The other side of Mary Peltola: Former aides describe outbursts, slurs and firings

Former aides describe an unsettling pattern of abuse in Congress and on the campaign trail

By THE ALASKA STORY

Sept. 23, 2026 – The long-rumored screaming and abusive Mary Peltola is now being revealed by a national news organization that is normally an ally to Democrats.

Peltola’s friendly public image has been one of her political assets. She smiles, she hugs, she seems so nice. Insiders know it’s all an act. AB new investigation by The New York Times raises a question — and answers it: How does she treat the people who work for her when the cameras are off?

The Times interviewed nine former staff members, spoke with more than 20 other people in Peltola’s political orbit, and reviewed text messages and photographs. Former aides described angry outbursts, staff members reduced to tears, unusually high turnover in her congressional office and a shake-up of her US Senate campaign just days before Alaska’s August primary. Peltola’s campaign denies a pattern of abusive behavior and disputes several of the incidents.

One allegation is especially serious. A former staff member who said they witnessed the encounter told the Times that Peltola shoved an aide in the chest in her congressional office in February 2024, causing him to stumble backward. Two others said they heard about it at the time. The campaign  has its own spin: Peltola accidentally bumped the aide and did not shove him.

The Times also reported that four former staff members said they heard Peltola use an anti-gay slur (“faggot”) over the years, an allegation her campaign denies. In a separate text reviewed by the newspaper, Peltola used a slur directed at people with intellectual disabilities (“retarded”) to describe a fisheries executive. Her campaign acknowledged that message and said she regrets the word.

“Ms. Peltola sometimes cut people out altogether if she concluded they had wronged her. She would ‘nothing’ them, according to three former staff members and a text message viewed by The Times, using a phrase of dismissal popularized on the TV show ‘Scrubs.'”

Other messages described in the report show Peltola lashing out at Planned Parenthood while running for reelection to the House. In one, she wrote an expletive-filled complaint about the organization.

“I hope Planned Parenthood knows that if we don’t win it’s more their loss than ours. FUCK THOSE BITCHES,” she wrote in a text message to her staff in January 2024, according to The Times, which saw the message.

In another text message, apparently referring to a woman on a regional Planned Parenthood board, she wrote that she hoped the woman would die from a botched abortion. Notably, Planned Parenthood endorsed her in her prior races, but not this year.

Then there is Meatball, her daughter’s pet chameleon. According to the Times, Peltola instructed aides to buy live crickets and feed them to the animal, first at her Washington apartment and later in her congressional office. On one occasion, crickets escaped in the office and staff had to catch them.

The chameleon story may sound absurd, but it points to a serious workplace question: Why were congressional employees being directed to run a personal errand for their boss? That’s illegal. Congressional members cannot use taxpayer money for personal benefit.

This tracks with her being under investigation by the FEC for embezzling funds from her House account and paying herself using campaign donations this year.

The account extends into this year’s Senate race. The Times reported that Peltola grew angry over a shortage of large campaign signs, sought help from a senior Democratic campaign official and brought in a new consultant. Several longtime aides were subsequently terminated or reassigned.

Among them were campaign manager Elisa Rios, who was fired, and Anton McParland, her chief of staff, who was demoted.

“But low morale has plagued the campaign, with staff members complaining that Ms. Peltola’s behavior had left them anxious and exhausted, according to text messages viewed by The Times. The big blowup came in August, on the heels of what aides initially thought was a minor complaint from Ms. Peltola about their lack of large campaign signs. ‘BIG SIGNS NEED TO BE SENT TO SOUTHEAST,’ she wrote to aides in texts viewed by The Times. ‘OUR SIGN GAME IS FUCKED,'” the Times wrote.

Peltola’s spokesman, Harry Child, told the Times that the campaign had treated staff with respect and care. He said Peltola sometimes struggled with grief after the deaths of her mother and husband in 2023, and called it wrong to portray moments from that period as a pattern.

“Last month, the tensions boiled over after a seemingly minor disagreement, when Ms. Peltola, locked in a competitive bid to oust Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican, fired a handful of longtime staff members just days before the Alaska primary. The campaign downplayed the upheaval at the time, but two of Ms. Peltola’s former aides said it was fueled by one of the candidate’s blowups,” the newspaper reports.

“Ms. Peltola eventually became so frustrated with her staff that she called a senior leader at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of Senate Democrats. They agreed to bring in a new consultant, Brad Elkins, who quickly flew to Anchorage, according to three people familiar with the outreach.

“Mr. Elkins met with the staff, and some told him about Ms. Peltola’s behavior. Some said they intended to quit, according to three people familiar with the conversations as well as text messages viewed by The Times. In at least one meeting, Mr. Elkins was conciliatory, urging staff members to consider staying and suggesting that he could serve as an intermediary to improve morale, one person said.

“But soon after, several longtime aides began hearing from the campaign’s law firm, the Elias Law Group. Ms. Peltola would be moving in a different direction, the firm relayed, and the aides were being terminated or reassigned, according to correspondence viewed by The Times,” the newspaper relayed.

Peltola declined the newspaper’s interview request.

Peltola is asking voters to replace Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and entrust her with a six-year term. Her judgment, temperament and treatment of staff are now under scrutiny by a press that would normally be highly sympathetic.  The cheerful “Nice Mary” image is familiar to voters. This report gives them a markedly different account to consider: Is Mary Peltola a hypocrite?