Peltola campaign disputes report of staffer abuse, cites grief

In a statement, Harry Child, a spokesperson for Peltola’s campaign, said her behavior was affected by the stress of working in the House, coupled with the death of her husband in a 2023 plane crash and her mother around the same time. "At the time of their passing, Mary was parenting kids through their own grief, serving full-time in the US House of Representatives thousands of miles from home, and running a competitive re-election campaign – all while shouldering the enormous burden of grief," Child said. He added that "exaggerating and outright lying about moments from the hardest period of her life, and falsely presenting them as a pattern of behavior, is wrong".

The contest between Sullivan, a two-term senator, and Peltola, who lost re-election to the House in 2024, is seen as crucial to Democrats’s hopes of retaking the Senate in the midterms. Democrats must win at least four seats to gain a majority in the chamber and have named Alaska as a top priority.

Sullivan called the behavior reported by the Times “sad” and “disturbing.” "Young Alaskans went through a lot of abuse and I’m sure there’s a hell of a lot more than was just reported in that story," he told reporters at the US Capitol. Other former aides to Peltola who spoke to the Times stood by her conduct. "Mary Peltola is one of the finest human beings that I’ve ever worked for," said Paul Horner, Peltola’s finance director in 2022. Tyson Fick, a special assistant who had advised Peltola on fishing policy during her time in the House, called her “awesome and demanding,” but acknowledged she occasionally “raised her voice.” He said Peltola was dealing with grief during her time in Congress and noted that staffers unfamiliar with environments like commercial fishing boats might have misinterpreted her demeanor, the Times reported.