In this photo made with a smartphone, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola, center, stands with supporters during a campaign event in Anchorage, Alaska, on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
There’s been no shortage of ads and mudslinging this election cycle. But strip all that away, and most Alaskans are asking the same few questions. Will my children have a better life than I did? Can I afford to build a good life for my family? Can I cover rent, groceries and the heating bill? And when it comes to these questions, the only candidate for Senate who will actually fight for Alaskans is Mary Peltola.
These days, it feels harder and harder every year for working people to get by while the ultrawealthy and the corporations they run get richer. Alaskans don’t need a study to tell them so. They feel it buying groceries each week and filling up their car. It’s too expensive to buy a home, to rent, to put kids in childcare or even to fill the tank so you can drive them to school. And from Washington, D.C., we’re seeing one injury after another: Our leaders are slashing healthcare and pushing a war that is skyrocketing gas and grocery prices. They are stripping collective bargaining rights from workers and selling out our privacy, our communities and our good-paying jobs to Big Tech CEOs.
That’s why it’s absolutely critical that Alaskans send a fighter to the Senate this year who is from Alaska, for Alaska, through and through. That person is Mary Peltola. She’s on our side.
Mary has a plan to bring costs down. For parents in Anchorage worried about groceries, gas and childcare, she’ll fight to make life more affordable. For Alaskans in the Bush paying over $20 a gallon for gas, she’ll fight to stop the price-hiking war in Iran, refine more oil here in Alaska and restore energy tax credits that create good-paying union jobs and lower prices. For the 10,000 Alaskans who lost Medicaid after Dan Sullivan and D.C. politicians gutted the program, she’ll fight to reverse those cuts.
While D.C. politicians are increasingly bought and sold by special-interest backers, campaign donors and corporate greed, Mary will fight against corruption to make sure our system is actually working for working people.
Mary knows what it’s like to raise kids in Alaska, to fish for subsistence and to worry about paying the bills just like the rest of us.
I’ve had the privilege of knowing Mary Peltola for decades. I can tell you that she is a fighter, and if we send her to the Senate, she’ll fight for Alaska. I know that Mary is driven first and foremost by one key question: How do we make Alaska a better place for all of us, our children and our grandchildren?
Her opponent’s priorities look very different. Dan Sullivan has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from Lower 48 factory trawlers and special interests. He has tripled his personal wealth in the Senate. Those are not the habits of a senator worried about how Alaskans are getting by. While D.C. politicians side with special interests and corporate greed, Mary will fight corruption and stand on the side of Alaskans.
That is why I will be voting for Mary Peltola for U.S. Senate, as a mom, as an Alaskan, as a veteran and as the former president of the Alaska AFL-CIO. When it comes down to it, I know whose side she’s on. She’s on ours.
I know a fighter when I see one. Mary Peltola has earned my vote, and I hope she earns yours.
Joelle Hall is president emeritus of Alaska AFL-CIO.
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