Mary Peltola

Mary Peltola was born August 31, 1973, in Anchorage, Alaska. She attended the University of Northern Colorado from 1991 to 1994, the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1994, the University of Alaska Southeast from 1995 to 1997 and the University of Alaska Anchorage from 1997 to 1998. She served on the Bethel City Council and in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009, and was executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission from 2017 to 2022. She won a 2022 special election for the House seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Don Young, served from August 16, 2022, to January 3, 2025, and lost her 2024 reelection bid. Her campaign says she grew up fishing salmon on the Kuskokwim River and lives in Bethel. In 2026 she is running for U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and finished first in the August 18 top-four primary with about 48 percent to Sullivan's roughly 43 percent.