Democratic Alaska Senate nominee Mary Peltola missed nearly one in five votes in the state House, more than a third of city council meetings, and hundreds of congressional roll calls, a pattern Republicans say disqualifies her from a promotion.
Legislative records, city documents, and congressional tracking data paint a consistent picture across every taxpayer-funded office Peltola has held. During five terms in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009, she missed 794 of 4,265 recorded votes, an absence rate of 18.6 percent. Her worst stretch came during the 23rd Legislature in 2003 and 2004, when she skipped 334 of 1,019 floor votes, roughly one in three. Fox News Digital first reported the full scope of her attendance gaps across all three levels of government.
Peltola finished ahead of incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Tuesday's nonpartisan primary and now advances to a November general election that will feature four candidates under Alaska's ranked-choice system. Sullivan, a two-term senator backed by President Donald Trump, also advanced. The attendance numbers land at the worst possible time for Peltola, just as she asks voters to hand her a six-year Senate term.
After leaving the state House, Peltola served on the Bethel City Council from 2011 to 2013. Bethel is a small city in western Alaska, a regional hub for surrounding rural communities. Her council attendance was worse than her legislative record. City records show she missed 22 of 60 meetings, 36.67 percent. In 2013, she missed nine of 22 meetings. The year before, she missed 11 of 32.
The numbers are not ambiguous. Across a decade and a half in public office at the state and local level, Peltola was absent for a significant share of the work voters elected her to do. That pattern followed her to Washington.
GovTrack data covering her time as a U.S. representative from 2022 to 2024 shows Peltola missed 235 of 1,370 roll-call votes, 17.2 percent. No bill or resolution for which she served as primary sponsor became law during her congressional tenure, a fact the National Republican Senatorial Committee highlighted in a January post on X.
The NRSC did not hold back. Its post read: "She couldn't even get a single bill signed into law. Now, she wants a promotion." Sullivan, by contrast, has had several bills signed into law, though the specific legislation was not detailed in the reporting.
Democrats have faced a string of internal accountability problems in recent cycles. A Texas Democrat recently dodged residency questions after a report surfaced votes cast from his parents' address, another case where basic obligations of office went unmet.
Her campaign offered explanations. A spokesperson said three of Peltola's seven children were born during her state legislature tenure and she took maternity leave. The spokesperson argued the absences did not stop her from working for Alaskans:
"Three of Mary's children were born during her time in the state legislature and she took maternity leave. That didn't stop her from working hard for Alaskans, from passing bills to improve public safety in rural Alaska to increasing Alaska energy production."
The campaign also claimed that when excused absences are removed from the count, Peltola missed only about 6 percent of state House votes. That figure comes solely from the campaign and has not been independently verified against the legislative records.
Maternity leave explains some absences in some years. It does not explain a 36 percent absence rate on the Bethel City Council years later, when her children were older. It does not explain missing 17 percent of House roll calls in Congress. And it does not explain why the pattern held steady across three separate offices, two decades, and every level of government below the Senate.
The broader Democratic landscape has not been kind to candidates carrying baggage into competitive races. Senate leadership has already backed away from at least one scandal-plagued Senate candidate this cycle, and primary voters have shown a willingness to punish incumbents who fail to deliver.
Nick Poche, a Republican National Committee spokesperson, issued a statement to Fox News Digital drawing a sharp contrast between the two candidates:
"Alaskans deserve an all-the-time workhorse like Dan Sullivan, not someone like Peltola who knifes Alaskans in the back when she even bothers to show up."
Peltola's campaign tried to turn the attendance issue back on Sullivan. A spokesperson called his absences "an insult to Alaskans" and said Sullivan has been "slacking off," missing fisheries subcommittee hearings. But the campaign did not provide specific numbers or hearing dates to back up those claims, leaving the counterattack unsupported by the kind of granular data that documents Peltola's own record.
Alaska's nonpartisan top-four primary system, where all candidates appear on one ballot regardless of party, means Peltola did not have to survive a traditional Democratic primary. She simply had to finish in the top four. She did more than that, finishing first. But a strong primary showing does not erase the public record. And the general election will feature ranked-choice voting, a format that rewards candidates who can build broad coalitions, not ones who hand opponents a ready-made line of attack.
The pattern among Democratic candidates facing scrutiny over basic job performance is not limited to Alaska. Primary voters have ousted Democratic incumbents at a notable pace in recent cycles, often over exactly the kind of accountability gap Peltola now faces.
Peltola announced her Senate bid in January, positioning herself as a candidate who could compete in a state that leans Republican but has shown an independent streak. She won the state's at-large House seat in a 2022 special election and held it through 2024. Her campaign has emphasized rural public safety and energy production as signature issues.
But signature issues require showing up to vote on them. And the record, drawn from three separate sets of public documents across three different offices, tells the same story each time: Peltola was not there for a meaningful share of the work. Internal Democratic upheaval in other states has already shown that voters notice when elected officials treat public office as something less than a full-time commitment.
Sullivan heads into November as a two-term incumbent with Trump's backing and a legislative record that includes signed laws. Peltola heads in with name recognition, a primary win, and a voting attendance file that Republicans will make sure every Alaskan sees before November.
Voters can forgive a missed vote. Forgiving a pattern takes more effort, especially when the person asking for grace is also asking for a bigger office.