Alaska is a different sort of place, politically. It's a red state, reliably so in presidential elections, but the state legislature is on the moderate side, with some squishy Republicans tending to side with Democrats on some issues. Alaskans lean more libertarian than most red states, and if you look at a map of the state, say, one that presents the presidential election results by borough (we have boroughs here, not counties), then you'll see an awful lot of blue. But many of those blue areas are very sparsely populated indeed, and while the city of Anchorage is blue, it's a very pale blue; the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, along with the eastern part of the state, presents a hefty red counterweight to the blue areas.
That's the map that our one House of Representatives member, Democrat Mary Peltola, has to navigate to win reelection - and as of this writing, she's trailing her main Republican challenger, Nick Begich III. And it may well be Mrs. Peltola's weak statements on one issue in particular that are costing her support among Alaskans, that being the practice of allowing "transgender" girls - boys - to play on girls' sports teams.
This isn't something that plays well in the Great Land, and this November's election may well show that.
When Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola ran for Congress in 2022, she danced around addressing whether trans-identifying men should be allowed in women’s sports. Fairness is important, she indicated, but she needed to learn more.
“I need to better acquaint myself with this issue, which I believe is more complicated than some make it out to be,” Peltola told the Anchorage Daily News in August 2022. “My starting point is that sports should be fair for all students, and we must protect the rights of all students – especially those that are already subject to significant discrimination. I look forward to learning more, and focusing on the many other pressing challenges the U.S. Congress is facing.”
That was then. This is now.
Fast forward about a year to April 2023, when Peltola voted against the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023” — legislation prohibiting school athletic programs from allowing boys who identify as girls to play in girls’ sports. The bill, which passed the House of Republicans (sic), would have made it a violation of Title IX for federally-funded education programs to allow men in women’s athletic programs.
When Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace put forward an amendment to that same legislation, which would have required a study on the effect that men participating in women’s sports has on women, Peltola voted against it.
In other words, she says one thing to her constituents but votes in a different way altogether. And it's costing her, at least in the most recent polling.
I've written at length about the hideously unfair practice of allowing boys in girls' sports. I've written at length about the callously insensitive and possibly unsafe practice of allowing boys in girls' locker rooms. And I've written at length about the number of "transgender girls" who are cynically manipulating a social contagion to win titles and scholarships they would never have been able to even approach were they playing as boys. But the real issue here is how Mary Peltola, and presumably many other Representatives from red states and swing districts, are being forced to walk a similar tightrope.
There can be little doubt that Mary Peltola is under pressure from her fellow Democrats to toe the party line; as a much more, shall we say, collective party, the Democrats are much less tolerant of dissent within their ranks than Republicans. And it may well start costing them elections when issues like this are on the line.
Bear in mind that these are all issues that have recently developed. As recently as 2008, Democratic standard-bearer Barack Obama proclaimed that marriage was "between one man and one woman" and the idea of "transgender" boys playing on girls' school sports teams was unthinkable.
See Related: Mary Peltola: A Study in Democrat Prevarication
The House in the Balance? Alaska's At-Large Race Is Now Neck-and-Neck
It's very likely - and we can hope - that the Democrats are going to have to start moving their party's Overton Window back toward some semblance of sanity. Americans are fed up with this garbage, and seeing their daughters being forced to share athletic fields and locker rooms with boys to avoid being labeled as "transphobic" is just one issue among many. Nationally, Democrats are now the party of the urban elites, "progressive" whack-jobs, and the dependency class. That's not sustainable for a national political party, and the next couple of election cycles may well prove that out.
With a bit of luck and a good turnout from my fellow Alaskans, we will send Mary Peltola back to Bethel, where she has my best wishes for a long, healthy, happy life, surrounded by her family - and far, far away from the House of Representatives. And may that be replicated elsewhere, in as many House districts as we can manage to flip.
