in Alaska’s national petroleum reserves. She also is backing term limits for members of Congress.

Democrats had made it clear they were targeting Sullivan, a former Marine and state attorney general running for his third term, even before Peltola’s entrance into the race. Senate Majority PAC, which is controlled by Schumer allies, has already aired ads attacking the Republican, who has not carved out a reputation for independence in the way Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski has.

Republicans quickly launched a digital ad attacking Peltola, arguing she is no different from a standard Democrat, including highlighting a defense of former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity.

“After voters rejected Mary Peltola’s record pushing radical transgender policies and protecting Joe Biden’s relentless attacks on Alaska energy, she immediately cashed out to lobby for special interests,” said Nick Puglia, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Voters trust Dan Sullivan to keep fighting for the Alaskan comeback and will reject Peltola again.” (Peltola went to work for a law and lobbying firm after losing her reelection bid but never registered as a lobbyist.)

Murkowski herself, who had crossed party lines to endorse Peltola in the past, told local media she is backing Sullivan for reelection.

“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 told Alaska Public Media. “And Dan delivers that.”

In Peltola’s launch video, she cast herself as a defender of Alaskan traditions and argued D.C. politicians do not understand how difficult life in the state has become.

“Growing up, Alaska was a place of abundance,” she said. “Now, we have scarcity. The salmon, large game and migratory birds that used to fill our freezers are harder to find. So we buy more groceries, with crushing prices. It’s not just that politicians in D.C. don’t care that we’re paying $17 a gallon for milk in rural Alaska; they don’t even believe us. They’re more focused on their stock portfolios than our bank accounts.”

In a sign of how Peltola breaks with national Democrats, among the traditions she defends is a style of pork-barrel politics pioneered by Alaska Republicans, including the late Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young.

“Our delegation used to stand up to their party and put Alaska first. 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 said at one point, before invoking another GOP slogan: “It’s about time Alaskans teach the rest of the country what Alaska First and, really, America First looks like.”