Key facts
- Mary Peltola's campaign denied reports of her using slurs and shoving a staffer, calling them exaggerated.
- The campaign stated Peltola was dealing with grief after the deaths of her husband and mother.
- The New York Times report was based on interviews with nine former employees.
- Peltola is running against Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in the November 3 midterm elections.
- Sullivan described the reported behavior as "sad" and "disturbing."
- A former finance director for Peltola called her "one of the finest human beings" he worked for.
Mary Peltola’s campaign on Thursday downplayed a report that the Democratic nominee in Alaska’s pivotal Senate race shoved a staffer and used slurs, saying the article exaggerated her behavior but acknowledging she struggled following the deaths of her husband and mother. The New York Times article, published Wednesday, is based on text messages and interviews with nine former employees of Peltola, who served in the House of Representatives from 2022 until the beginning of last year and is now set to face Republican senator Dan Sullivan in the November 3 midterm elections.
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.