Rep. Mary Peltola’s campaign leaked the news to Axios’ newsroom first: She has $2.5 million in available cash for her reelection campaign. The campaign numbers won’t be revealed officially until around April 15, but she sent them to the Outside news organization as a scoop.
Peltola’s last report, covering the fourth quarter for 2023, showed she had pulled in $2.9 million, had spent $1.8 million, and had $1.77 million cash on hand.
By comparison, in 2020, Congressman Don Young raised $1.9 million in total for his reelection campaign. But in this quarter alone, Axios reports, Peltola has $2.5 million to spend. She has raised at least $4.6 million for her campaign since she ran for Congress in 2022, the year Don Young died.
This is possibly the most any House candidate has ever raised for Alaska’s at-large congressional seat in one quarter. It’s a seat many Democrat campaign groups believe is at risk, since Alaska is still a Republican state, having a Republican governor and two Republican senators.
“Campaigning in Alaska isn’t easy, and in this tough race, every dollar counts,” Peltola told Axios, which was founded by former staffers from the Politico news organization.
Two Republicans, Nick Begich and Nancy Dahlstrom, are also running for Congress. Their fundraising totals have not yet been released, but if they aren’t splitting the vote, they’re surely splitting the fundraising potential for Republicans. They have each raised around $200,000 in prior quarters. The FEC numbers are released later this month, but it appears that even combined, the Republican side has a fraction of what Peltola has been able to raise.
Peltola, who has endorsed President Joe Biden, is running in a presidential election year in which Donald Trump is likely to be the winner of the popular vote in Alaska. Biden is deeply unpopular in the 49th state, and Peltola’s popularity has also slipped , as her voting record shows a pattern of clinging to the left wing of her party, in support of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries for House Speaker and siding with Rep. Nancy Pelosi over 90% of the time, while voting with her party 88% of the time.
In fact, Peltola owes much of her campaign fundraising success to her fellow Democrats, who have chipped in with large amounts from their own political action committees to keep her in office after November. This becomes a political IOU to the Democrats in the next congressional calendar.
Political analysts have noted that Peltola’s burn rate on her campaign cash has been high. She has spent a lot of money to acquire national donors, and she has spent money on revising her image, with a new brand identity on her website and marketing materials.
