Alaska Senate Candidate Mary Peltola Injured in Car Crash Days Before Election

Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola and several family members suffered minor injuries Saturday evening when another vehicle struck the car they were riding in on the way to an Alaska Native convention banquet in Anchorage, forcing her campaign to cancel events for two days with just over a week left before Alaska's closely fought Senate election.

Peltola, 53, a former U.S. representative challenging Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, was treated for her injuries after the crash, which happened as she and her family were headed to the Alaska Federation of Natives Annual Banquet, the capstone event of the organization's 60th annual convention in Anchorage. Her campaign manager, Cheryl Bruce, said in a statement carried by multiple news organizations that Peltola and her family "sustained minor injuries but are in good spirits."

A Crash En Route to the Banquet

Neither the Peltola campaign nor the news organizations that first reported the crash disclosed the exact location, time or cause of the collision, saying only that another driver struck the vehicle carrying the candidate and her family. No information about the other driver, or whether law enforcement cited anyone, had been made public as of Sunday evening.

On the advice of her medical providers, Peltola rescheduled a Sunday stop in Fairbanks and a Monday appearance in Bethel, delaying the launch of her "Alaska Always Tour," an eight-stop swing the campaign had planned as its closing argument to voters before the November 3 general election. Bruce said Peltola was "disappointed that the accident is delaying the start" of the tour but intends to resume campaigning Tuesday with a stop in Homer.

The Numbers

The crash lands in the final stretch of what has become the single most expensive Senate race in Alaska history, and one both parties view as pivotal to control of the chamber. Federal Election Commission filings show Peltola's campaign committee, registered with the FEC as "Alaskans for Mary," had raised roughly $36.9 million and spent about $32.8 million through mid-October, leaving just over $4.1 million on hand. Sullivan's committee, Alaskans for Dan Sullivan, reported about $11.5 million raised for the 2025-26 cycle and roughly $10.8 million spent, leaving about $2.8 million on hand — a fundraising gap of more than three to one in Peltola's favor, driven in large part by small-dollar donations from outside the state.

Recent polling has shown the race essentially tied or tilting narrowly toward Peltola. Surveys conducted in the first half of October by Alaska Survey Research, Rasmussen Reports and InsiderAdvantage each put Peltola ahead by one to five points, within or near the margin of error, while a Quantus Insights poll taken in early October showed the candidates tied. The race will be decided under Alaska's ranked-choice voting system, in which no candidate who fails to win an outright majority of first-choice votes is declared the winner until lower-finishing candidates are eliminated and their voters' next choices are redistributed.

A Race Both Parties Call Pivotal

Peltola, a Yup'ik Alaska Native, was the first Alaska Native elected to Congress when she won a 2022 special election to the state's lone House seat after the death of longtime Rep. Don Young; she lost her bid for a second full term in 2024 before entering the Senate race in January. If elected, she would be the first Democrat to represent Alaska in the Senate since 2008. Sullivan, first elected in 2014, previously served as Alaska's attorney general and as a State Department official under President George W. Bush, according to his official Senate biography.

Both campaigns have spent heavily courting Alaska Native voters, who make up roughly 16 percent of the state's population according to Census Bureau estimates and were a focus of the banquet Peltola had been traveling to attend. The Alaska Federation of Natives convention, held this year under the theme "Rooted in Land and Tradition, Rising in Our Voices," marked the organization's 60th year advocating for Alaska Native tribes and corporations.

The race has also drawn unusual national attention because of its potential effect on Senate control, and because of a separate, unrelated dispute over a third candidate who also goes by the name Dan Sullivan and advanced to the four-way general election ballot — a mix-up that prompted a state court fight earlier this year and, more recently, a federal lawsuit filed at President Trump's direction seeking to block certification of the result if Sullivan loses by a narrow margin.

Campaign Reaction

Bruce's statement was the only on-the-record comment issued by either campaign as of Sunday night. Sullivan's campaign did not immediately respond to the news, and none of the news organizations that reported the crash — including the Associated Press, CBS News, the Anchorage Daily News, Bloomberg and The Washington Post — cited a statement from the senator or his aides.

"Mary and her family sustained minor injuries but are in good spirits," Bruce said.

Bruce said Peltola was eager to get back on the road and remained focused on her campaign message of wanting to "take on the rigged system and lower costs for working families." The Peltola campaign's official site, marypeltola.com, had not posted a statement on the crash as of Sunday evening, continuing instead to promote volunteer sign-ups and early-voting information for the final week of the race.

What's Next

Early and absentee voting is already underway across Alaska ahead of the November 3 election. Peltola's campaign said she plans to resume in-person campaigning Tuesday in Homer before continuing the delayed "Alaska Always Tour" through the remaining days before polls close. Coverage of the crash, reported Sunday by CBS News, the Anchorage Daily News and, via the Associated Press, PBS NewsHour, did not indicate any lasting health concerns, and the campaign gave no sign the accident would alter its closing strategy beyond the two-day pause.

With control of the Senate potentially turning on a handful of races, including Alaska's, both parties are expected to pour additional money and staff time into the state's airwaves and ground operations over the campaign's final week, regardless of the disruption.