Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola, now running for U.S. Senate, backed proposals during her time in the Alaska House that would have created new state income taxes, a record that predates the tax-cut message she has made central to her 2026 campaign.
Peltola, who served in the Legislature under her previous name, Kapsner, took part in 2002 discussions among six lawmakers that produced a tax package including a 1.5 percent statewide income tax projected to raise close to $300 million, along with a 1.5 percent statewide sales tax and increases on gasoline, alcohol and cruise ship passengers expected to bring in roughly $200 million more.
She voted twice that year in favor of the income tax proposal, which would have set the highest rate for middle-income Alaskans. The Anchorage Daily News, the state’s largest newspaper, wrote in a May 2002 editorial that the plan — which it called the “misnamed Alaska Fair Tax” — “hits the middle to protect the rich.”
Two years later, in 2004, Peltola co-sponsored another bill that would have required most Alaskans to pay an additional 15 to 20 percent of their federal tax bill to the state.
Contrast with 2026 campaign message
Peltola’s current Senate campaign centers on a pledge to cut taxes. “Alaskans should be able to keep more of the money that they earn in their own pockets,” she has written. “That’s why I’ll fight to cut taxes for more than half of hardworking Alaskans.”
She has also criticized President Donald Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts as “damaging.” The legislation has been promoted by supporters as the largest middle-class tax cut in the nation’s history. Filers earning between $100,000 and $200,000 who claimed the credit received an average tax cut of more than $1,250, according to figures cited in coverage of the law, while those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 received an average of more than $815.
Fishing record also questioned
Fishing has been a prominent theme of Peltola’s Senate bid, featured in a salmon-themed video game, a supporting super PAC called the Fish Family Freedom Fund, and a campaign slogan that begins with “Fish.” But during her first term in Congress, she did not sponsor any fish-related legislation. Over roughly a decade in the Alaska House, she introduced only one bill related to the industry — a loan program that would let fishermen behind on their taxes borrow money and repay it with interest.
Records also show Peltola missed 794 of more than 4,000 votes across five terms in the Alaska House, as well as 22 Bethel City Council meetings. Her campaign has said some of the missed votes came during a period of maternity leave, and that excluding excused absences, she missed about six percent of votes.
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