Alaska’s highest-ranking Democratic officeholder said Tuesday she has not decided whether to back the party’s likely candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Rep. Mary Peltola broke with other state Democrats, who quickly gave their support and their party convention delegates’ votes to Harris just hours after President Joe Biden announced that he was ending his campaign for re-election.
Peltola, in an online news conference, said she is still weighing her decision about whether to vote for Harris and is “keeping an open mind.”
“We still have 105 days until Election Day, and just like many other Alaskans and like a lot of other Americans, I’m going to be really looking at her policy positions, specifically on energy,” she said.
While she appreciates Harris’ position on women’s reproductive rights, Social Security, voting rights and other issues, “as the representative for Alaska, my number one job is looking at our economy and our energy situation,” and which candidate would be better for the oil-dependent state, Peltola said.
“I am not being coy. I am really going to lean in and be looking at where Kamala Harris is coming from, in energy and other issues that are important to Alaska,” she said.
Peltola said she has never endorsed anyone, and does not intend to start. As Alaska’s sole U.S. House member, she is “overtly choosing governing over politicking,” trying to ensure that the state has a good working relationship with whomever occupies the White House.
That responsibility affects the way she is viewing the presidential race, she said.
“As the representative for all of Alaska, I have to put Alaska and Alaska issues before my own personal preferences,” she said. “And this is a very uncomfortable place to be.”
In a follow-up post put on social media after the news conference, Peltola clarified that she will not vote for the former president, who is now the official Republican nominee.
“I’m not voting for Trump & I’m not endorsing anyone else either. The media won’t allow us to engage in nuanced conversation because it doesn’t sell clicks. I won’t vote for a candidate who’s not pro-choice. I can’t ask Alaskans to vote for a candidate who’s not pro-energy,” she said in a post on the site formerly known as Twitter and now called X.
Peltola is not planning to attend the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago, even though she is included in the list of the party’s delegation, a campaign spokesperson said after the news conference.
“She’s going to be campaigning in-state, so she won’t be able to go,” spokesperson Shannon Mason said, adding that Peltola has never been to a national party convention.
A fellow Alaska congressional delegation member, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, has shown no such reluctance about supporting his party’s presidential candidate.
Sullivan, a Trump loyalist, attended the recent Republican National Convention and has endorsed the former president.
Alaska’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, has been undecided, however. One of the few Republicans in Congress to support Trump’s impeachment, Murkowski has said in the past that she does not intend to vote for either the former president or Biden. When Biden announced his decision to drop from the race, Murkowski posted a brief but supportive message on social media: I respect President Biden’s decision to act in the best interest of the country by stepping aside in the 2024 presidential election.”
Peltola has been attacked in the past for expressing support for Biden, a fellow Democrat, and those attacks continue. A new digital advertisement from the National Republican Congressional Committee accuses her of “betraying Alaskans to back Biden.”
In a social media post on Monday, Peltola, who is Yup’ik and from Western Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, invoked her Native values as part of her reasons for refraining from attacks, including in the presidential campaign.
“I’m not interested in criticizing either President. That’s not who I am. It’s not very Yupik – and any cheap political shot that might benefit my campaign would only hurt my ability to bring home wins for Alaska,” she said in the post.
While she has praised Biden’s acuity in the past, Peltola said in the news conference that the president has slipped noticeably in recent months because of his advanced age.
She said she was surprised at his poor performance in last month’s televised debate against Trump.
“I think that just like kids have growth spurts, I think that we have age spurts, and it was very apparent that there had been quite a bit of aging that has gone on in, in recent months,” she said.
Peltola said she has sometimes disagreed with Biden’s decisions about policies that affect Alaska, but she still praised his public service.
“It reminds me a lot of the lifetime commitment that Ted Stevens gave to Alaska, the lifetime commitment that Don Young gave to Alaska, and I really appreciate his commitment to public service,” she said, naming the late Republican senator and late Republican U.S. House member who were among the longest-serving members in the nation’s history.
Peltola now holds the House seat that Young held for 49 years.
• Yereth Rosen came to Alaska in 1987 to work for the Anchorage Times. She has reported for Reuters, for the Alaska Dispatch News, for Arctic Today and for other organizations. She covers environmental issues, energy, climate change, natural resources, economic and business news, health, science and Arctic concerns. This article originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.
