‘Alaska First’ Democrat Runs Some Ads Everywhere Except Alaska

Former Democratic Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign is running ads intentionally excluding her home state, apparently undercutting her campaign’s “Alaska First” message in her bid to unseat Republican Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan in November.

Peltola has recently argued that “nobody in the lower 48 is coming to save us” in an attempt to persuade Alaska voters to send her back to Washington after she narrowly lost reelection to the House in 2024. Despite the former congresswoman promising to center her comeback bid around state and local issues, the vast majority of the campaign’s digital ad spending has targeted the Lower 48 thus far.

Peltola’s campaign has spent at least $124,400 on digital ads appearing on Google platforms since the campaign’s launch on Jan. 12, according to the Google Ad Transparency Center. Just over 1% of that spending occurred in Alaska.

Furthermore, $18,200 of that spending targeted California residents, representing 15% of the campaign’s digital ad spending on Google platforms. Washington state and New York — two other fundraising powerhouses for Democratic candidates — saw $14,700 and $8,800 in digital ad spending.

Alaska is not among the top ten states seeing the most digital ad spending despite the former congresswoman employing an “Alaska First” message.

The Last Frontier state has seen just $2,000 of that spending (1.6%) — roughly the same amount as Ohio and Michigan — according to the Google Ads Transparency Center.

The Peltola campaign did not comment directly on the bulk of its digital ad spending occurring outside Alaska.

“Mary has earned support from across Alaska because she’s going to take on the rigged system in DC, and Alaskans are fired up to send her to the U.S. Senate,” a spokesperson for Peltola told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement that also criticized Sullivan’s record in D.C. The spokesperson added that Peltola is “fighting to put Alaska first everyday.”

The Peltola campaign’s largest digital ad buy on Google platforms so far specifically excludes Alaska. The ad, running for 37 days and costing the campaign up to $125,000, links directly to her ActBlue fundraising page. It has netted up to 800,000 impressions across every state except for Alaska.

In stark contrast, the Peltola campaign shelled out just a few thousand dollars for a similar ad buy solely targeting Alaska, which has been viewed up to 20,000 times. The Google ad uses the slogan — “fish, family, freedom” — that Peltola used during prior congressional races.

On Meta platforms, the Peltola campaign has also invested in several large ad buys appearing to target the Lower 48.

Peltola ran an ad on Instagram and Facebook for two weeks touting the results of an independent poll conducted in January showing her narrowly leading Sullivan in a head-to-head matchup (48% to 46.4%).

“Mary can win this race, but she can’t do it alone,” the social media ad states in part.

The ad received the most impressions in California at 13%, followed by Alaska at 11% and Washington state at 8%.

Another social media ad the Peltola campaign ran from Jan. 12 to Feb. 6 urging viewers to donate $35 appeared to specifically exclude the candidate’s home state. Alaska is not listed among the states where the ad was shown.

California, Washington state and New York received the largest shares of the ad’s 800,000 impressions, which cost the campaign up to $35,000.

Peltola, who faces an uphill battle to winning statewide in Republican-leaning Alaska, will likely depend on a large amount of out-of-state donors to unseat Sullivan. The Last Frontier State is expected to be a must-win state for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to pull off his longshot bid of retaking Senate control during the midterms. President Donald Trump carried Alaska by 14 points in 2024.

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