Peltola postpones campaign stops after Saturday car crash

Former Rep. Mary Peltola is postponing campaign stops in her bid for Alaska’s Senate seat after she and her family sustained minor injuries in a car crash Saturday night.

Peltola and her family were traveling to the Alaska Federation of Natives’ annual banquet when another driver struck their vehicle, her campaign announced Sunday on social media.

“Mary and her family sustained minor injuries but are in good spirits,” campaign manager Cheryl Bruce said in the statement. “Unfortunately, per the advice of medical professionals, Mary’s upcoming events in Fairbanks and Bethel will be rescheduled for later in the week as she takes time to recover.”

The crash disrupts the start of Peltola’s eight-community “Alaska Always Tour,” a seven-day campaign swing ahead of the midterms. Events in Fairbanks and Bethel originally scheduled for Sunday and Monday will be rescheduled, while stops in Homer, Kenai, Seward, Juneau, Anchorage and Palmer will continue as planned, the campaign said.

The midterm elections are just over a week away.

Peltola, a Democrat, is challenging Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in a closely watched race that could help determine control of the Senate.

The race on Thursday became the subject of a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block certification of the election results if Sullivan loses in November. The administration is arguing that the presence of an independent candidate also named Dan Sullivan is an effort to mislead voters, despite the Alaska Supreme Court allowing the other Sullivan to remain on the ballot in a June ruling.

Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the lawsuit Sunday, arguing that voters could confuse the two candidates. Peltola’s campaign called the suit a “despicable political threat to overturn the election.” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) piled on, saying the Justice Department's suit should never have been filed.

Alaska’s political history has been marked by fatal transportation disasters. Peltola’s husband, Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr., died in September 2023 when the small plane he was piloting crashed after takeoff in southwestern Alaska. Former Republican Sen. Ted Stevens died in a plane crash in 2010 near Dillingham, and Democratic Rep. Nick Begich disappeared in 1972 after disembarking from Anchorage on a small plane traveling to Juneau.