Peltola campaign rips New York Times report on tumultuous operations

Former Rep. Mary Peltola’s (D-Alaska) Senate campaign has pushed back against a report from The New York Times on Wednesday that detailed chaos in her campaign operation.

Several former Peltola aides who requested anonymity told the Times about profane outbursts and displays of anger throughout the campaign and her former congressional office. The tensions also allegedly led to a staffing shakeup days before Alaska’s August primary.

Her campaign denied any pattern of problematic behavior, but it acknowledged she “sometimes struggled to deal with her grief” after the 2023 deaths of her mother and husband. Eugene Peltola was killed in a plane crash .

“At the time of their passing, Mary was parenting kids through their own grief, serving full-time in the U.S. House of Representatives thousands of miles from home, and running a competitive re-election campaign — all while shouldering the enormous burden of grief,” Peltola spokesperson Harry Child said in a statement shared with The Hill.

“But she treats her staff with respect and care, and she maintains close positive relationships with her staff spanning her nearly 30 years in public service. Exaggerating and outright lying about moments from the hardest period of her life, and falsely presenting them as a pattern of behavior, is wrong,” Child said.

Peltola declined to answer reporters’ questions about the allegations in the report at a Wednesday town hall, according to Alaska News Source.

The report details one early 2024 incident in which Peltola, frustrated about not finding a memo, allegedly shoved a male employee in the chest, which the campaign described as an accidental bump. In a 2024 text reviewed by The Times, the congresswoman wrote “f‑‑‑ those b‑‑‑‑es” amid frustrations with Planned Parenthood. At the time, Peltola was running for reelection to the House.

The campaign acknowledged to the Times that Peltola had used an ableist slur and regretted doing so, and it denied allegations that she had used a homophobic slur.

Other staffers described tumult over Peltola’s daughter’s pet chameleon, Meatball, whose diet of live crickets escaped in her Capitol Hill office on at least one occasion. Still, more friends and former aides shared only positive experiences with the Times.

The Times also reported that Peltola, frustrated with her staff, brought in a new consultant ahead of this year’s primary. After some staffers told the consultant they intended to quit, the report alleges, the campaign fired longtime manager Elisa Rios and demoted chief of staff Anton McParland.

Peltola, who lost Alaska’s at-large House seat to Republican Rep. Nick Begich in 2024, is challenging Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan for the Senate seat this fall. Her moderate, Alaska-first bid has fueled Democrats’ hopes of flipping the seat in the Last Frontier, which has sided with President Trump in each of his three presidential races.

Alaska has elected a Democrat to the Senate just once in the past 50 years, but Cook Political Report rates this year’s race as a toss-up. Decision Desk HQ gives Peltola an even better chance, rating it as “lean Democratic.”