Barrier-breaking Alaska congresswoman copes with personal tragedy as she faces tough reelection bid

JUNEAU, Alaska — Alannah Hurley still gets choked up recalling Democrat Mary Peltola’s election to Alaska’s only U.S. House seat in 2022. Hurley, like Peltola, is Yup’ik and called Peltola's election — in which she became the first Alaska Native in Congress — monumental for Hurley and her daughters.

“Finally, we have somebody in Congress who looks like us, talks like us, grew up like us, and they have lived experience, understanding the beauty and the challenges of what it means to be Native in this state and the nation,” Hurley said.

Peltola, 51, is in a tough reelection fight against Republican Nick Begich in a high-stakes race that could help determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the House. The campaign follows a year of intense personal tragedy for the lawmaker, who lost her mother and her husband, Eugene Peltola, within a four-month span in 2023.

Peltola called the weeks around her husband's death in a small plane crash some of the most difficult of her life. She returned to Washington about a month later, arriving amid a period of Republican infighting over the House speakership. She said then that it was a difficult time for the country, too, and that she was “ready to get to work.”

While Peltola has not spoken much publicly about navigating her grief in the glare of the public eye, people who know her well say they've been struck by her resilience.

“When I think about how Mary just kind of kept her head up throughout everything that she has gone through in the past couple years, I’m extraordinarily proud of her,” said Alaska’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, who first met Peltola about 25 years ago when they were in the state legislature and they bonded as moms with boys.

“She was not allowed to grieve the way that most people would be allowed to grieve. She needed to be tough. She needed to be there at her job.”

Murkowski, a moderate who has at times bucked her own party, including its embrace of former President Donald Trump, supported Peltola two years ago and has backed her again. She noted the hyper-partisan state of politics today, where each party looks to deny the other a win.

“That’s not going to separate me from being able to say, ‘This is a good woman, a strong Alaskan who has focused on her state, who has done well for us,’” Murkowski said.

Alaska’s other Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, has endorsed Begich, a businessman from a family of prominent Democrats, including his late grandfather, Nick, who once held the House seat, and uncle Mark, a former U.S. senator.

Begich, who ran against Peltola in 2022, in races that included Republican former Gov. Sarah Palin, said he doesn't think Peltola has done enough to push back against actions taken by the Biden administration that have limited resource development in the state.

He is also trying a different tack than in 2022, which was the first year elections were conducted under a voter-approved system of open primaries and ranked-choice general elections. Trump, who has railed against ranked voting, previously blamed Begich for costing Republicans the seat by staying in the race that year.

This time, Begich sought to consolidate conservative support after the primary, in which he was the top-placing Republican, second to Peltola. Two other Republicans who were set to advance to the general election withdrew, which allowed two candidates who got a combined 1% of the vote, including Alaskan Independence Party chairman John Wayne Howe and Eric Hafner, a Democrat with no apparent ties to Alaska who is serving time in a prison in New York, to be on the Nov. 5 ballot.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Republican House leaders, has been running an ad aimed at Trump supporters that says a vote for Peltola would be like canceling their Trump vote.

Peltola is seeking to prove that her special and regular election wins in 2022 following the death of longtime Republican Rep. Don Young weren’t a “fluke,” as Trump suggested during a recent tele-rally for Begich. While she has acknowledged her trailblazing status and the significance that holds to many of her supporters, she also has stressed that her job is to represent all Alaskans and emphasized her willingness to work across party lines. Most registered voters in Alaska aren’t affiliated with a party.

“When I was first running for office, people projected onto me that I would only be interested in working on Native issues or only be interested in working on issues that relate to rural Alaska,” Peltola said in an October speech to the Alaska Federation of Natives conference, a major annual gathering. “And I’m so honored to be able to message to people — Native people care about the health of a whole community, the health of the whole environment, the health of all of our society.

“We know we are not a singular group. We know everything is connected. Everyone is connected.”

During this year's campaign, Peltola angered some Democrats by refusing to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president, though she also said she would not vote for Trump. She's emphasized her role as part of Alaska’s congressional delegation in urging the Biden administration to approve the massive Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope. The project, supported by many Alaska Native communities and groups in the region, also has broad backing from politicians and labor groups in the state. Willow's approval is being challenged in court by environmental groups that say it flies in the face of President Joe Biden’s pledges to address climate concerns.

Both the Peltola and Begich campaigns have sought to rally supporters in a race that has drawn intense interest from outside groups. Results might not be known until Nov. 20, when ranked tabulations are set to be announced. Peltola, who was endorsed by the Alaska Federation of Natives, predicted the seat would be won by “dozens of votes.”

“Hey, if we can survive in Alaska for over 12,000 years, we know how to find the polling place, we know how to mail in a ballot. We know how to do this,” she told the group.

Officials have said they're working to ensure everyone can vote in the Nov. 5 election, following instances in recent elections in which some polling locations in rural Native communities opened late or didn't open at all.

Hurley, an independent from a southwest Alaska fishing community, said she thinks Peltola has done a good job working on issues rather than focusing on party politics. She said Peltola had gone “above and beyond what could be expected” after the losses she experienced.

Hurley decried as “shameful” criticism Peltola received for leaving Washington in July to return home to fish. The announcement by Peltola's office that she'd be spending a week “putting up fish with family to fill freezers for the winter” also came as pressure grew for Biden to not seek reelection.

Hurley said that for Native people, subsistence isn't just about fishing but about connecting with the land and one's culture.

“I can't respect her more for making sure she has the time — and taking care of her office at the same time — making sure that she has time to feed that connection or keep that connection,” she said.