By SUZANNE DOWNING
July 16, 2026 – As US Senate candidate Mary Peltola campaigns across Alaska with a message centered on “Fish, Family, Freedom,” much of the financial muscle behind her joint fundraising committee of the same name is coming from thousands of miles away. And by “Freedom,” these donors don’t mean the Second Amendment.
Federal Election Commission filings for the Fish, Family, Freedom Fund, separate from her campaign fund, show that its largest contributors ($7,000 or more) are wealthy Democratic donors from Washington, California, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, and the District of Columbia.
Among the largest individual donors are several who contributed the maximum amounts available through the joint fundraising arrangement.
The largest disclosed contributors include:
- Ladd M. Thorne of Massachusetts — $22,000
- Peter Kellner of Massachusetts — $22,000
- Eric Wedel of California — $22,000
- Kristen Wedel of California — $22,000
- Glen Tullman of Illinois — $22,000
- Reinier Beeuwkes of Massachusetts — $18,500
- Jon Shirley of Washington — $17,000
- Kimberly Shirley of Washington — $17,000
- James Murdoch of New York — $15,000
- Kathryn Murdoch of New York — $15,000
- David Cornfield of Washington — $12,000
- Linda Cornfield of Washington — $12,000
Dozens of additional donors contributed $7,000 each, including philanthropists, technology executives, venture capitalists and longtime Democratic political contributors.
One of the best-known names on the filing is Melinda French Gates of Washington, who contributed $7,000 through the joint fundraising committee. Gates, divorced from Bill Gates, has become increasingly active in political giving in recent election cycles, particularly through organizations supporting women in public office and Democrats.
Media executive James Murdoch and his wife Kathryn Murdoch each contributed $15,000. James Murdoch, the son of media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch, has in recent years become a significant donor to Democratic candidates and centrist political causes, diverging politically from much of his family’s media empire.
The Murdochs figure heavily in Alaska. James and Kathryn Murdoch (primarily through Kathryn and the group Unite America, which they have heavily funded) provided significant financial support for the 2020 Alaska Ballot Measure 2 campaign that established ranked-choice voting (RCV) and related election reforms. Unite America gave over $500,000 (including a major $500k gift in 2019) to Alaskans for Better Elections, the group behind the initiative that got ranked-choice voting established in the 49th state.
Healthcare technology entrepreneur Glen Tullman contributed $22,000. Tullman, founder and chief executive of healthcare companies including Transcarent, has become one of the Democratic Party’s major financial supporters, contributing millions of dollars nationally to Democratic committees and candidates. He has given millions of dollars to the Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC, DSCC, DNC, Kamala Harris Victory Fund, Hakeem Jeffries Victory Fund, and individual candidates/PACs. He gave substantially in the 2024 cycle (e.g., over $1M+ to Democrat campaigns and political groups.
Washington venture capitalist Nick Hanauer contributed $7,000. Hanauer is an early Amazon investor who has become nationally known for advocating higher minimum wages, higher taxes, and organized labor initiatives.
Hanauer is a major financial supporter of gun control efforts. He co-founded Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility and is a big funder of:
- Initiative 594 (Washington’s 2014 background checks) — millions contributed.
- Other Washington measures (extreme risk protection orders, age/storage rules).
- Out-of-state efforts in Maine, Nevada, and elsewhere to take guns from citizens.
Another prominent Pacific Northwest donor is Sonya Campion, whose family foundation has invested heavily in environmental conservation, public lands and climate initiatives. Campion contributed $7,000.
The filings also include contributions from former Microsoft executive Jon Shirley and his wife Kimberly, who each donated $17,000. Shirley is one of Seattle’s best-known Democrat donors and art collectors.
Among Massachusetts donors, Peter Kellner and Ladd Thorne each contributed $22,000, while biotechnology executive Reinier Beeuwkes contributed $18,500. All three have histories of making substantial donations to Democratic candidates and political committees.
California contributors include venture capitalists Gordon Ritter and Brian Jacobs, philanthropist M. Quinn Delaney, television producer Marta Kauffman, Caroline Sebastiani, Timothy Hall, Wayne Jordan, Shannon Hunt-Scott and several others who have regularly appeared in Democratic campaign finance filings.
Washington state is particularly well represented among the larger contributors. Besides the Shirleys, Cornfields, Campion and Hanauer, the filings show $7,000 donations from Maryanne Tagney, Heidi Stolte, Becky Guzak, Paul Brown, Yahn Bernier and David Zapolsky, a longtime technology executive.
The filings also reveal contributions from donors in Texas, New York, Illinois, Colorado and the District of Columbia, demonstrating the national fundraising reach of Peltola’s Senate campaign.
The geographic concentration is notable. Rather than drawing its largest donations from Alaska, the committee’s biggest checks overwhelmingly originate from wealthy Democratic donor networks concentrated in Seattle, Silicon Valley, Boston, New York City and Chicago.
Many of the donations cluster between $7,000 and $22,000, reflecting the mechanics of federal joint fundraising committees. Instead of giving only to a candidate committee, donors may contribute a larger amount that is legally allocated among participating entities, including the candidate’s principal campaign committee, affiliated political committees, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Alaska Democratic Party.
While the individual donors represent a variety of industries, the common thread is that many have long histories of supporting Democratic candidates and organizations nationwide. And some of the biggest ones want to take firearms away from citizens.
