Mary Peltola is a Democrat who, as a child, campaigned with her father and his friend, the state’s longtime Republican congressman.
Later, she helped reelect a Republican senator. And she’s friendly with Sarah Palin, the state’s former governor.
who popularized the kind of combative, anti-establishment politics that propelled Donald Trump to the White House.
She is progressive, especially socially,” Lindsay Kavanaugh, executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, said of Peltola.
She is an Alaska Democrat” and “she’s probably, compared to a Lower 48 Democrat, she is a little more moderate.”
Peltola scored a stunning upset Wednesday, winning a special election for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, defeating Palin and Nick Begich III (R), a business executive and familiar name in state politics.
When she is sworn in, Peltola will make history as the state’s first woman in the House, the first Native Alaskan she is Yup’ik and the first Democrat to hold the seat in a half-century.
The win came on her 49th birthday, which she called a “GOOD DAY” in a tweet right after the state elections division released preliminary results from its new ranked-choice voting system.
Peltola will serve the remaining four months of the term of Rep. Don Young (R), the longest-serving Republican in Congress, who died in March at age 88.