![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260529_PELTOLA.jpg\")
US Senate Candidate Mary Peltola shakes hands with Sitkan Krisanne Rice at a meet-and-greet event on Thursday (KCAW\/Rose)<\/p>\nUS Senate Candidate Mary Peltola shakes hands with Sitkan Krisanne Rice at a meet-and-greet event on Thursday (KCAW\/Rose)<\/p>\n
United States Senate candidate Mary Peltola continued her campaign tour of Southeast Alaska with a stop in Sitka yesterday\/on Thursday.<\/p>\n
In a meet and greet at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall, the former Democratic representative spoke to a crowd of around 100 Sitkans. She said when she served as Alaska\u2019s lone representative until 2024, she worked well with Senators Lisa Murkowski and her now opponent, Dan Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in lockstep, and I think that Dan Sullivan and I surprised each other with how well we worked together. I like to joke that we were bad cop, bad cop, and then Lisa was the only good cop,\u201d Peltold said. \u201cBut after 2024 when I was no longer in service, 2025 was just a completely different experience.\u201d <\/p>\n
Peltola went on to discuss the policy decisions that have troubled her since then, from DOGE cuts and firings of federal workers in the state, to the Big Beautiful Bill, which cut billions from safety net programs like SNAP, Medicare and Medicaid. Peltola said living in a region where most of the land is federal means that federal agencies are partners with Alaska. And federal funding in Alaska is essential.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only do we rely on those employees for every single thing we do, living in a place where it\u2019s 90% federal land, but the federal payments to Alaska, federal jobs, the federal programs, that\u2019s half of our economy across our state,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe really rely on our federal government. We cannot afford to have two thirds of our federal delegation, one of our senators, more concerned about the federal deficit than Alaska.\u201d
She said cuts, alongside the rising cost of living, hurt Alaskans, and she would like to be the person in Congress fighting for Alaskans\u2019 needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a moral moment, and I know that you all know that, because we wouldn\u2019t have a packed house if it wasn\u2019t a moral moment on a sunny day,\u201d Peltola said, addressing the rare break in Sitka rain. \u201cSo, thank you for being here on a sunny day. Thank you for recognizing with me, and many other people, what an important moment this is.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a performance from Sitka Native Education Program\u2019s G\u0332ajaa H\u00e9en Dancers, Peltola addressed the crowd for a few minutes, then asked the audience to line up so she could speak with each person face-to-face.<\/p>\n
Peltola\u2019s team declined KCAW\u2019s request for an interview. Sitka was the second-to-last stop on her Southeast tour after she visited several other communities, including Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan and Metlakatla. She\u2019ll be in Haines on Saturday, May 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Senate Candidate Mary Peltola shakes hands with Sitkan Krisanne Rice at a meet-and-greet event on Thursday (KCAW\/Rose)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-673474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}