Democrat candidate Mary Peltola is in a tight race for the Senate with the incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK).
But the New York Times just dropped a story that may hurt her right at a critical point in the campaign, alleging a tumultuous pattern of behavior according to former aides. The information is based on what the Times was told by nine former staffers, as well as contemporaneous text messages and photos.
Former aides describe angry and profane outbursts, sometimes directed at aides and sometimes expressed about others who had displeased her. In one instance, she shoved an aide, according to a former staff member who was present and two others who were told about it at the time. Another conflict led to a surprising staff shake-up on the eve of the primary election last month.
Four former staff members also alleged that she used the slur "fa**ot" over the years, including against her own staff members, which her campaign denies. She also used the word “retarded,” according to the ex-aides as well as text messages that the Times saw.
Peltola canned some longtime staff members just before the primary. According to two former aides, that was "fueled by one of the candidate’s blowups." When she was in the House as a member of Congress, Peltola had one of the highest staff turnover rates, according to the Times.
Here was more about the shove.
One of the more notable incidents described by former aides occurred in Ms. Peltola’s congressional office in February 2024. Frustrated that she couldn’t find a memo for a meeting, Ms. Peltola shoved a male employee in the chest with one hand, causing him to stumble backward, according to a person who was there and two others who heard about the incident soon after, as well as text messages sent at the time. The aide departed Ms. Peltola’s team soon after.
The campaign denied that it had been a shove and said that Ms. Peltola had bumped the aide accidentally on her husband’s first birthday after his death, and she was unfocused.
Then she was apparently unhappy with Planned Parenthood.
Warning for graphic language:
“I hope Planned Parenthood knows that if we don’t win it’s more their loss than ours. FUCK THOSE BITCHES,” she later wrote in a text message to her staff in January 2024 that was viewed by The Times.
Later that year, Ms. Peltola, appearing to refer to a woman on the board of the local Planned Parenthood chapter, wrote in another text, “I hope she dies of a botched abortion.”
The report alleges the staff have tried to carefully manage her moods.
Sometimes she jumped up and down and stomped her feet, three of these former aides said. Two of the aides described one instance, in 2024, when Ms. Peltola was so frustrated that she swept stacks of papers on her desk into the air in a way that the two people independently likened to a scene from the political satire “Veep.”
The campaign disputed the description, but said she had shuffled papers off her desk in frustration.
In one final bizarre note, she also had the staff feed live crickets to her daughter’s pet chameleon, Meatball.
Fox's Matt Finn tried to get some response about the new report from Peltola herself. She wasn't commenting and beat it out of there fast. Her staffer said there would be a statement.
Breaking video: Mary Peltola does not answer our questions about the NYT report that broke alleging she called staffers a homophobic slur, used the R word and physically pushed a former staffer. The NYT story broke just before she took the stage tonight at a Labor event in… pic.twitter.com/Ndsxfirw7j
— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) September 24, 2026
The campaign claimed that the stories were exaggerated and that Peltola had gone through a period of grief when her husband and mother died in 2023.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
Help RedState continue to report on the Democrats’ radicalism and inform voters as our nation faces a crossroads. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the Conversation
VIP members get the ability to comment on articles.