Alaska’s top two candidates for U.S. Senate disparaged and frequently interrupted each other during ‘Debate for the State” Thursday night.
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and his challenger, Democratic former Congresswoman Mary Peltola, traded barbs over affordability, Alaska’s energy future and accused each other of lying.
The night was tense before the debate even started, with dozens of Peltola and Sullivan supporters waving signs for their candidate outside the Alaska Public Media studio.
Matt Faubion
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Alaska Public Media
Ahead of Thursday night’s Senate debate at Alaska Public Media’s studio, supporters for Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola rallied in the parking lot.
Loren Baxter was holding a sign in support of Sullivan. Baxter said he worked in missile defense in Alaska.
“I appreciate his stand on that and the military perspective, and also on a lot of the work he’s done as far as trying to repeal a lot of the executive orders that were done under the Biden administration,” Baxter said.
Multiple supporters of Peltola declined to be interviewed. Several said the campaign staff told them not to speak to reporters.
During the debate, Sullivan repeatedly alluded to a New York Times piece that featured former Peltola staffers alleging she subjected them to angry outbursts and derogatory terms for gay people and people with disabilities.
Matt Faubion
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Alaska Public Media
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan is running for his third term in the U.S. Senate.
Peltola said she’s worked to maintain respect among her staffers.
“I do not think that this election is about me on my worst day, and I found so many of these allegations concerning and outright fabrications or mass exaggerations of the truth,” she said.
Sullivan was asked why he didn’t condemn President Donald Trump for disparaging women and people with disabilities as harshly as he condemned Peltola’s remarks.
“I have denounced the president’s language on these kinds of issues,” Sullivan said.
Pressed for an example, Sullivan said he spoke up when Trump insulted Fox News personality Megyn Kelly in 2015. After the debate, Sullivan added that he also pushed back when Trump insulted the late Sen. John McCain.
Matt Faubion
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Alaska Public Media
Former Alaska Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
On multiple occasions, Sullivan said Peltola voted against a pay raise for military officials. Peltola insisted that wasn’t true.
“I have two sons who were enlisted-4 and enlisted-5 when they got out,” she said, referring to their military paygrade. “They were both on food stamps. I was happy to … vote for that pay raise that our service members hadn’t had in 10 years.”
Sullivan cited a vote Peltola took against a version of the National Defense Authorization Act because, he said, “she wanted more transgender surgeries for our troops.” Peltola said the bill would’ve limited women’s reproductive healthcare, and that she voted in support of two other versions of the NDAA.
Sullivan accused Peltola of lying by running campaign ads accusing him of getting donations from allies of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I have spent my career defending survivors of domestic violence, of sexual assault, and in this case, I voted to release the Epstein files and protect the victims,” Sullivan said. “She has been running this ad nonstop.”
Peltola said she has no control over ads produced by political action committees.
At the start of the debate, Peltola responded to several questions by reading from her notes. That prompted Sullivan to ask moderator Lori Townsend if the questions were provided in advance.
“Neither one of you got questions beforehand. Absolutely not,” Townsend said.
The news outlets that hosted the debate — Alaska Public Media, KTOO and Alaska’s News Source — did not allow anyone to see the questions ahead of time.
Sullivan later told reporters he believed that.
“I’m not blaming you guys,” he said to the debate hosts. “I’m not. And I’m truly not.”
Election day is Nov. 3.
You can watch the full debate below: