On Sept. 23, The New York Times published an article portraying United States Senate challenger Mary Peltola as a hothead prone to yelling at staff, name-calling, and, in one case, shoving an aide in her congressional office two years ago.
The allegations of angry outbursts are based on unnamed sources, including former aides. Text messages The New York Times obtained back up some of the accounts.
The New York Times reporter was in Alaska in August and wrote briefly about a staff shake-up on the Peltola campaign just before the primary election.
The Sept. 23 story says that blowup started with an all-caps text from Peltola to her staff, complaining that Southeast Alaska didn’t have enough large campaign signs.
Peltola is a Democrat who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2022 to 2024. She’s in a tight race against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. It’s not clear what impact The New York Times story will have on the election.
California Congresswoman Katie Porter lost a Senate race in 2024, in part due to reports that she treated her staff badly. Yet Alaskans repeatedly reelected Peltola’s congressional predecessor, Rep. Don Young, despite multiple instances of brash, profane, and even violent behavior.
In a written statement, a Peltola campaign spokesman noted that in 2023, Peltola was grieving her mother's death and the loss of her husband in a plane crash.
"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 statement says.