{"id":528639,"date":"2026-01-20T03:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T03:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/528639\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T03:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T03:50:20","slug":"as-she-launches-u-s-senate-campaign-peltola-says-she-will-avoid-insider-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/528639\/","title":{"rendered":"As she launches U.S. Senate campaign, Peltola says she will avoid \u2018insider baseball\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mary Peltola spoke and greeted supporters at a kickoff event for her campaign for U.S. Senate on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 49th State Brewing Company in Anchorage. (Marc Lester \/ ADN) <\/p>\n

Dozens of enthusiastic supporters greeted Mary Peltola at a campaign kick-off event in Anchorage on Saturday, days after she announced<\/a> her campaign for U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan. <\/p>\n

The entry of Peltola \u2014 a former U.S. House member \u2014 into Alaska\u2019s Senate race was heralded by national pundits as a boon for Democrats as they seek to win control of the chamber in the midterm elections. Alaska\u2019s seat is on a short list<\/a> identified by national Democratic operatives as winnable, in which high-profile candidates are set to benefit from a national fundraising effort. <\/p>\n

But Peltola brushed off the national narrative as she hobnobbed with supporters Saturday at 49th State Brewing in downtown Anchorage \u2014 the same place she celebrated<\/a> her victory in the 2022 U.S. House election and the same place she gathered<\/a> with supporters the day she lost reelection to the House in 2024.<\/p>\n

She said Saturday that the feeling in the room reminded her more of her 2022 campaign events than those in 2024, when she lost to Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about declaring on Monday is how many Alaskans feel like it was a get for Alaska,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no other place or group of people I\u2019ll have in mind, both running and serving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Mary Peltola spoke and greeted supporters at a kickoff event for her campaign for U.S. Senate on Saturday, Jan. 17. (Marc Lester \/ ADN) <\/p>\n

Peltola said she wanted to use the national interest in the race, and the money that would flow to the campaign as a result, to raise awareness of Alaska\u2019s cost of living.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust us being in this race elevates Alaskan issues. It elevates how much we\u2019re paying for things,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe care about the future of Alaska and we are going to show Alaskans that. We\u2019re going to show the world that,\u201d she told gathered supporters, including former Gov. Tony Knowles, one of a handful of Democrats who have won statewide office in a state that more often elects Republicans. \u201cWe are going to import Alaska to the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peltola told supporters that part of her strategy for the campaign would be to focus on increasing voter turnout, avoiding \u201cinsider baseball\u201d and traveling to as many communities in the state as possible, including rural villages. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a ground game. This is person-to-person, human-to-human, mukluk telegraph,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

At the Saturday event, Peltola did not once mention Sullivan, her Republican opponent, or President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you get off the road system, most Alaskans don\u2019t talk about national people or issues. We are so focused on our own region and our own state,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Sullivan, on the other hand, is closely aligned with Trump and mentions his agenda often, reasoning that it favors Alaska, in particular its resource development industries. Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office focused on expanding resource development in the state, and Sullivan has laid out his own platform to capitalize on Trump\u2019s Alaska-specific policy priorities<\/a>, regularly handing out printed copies of Trump\u2019s Alaska executive order at formal events.<\/p>\n

Peltola did not rule out working on those priorities, as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike Trump, I am also obsessed with Alaska. I have a weird obsession with Alaska, and I am happy to work with anyone who has Alaska\u2019s best interests at heart,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Peltola said Saturday that over 900 people so far had signed up to volunteer with her campaign \u2014 compared with a total of roughly 1,000 volunteers over the entire length of the 2024 campaign, when she lost reelection to Begich. <\/p>\n

Peltola also said earlier this week that her campaign had raised $1.5 million in the first 24 hours after it launched, amid a flurry of ads asking for donations. Already Sullivan, who has a fundraising lead over Peltola, has predicted that the Democrat will outspend him. <\/p>\n

\"\"Mary Peltola spoke and greeted supporters at a kickoff event for her campaign for U.S. Senate on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 49th State Brewing Company in Anchorage. (Marc Lester \/ ADN) <\/p>\n

Peltola\u2019s campaign announcement put an end to months of speculation in Alaska Democratic circles about whether the former congresswoman would run for Senate or the open governor\u2019s race, which has drawn over a dozen candidates so far. Peltola said Saturday that \u201cthere was a lot of soul searching involved\u201d in her decision. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel uniquely qualified to be in this race \u2014 I\u2019ve been a member of the congressional delegation,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are so many things that need to be changed in Washington, D.C., and I\u2019m happy to put my name forward to be part of that change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mary Peltola spoke and greeted supporters at a kickoff event for her campaign for U.S. Senate on Saturday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,70149,70150],"class_list":["post-528639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-mary-peltola","tag-u-s-senate-campaign"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115925394200839197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}