Democratic candidate Mary Peltola spent from a U.S. House campaign account in 2025 before announcing her plans to run for Senate in 2026.
Mary Peltola spoke and greeted supporters at a kickoff event for her campaign for U.S. Senate on Saturday, January 17, 2026, at 49th State Brewing Company in Anchorage. The National Republican Senatorial Committee is calling for an investigation into U.
S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola of Alaska, alleging that she used a campaign account as “a personal slush fund.” Peltola, a Democrat, lost reelection to the U.S. House in 2024. After her loss, she made no commitment to again run for Congress until January, when sheby NOTUS, Peltola spent more than $100,000 from her U.S. House campaign account in 2025, including tens of thousands of dollars on transportation and lodging. A day after Peltola’s spending was first reported, the NRSC, a group supporting Sullivan’s reelection bid, requested that the Federal Election Commission investigate. “Despite filing purportedly to run again for Alaska’s at-large U.S. House seat in 2026, Peltola was not, in fact, campaigning during the timeframe at issue. Therefore, these expenses must have been for her personal use,” NRSC deputy general counsel Andrew Pardue wrote in a Sullivan campaign spokesperson Nate Adams in a statement asserted Peltola was “treating her campaign account as a personal slush fund while also collecting a lobbyist’s salary.” Peltola campaign spokesperson Harry Child said in a statement that “this is a completely false attack by Dan Sullivan and his Washington allies in the Lower 48.”According to FEC filings from her campaign account, Peltola spent tens of thousands of dollars on travel expenses last year, including on trips to Chicago, where she served as a fellow at the University of Chicago, and to Boise, Idaho, where she spoke at an event. It is not uncommon for candidates to spend from their campaign accounts before formalizing their election bids, but Peltola’s political spending stood out because she refused to comment publicly last year on whether she would again run for office, as rumors about a potential candidacy swirled, even as she continuously spent from a campaign account dedicated to a U.S. House run. Elisa Delvin, a Peltola campaign staffer, was paid $38,913 for work she reportedly performed for the campaign between January and August of 2025, despite no evidence of an ongoing campaign at the time.by Holland & Hart, a national law firm with a lobbying arm. Peltola worked for the firm for several months, though she never registered as a lobbyist.According to the NRSC letter, if Peltola was, in fact, a candidate for U.S. House, then the salary she earned from Holland & Hart at the time constituted “an excessive contribution from her employer.”The NRSC is accusing Peltola of “operating a sham campaign to dip into her donor-funded committee account to pay for her personal expenses.” “If she had been running an actual campaign while she was racking up these charges, nobody knew about it: Not the media, not Alaska elected officials, and not even Peltola’s own confidantes and spokesperson,” Pardue said. The race between Sullivan and Peltola is one of a few competitive races that are seen as critical in determining control of the U.S. Senate in the midterm elections, drawing heightened scrutiny and early campaign and advertising spending.It is not immediately clear if or how the FEC will respond to the NRSC’s request for an investigation.Iris Samuels is a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News focusing on state politics. She previously covered Montana for The AP and Report for America and wrote for the Kodiak Daily Mirror. Contact her at isamuels@adn.com.Plenty of restaurant adventures await Alaskans traveling Outside
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