Dem Senate hopeful vows to unleash Alaska oil — but her record tells a different story
Alex Miller
Fox News
September 3, 2026
A Democrat eyeing a return to Congress in a crucial battleground state has pitched a policy platform geared toward expanded oil production, but she once turned her back on the issue while in Washington, D.C.
Former Rep. Mary Peltola is running to unseat Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, in a contest that could define the balance of power in the upper chamber… but Peltola is running away from some of their greener energy policies to push for expanded oil production.
Earlier this month, she unveiled her “Making Energy Affordable for Alaskans” plan that zeros in on oil and gas development in her state, which is one of the top crude oil producers in the country.
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“As D.C. price hikes create an energy catastrophe for Alaskans, we can’t afford more delays, political gridlock, or one-size-fits-all rules from the Lower 48 that leave Alaskans without solutions,” she continued.
In 2023, she did have an opportunity to do just that. During her time in the House, Peltola and Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., introduced the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, legislation that would have reversed several Biden-era rules and regulations that limited or canceled oil and gas leases in Alaska.
When it came time to vote on the bill, which would have required the reinstatement of canceled drilling leases in the non-wilderness Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and overturned lease restrictions in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A), she urged her colleagues to vote against it.
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The bill did ultimately pass in the Republican-controlled House but died on the vine in the Senate, which was run by then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
And Schumer heavily recruited Peltola to mount a bid against Sullivan, giving her the full weight of the Democratic establishment in her race against Sullivan, who is seeking a third term in the upper chamber.
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“As a Congresswoman, Mary Peltola turned her back on Alaska time and time again,” Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sullivan’s campaign, told Fox News Digital. “Peltola says whatever she needs to say to get elected, then goes to Washington and does whatever Chuck Schumer, AOC, and D.C. Democrats demand of her, even when it directly hurts the Alaskans she’s supposed to represent.”
“Peltola’s shameless ability to say one thing to Alaskans and do the exact opposite in Congress might be why she cashed out and became a lobbyist when Alaskans fired her in 2024,” he continued.
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