Mary Peltola, a former US House member running for Alaska’s US Senate seat as a Democrat, declined support from Kamala Harris after the 2024 presidential candidate sent a fundraising appeal on her behalf.
Harris’s political organization distributed an email to Peltola supporters on Wednesday that asked for donations to Fight for the People Pac, a group Harris established last year. The message stated that donations would be divided between Harris’s organization and Peltola’s campaign. Although the email did not constitute an explicit endorsement, Peltola’s campaign moved quickly to distance itself from the outreach. A spokesperson for Peltola told media outlets that the candidate is not seeking endorsements from figures outside Alaska and that her campaign priorities center on state-specific issues and grassroots support from Alaskan volunteers and local organizations.
The Peltola campaign’s concern about the association proved well-founded. Dan Sullivan, the Republican incumbent challenging Peltola, seized on the email to link Peltola to Harris, whom Alaska voters rejected by a significant margin during the 2024 presidential election. A Sullivan campaign spokesman characterized the fundraising appeal as evidence of alignment between Peltola and Harris on national Democratic priorities, arguing that Alaskans had clearly rejected Harris’s policy positions.
The incident reflects broader tensions within Democratic circles regarding Harris’s political standing. Harris has indicated she is considering another presidential run, telling civil rights leader Al Sharpton earlier in the year that she was contemplating the possibility. Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee last year after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, citing concerns about his candidacy. She subsequently lost both the electoral college and popular vote to Republican Donald Trump, resulting in Trump’s second presidency.
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