Mary Peltola, Running for Senate Against 'Self-Dealing,' Joined High-Priced Lobbying Firm After Cosponsoring Bill It Lobbied Congress To Pass

Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola is running for Senate against the "rigged system in DC that's hurting Alaska while politicians feather their own nest." Before launching her campaign, Peltola made hundreds of thousands of dollars working for a lobbying firm she joined after cosponsoring a bill that the firm supported on behalf of a Canadian mining company, a Washington Free Beacon review found.

Peltola, then a congresswoman representing Alaska's at-large House district, was the original cosponsor of the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act of 2024. Introduced in April 2023, the bill would allow mining companies to dump waste on sections of public lands without proving those sections contain minerals, effectively reversing a 2022 court decision that prevented Canadian miner Hudbay Minerals from doing so at a proposed copper mine in Arizona. The bill passed the House in May 2024 but stalled in the Senate. In December of that year, Hudbay paid the lobbying firm Holland & Hart $20,000 to lobby Congress on the measure, records show.

The lobbying effort came one month after Peltola lost her reelection bid to Republican congressman Nick Begich. In March 2025, just two months after Peltola left the House, she joined Holland & Hart as the firm's "senior director of Alaska affairs," according to Politico, which noted that "nearly all of Holland & Hart's federal lobbying clients work in the energy and mining space … including Rio Tinto Services, Global Mining Holding Company, [and] Hudbay Minerals." Peltola's chief of staff, Anton McParland, also joined the firm as its senior director of federal affairs.

Peltola's tenure at Holland & Hart was both lucrative and unsuccessful. Though the firm paid her more than $342,000, according to her personal financial disclosure, she "failed to bring in any clients," according to the Washington Post.

Peltola's work for the firm stands in stark contrast to her message on the campaign trail as she runs against Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan. Peltola has pledged to "get special interests out of our politics" and railed against "self-serving politicians who cozy up to special interests like trawlers to line their own pockets."

"Our future depends on fixing the rigged system in DC that's hurting Alaska while politicians feather their own nest," Peltola says on her campaign website. "DC people will be pissed that I'm focusing on their self-dealing, and sharing what I've seen firsthand."

Holland & Hart did not responded to a request for comment. A Peltola spokesman said Peltola 'has made clear that she answers to Alaskans—not party bosses, DC insiders, or any Lower 48 special interests."

"Mary has always fought to empower Alaska communities to make their own decisions on resource development, and her fight to pass the bipartisan Mining Regulatory Clarity Act of 2024 was in direct response to the needs of Alaskans," the spokesman said in a statement shared with the Free Beacon. The Peltola campaign also noted that Peltola's introduction of the bill came before Holland & Hart's lobbying push and that "Mary was never registered as a lobbyist," instead working for the firm "in an advisory role."

Peltola was the subject of intense scrutiny surrounding her future political aspirations while working for Holland & Hart. She filed paperwork for a 2026 House campaign in late 2024, and months later, in August 2025, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) began recruiting her to run for Senate, Axios reported. At the same time, Peltola used her old House campaign account to spend nearly $200,000 on seemingly personal expenses from January 2025 to March 2026, including "$50,000 on airline tickets and lodging, often outside of Alaska," "$8,000-plus on catering," and "more than $1,300 on ground transportation," the Washington Sun reported. The campaign had no staffers on its payroll for much of that period.

Peltola eventually left Holland & Hart around the same time she launched her Senate campaign in January 2026.

In addition to the money from Holland & Hart, Peltola was paid $80,000 by the left-wing nonprofit American Opportunity Action for a "fellowship," according to her disclosure. Little is known about the group, which does not disclose its donors and has "quietly donated about $6 million to various Democratic super PACs and liberal ballot measures across the country" as of April, "part of its ... $40 million midterm campaign," the New York Times reported. The group has since sent another $4 million to Democratic groups, federal campaign finance records show. Much of the money—at least $3 million—has gone to the Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC, which is supporting Peltola in Alaska.

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