Institute of Politics

Mary Peltola is an Alaska Native raised on the Kuskokwim River. She grew up commercial fishing during the summer and mushing dogs in the winter. Mary’s mother is from the Yupik village of Kwethluk, just upriver from Bethel. She went to Chimawa Indian School and worked as a medical records clerk. Mary’s father is originally from Venango, Nebraska, and grew up wheat farming. He moved to Alaska right after college and was a teacher and principal. He spent the majority of his time in Alaska as a bush pilot.

Mary began elected service at 25, representing Bethel and 30+ villages in the State House of Representatives. After 10 years of moving back and forth between Bethel and Juneau, Mary moved home year round to work for the Donlin Gold project, a mining proposition still involved in permitting. One term on the Bethel City Council resulted in the construction and successful operation of a regional swimming pool (6 of 7 people elected to the council were single-issue candidates who championed getting a swimming pool built). Mary also served as a tribal court judge for the Bethel tribe, of which she is a member. The Kuskokwim River Inter Tribal Fish Commission is a 33-tribe member organization which engages in the only in-season co-management of fish in the world. Mary was the executive director of KRITFC for five years, working with elected tribal fish commissioners from every village on the Kuskokwim River to enact more conservative approaches to fish management. After the death of Don Young, Alaska’s lone congressman for 49 years, a special election was held to serve the remainder of his term in the 117^th congress. The special election was concurrent with the regular election for the 118^th Congress. In the special election, there were 48 total candidates, including Santa Claus, Sarah Palin and Nick Begich. Under Alaska’s new ranked choice voting system, Mary won both the special and regular elections.

After losing the campaign for the 119^th Congress, Mary now works for Holland & Hart as their Senior Director of Alaska Affairs.

Mary has four kids, three step-kids and two grandkids. She was married to Gene Peltola, Jr, who had a fatal plane crash while hunting in a Piper Super Cub in September 2023, exactly one year after the swearing in ceremony in 2022.