Mary Peltola Seeks U.S. Congressional seat as First Native Woman in Incumbent Position

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Mary Peltola (D-AK) won the special election to fill in U.S. Congressional seat last August. Now she is seeking the seat in November for a full term. She will be the first Alaskan Native to serve, as a representative for Democrats in the House since 1972.

Peltola is a member of the Yup’ik tribe and she has worked in salmon fishing as a career. The Yup’ik tribe is very well known on the western coast of Alaska with the highest population in the U.S. She started her politics at the early age of 26 as Alaska State House Representative. Peltola introduced herself as “adamantly Pro-Jobs, Pro-Fish, Pro-Family, and Pro-Choice.”

She advanced to the general election in first place, receiving 36.8% of the votes in the primary. Peltola is a tribal member of the Orutsararmiut Native Council. She is on the committee of Education, Labor, and Natural Resouces.

Peltola has continued to express the fishing industry’s strong ecological concerns. She advocated for regulation processes to include tribes and traditional knowledge in federal fishery management decisions.

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