By SUZANNE DOWNING
Mary Peltola kicked off her US Senate campaign Saturday night at 49th State Brewing, drawing a large crowd that skewed older and overwhelmingly white, with few Alaska Native attendees visible among the largely aged faces.
The event marked the start of Peltola’s bid to unseat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, but it showed little evidence of a broad or energized coalition. No major Anchorage political leaders, legislators, or power brokers were apparent in the room, and the crowd resembled the same gray-haired demographic often seen at “No Kings” rallies rather than a cross-section of Alaska voters.
The timing of the event coincided with the Seattle Seahawks vs. San Francisco 49ers game, but the audience did not appear to include many football fans. While sports bars across Anchorage were tuned to the matchup, the brewery crowd looked largely uninterested in the contest, reinforcing the sense that the gathering reflected a narrow slice of the electorate. None of her former colleagues at Holland & Hart were seen.
Mary Peltola’s revolving door just spun again at Holland & Hart
Peltola’s campaign next heads to Fairbanks for another kickoff event, though only two hosts are listed for that stop. The Anchorage launch offered little sign of statewide organizational depth or momentum at this early stage.
National Democrats have lined up behind Peltola, who carries endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. Those endorsements firmly place her within the party’s leftist wing, a credential that has historically produces mixed results in Alaska.
While she has 100% attendance at her fundraising events, her congressional attendance record is also likely to become a focal point of the race. Peltola has a missed-vote rate of 17.2%, meaning she participated in about 82.8% of votes. This is notably low for Congress. During the summer of 2024, her missed votes reached roughly 40%, a figure that is in stark contrast to the median missed-vote rate of about 2.2% for representatives serving as of late 2024.
By comparison, Sen. Dan Sullivan’s missed-vote rate is 4%, or 96% participation.
Saturday night’s kickoff offered an early glimpse of the challenge ahead for Peltola: a campaign launching with familiar supporters, limited visible leadership, and vulnerabilities that are likely to be pressed as the Senate race against Sullivan moves forward.
2 thoughts on “No major Alaska leaders appear at Peltola’s Senate campaign kickoff in Anchorage”
I hope you really did not criticize the elderly and the white from the event? I am both. No, I wasn’t there. And, Native Alaskans don’t usually hang out at an urban brewery. Why the hate talk? Sorry, I just don’t understand this approach to promote another candidate. Focus on your candidate of that candidate’s attributes.
“And, Native Alaskans don’t usually hang out at an urban brewery” Pot meet kettle!
The demographic is important, informative and observational, giving readers the opportunity to assess Mary Peltola’s appeal to Alaskans. The lack of younger folks should concern her, especially working adults and representatives of native corporations, whose support she will need. It also shows a lack of respect to her prospective constituents that she could not even be bothered to change her slogan, which by now we all know to be quite disingenuous, based on her previous voting record.