Mary Peltola

Democrat Mary Peltola has won election to the U.S. House, beating Republican Sarah Palin to fill the remainder of the late Congressman Don Young's term in ...

Peltola will be in office until at least January, when the term ends. Peltola will likely be sworn in the week of Sept. In fact, those voters either did not mark a second-choice candidate or ranked a write-in candidate second. The Speaker of the House could also call a special session just to swear Peltola in early. In a speech to supporters, Palin also questioned election integrity and again criticized the state’s new ranked choice voting system. Democrat Mary Peltola has won election to the U.S.

Mary Peltola, photographed at the Resource Industry Trade Organizations Host Congressional Candidate Forum, May 12, 2022. (CNN) Democrat Mary Peltola is set ...

The holiday, she said, was when she began to understand Young in a context beyond his friendship with her father. Peltola, Palin and Begich are all set to square off again in November. Once, in the 1960s, Peltola said, the two men bought a bulldozer together and took 12-hour shifts fighting a wildfire. The two were expectant mothers working at the statehouse in Juneau at the same time. She has a warm relationship with Palin, who once gave her family's backyard trampoline to Peltola's family, and she once spent Thanksgiving with the late Rep. Peltola later became a Bethel City Council member, a lobbyist and a salmon advocate as the executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

Later, she helped reelect a Republican senator. And she's friendly with Sarah Palin, the state's former governor who popularized the kind of combative, anti- ...

[a third of the seats in the 100-member Senate](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/09/senate-seats-up-2022/?itid=lb_understanding-the-2022-midterm-elections_6) are up for election. Here’s a [complete guide to the midterms](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2022/2022-midterm-elections-guide/?itid=lb_understanding-the-2022-midterm-elections_5). As of April 25, [46 of the 50 states had settled on the boundaries](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/redistricting-tracker-map/?itid=lb_understanding-the-2022-midterm-elections_9) for 395 of 435 U.S. [What is redistricting?](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/22/what-is-redistricting/?itid=lb_understanding-the-2022-midterm-elections_8) Redistricting is the process of drawing congressional and state legislative maps to ensure everyone’s vote counts equally. Peltola was born in 1973 — the year Young was first elected to the House — and raised in rural parts of the state. 6, 2021, Peltola recently told [the Anchorage Daily News](https://www.adn.com/politics/2022/08/06/candidate-qa-us-house-mary-peltola/): “I believe in our courts and judicial system. Here’s a complete [calendar of all the primaries in 2022](https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/calendar-2022/?itid=lb_understanding-the-2022-midterm-elections_3). She also served one term in the Bethel City Council and was a state lobbyist. In 1998, Peltola ran again for the state legislature and won. She is also a candidate in the November election for the full two-year term to replace Young. She had to break away in the middle of the conversation to take a call from Sen. House seat by defeating Palin (R) and Nick Begich III (R), a business executive and familiar name in state politics.

Peltola's victory in the state's first ranked choice voting election makes her the first Alaska Native to serve in the House.

Along with Peltola and Begich, she is among the candidates vying for a full two-year term that will be decided in the November general election. In her run for the House seat, she had widespread name recognition and won the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. “And my hope is that we shy away from the really extreme-type candidates and politicians.” Begich was later declared dead and Young in 1973 was elected to the seat. Peltola was in the lead heading into the tabulation rounds. Young held the seat for 49 years before his death in March.

Peltola, who beat Sarah Palin, will be the first Native Alaskan elected to Congress.

[string of Democratic over-performances](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/yes-special-elections-really-are-signaling-a-better-than-expected-midterm-for-democrats/) in House special elections since the Supreme Court [overturned landmark abortion ruling Roe v. - Independent Al Gross, a surgeon and 2020 U.S. [primary last week](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/17/sarah-palin-advances-alaska-us-house-seat-election). Wade](https://www.axios.com/2022/06/24/roe-wade-decision-abortion) in June. [Ocean heat reached all-time high in 2021, report finds](/2022/09/01/ocean-heat-reached-all-time-high-2021-report-finds) [Ocean heat content](https://www.axios.com/2022/01/12/global-ocean-temperatures-record-high), global sea levels and greenhouse gas concentrations all reached record highs in 2021, according to the [State of the Climate](https://ametsoc.net/sotc2021/StateoftheClimate2021_lowres.pdf) report published Wednesday. [climate change](https://www.axios.com/energy-environment/climate-change) has global impacts and shows no sign of slowing, said [Rick Spinrad](https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/bams-report-record-high-greenhouse-gases-sea-levels-in-2021) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which led the study. [Observers predicted](https://www.axios.com/2022/03/27/alaska-murkowski-special-election-poll)the system would benefit a more consensus candidate over a right-wing firebrand like Palin, who a [majority of voters view unfavorably](https://www.businessinsider.com/sarah-palin-alaska-house-race-31-percent-majority-unfavorable-poll-2022-4). [prevailed in New York's 19th District](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/24/pat-ryan-new-york-special-election)after running a campaign that was heavily focused on abortion. [death in March](https://www.axios.com/2022/03/19/alaska-congressman-don-young-dies). [advanced to the general election](https://www.axios.com/2022/06/15/sarah-palin-alaska-house-special-election) in the top-four blanket primary in June along with Palin and businessman Nick Begich, a more mainstream Republican. [telling the New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/17/us/politics/mary-peltola-ak.html), "I think respect is just a fundamental part of getting things done and working through problems." [Politics & Policy](https://www.axios.com/politics-policy)

Democrat Mary Peltola will be the first Alaska Native in Congress after she won a special election that included former Gov. Sarah Palin, NBC News projects.

As Alaska — and America — now sees, the exact opposite is true," she said in a statement. She will compete against Peltola and Begich again in November to determine who will serve a full two-year term in the House. Palin simply doesn’t have enough support from Alaskans to win an election," Begich said in a statement. [finished fourth](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/sarah-palin-advances-special-alaska-house-race-primary-rcna33151) in a crowded nonpartisan primary in June, when 48 candidates battled to secure one of the four spots on the Aug. “Ranked-choice voting was sold as the way to make elections better reflect the will of the people. No candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the Aug. But heading into Wednesday’s final tabulation, Peltola was [leading the pack](https://nebula.nbcnewstools.net/nbcnews/content/edit/democrat-mary-peltola-defeats-sarah-palin-special-election-become-firs/45756). The rounds continue until one of two remaining candidates with the most votes wins. "As we look forward to the November election, I will work hard to earn the vote of Alaskans all across the state.” The longtime GOP lawmaker represented Alaska for almost 50 years in Congress. Palin, the GOP's vice presidential candidate in 2008, will have another chance at reviving her political comeback. “Though we’re disappointed in this outcome, Alaskans know I’m the last one who’ll ever retreat.