Mary Peltola
September 26, 2026 · Newsletter
Neqa
Do you want to know a fun fact? In Yup’ik, the word for “fish” and “food” is the same: Neqa.
That’s how fundamental fish are to our way of life – and why I’m running a campaign for U.S. Senate focused on fish, family, and freedom. 🐟❤️🇺🇸
I grew up fishing on the Kuskokwim with my father. I started commercial fishing at just six years old, and became a permit holder after turning 12. Fishing is in my blood, just like it is for so many Alaskans.
In many parts of Alaska, fish is synonymous with food. In Yup’ik, we literally use the same word! That’s because many families rely on fishing to fill their freezers to survive the winter – but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to do so.
The salmon (and large game and migratory birds!) that used to fill our freezers are getting harder and harder to find. I’ve spoken to far too many families in rural Alaska whose freezers aren’t full as we head into another hard, cold winter. That means they’ll soon be faced with an impossible choice between feeding their family or heating their home. It’s unimaginable, and it’s got to change.
Dan Sullivan has raked in nearly $300,000 from the trawling industry, so it makes perfect sense why he then looks the other way and refuses to take action to restore abundance to our fisheries. Now that he’s facing a tough reelection campaign, he’s making a last-ditch, performative effort in Congress by finally introducing a bycatch research bill.
We don’t need more studies to tell us what’s happening in front of our eyes!
Alaskans see through these election year games. He’s had 12 years to tackle this crisis and instead waited until just a few months before the election. It’s all a charade, and he’s hoping we won’t notice.
To make matters worse, at the same time that Dan Sullivan makes Alaskans more reliant on purchasing groceries to feed their families, he’s voted 13 times to jack up prices by supporting the Iran war that’s sent fuel prices sky high. These fuel prices trickle down to every aspect of life, and they’re felt even harder in the remote areas of our state that are off the road system.
Next month, I’m traveling to the North Slope of Alaska, one of the most remote regions of our state. The prices that they pay for everyday household goods are hard to believe: $75 for paper towels, $90 for laundry detergent, $50 for a bag of sugar.
But while these prices are difficult to believe for folks in the Lower 48 or on the road system, they’re sadly becoming the norm in rural Alaska thanks to self-dealing politicians like Dan Sullivan.
While Alaskans are getting crushed, he’s more than tripled his personal wealth in office, trading stocks and breaking Congress’ insider trading laws by hiding his trades for months. He’s disgracing Alaska, and in November, we are going to unseat him.
We’re coming up on the final end-of-quarter fundraising deadline of this Senate campaign. That means that, for the last time before the general election, we are about to report a full quarter’s worth of fundraising data to the FEC.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. If we fall short in this public report, the dark money groups backing my opponent are going to pour even more millions into Alaska to take us down. They’ll think we don’t have what it takes to fight back.
We can’t afford to let that happen, so I’m reaching out today to ask for your help. This is a grassroots campaign, so any amount that you can chip in will make a massive difference ahead of our end-of-quarter deadline.
Thank you so much for your support.
- Mary