District 1

Mary Peltola (i)

Peltola won her first state election at the age of 24 and represented the Bethel region in the Alaska State Legislature for 10 years. Born and raised on the Kuskokwim River in Kwethluk, Tuntutuliak, Platinum, and Bethel, she was just six years old when she began fishing commercially with her father. 

While in office Peltola built consensus around budgets that improved lives in rural Alaska. After leaving the state legislature, she worked as manager of community development and sustainability for the Donlin gold mine project. More recently, she served as executive director of the  Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission where she helped mobilize 118 Tribes and rural Alaskans to advocate for protecting salmon runs in western Alaska.

Peltola has also served on the Orutsararmiut Native Council Tribal Court and the Bethel City Council as well as on the boards of the Nature Conservancy, Alaska Humanities Forum, Alaska Children’s Trust, and Russian Orthodox Sacred Sites in Alaska.

Jennifer S. Henderson

Dario Borghesan

Marjorie Katharine Allard

Timothy Terrell

Ballot Measure 

No. 1 (23AMLS)

Recommendation: VOTE YES

“An initiative to increase Alaska’s minimum wage, provide workers with paid sick leave, and protect workers from practices that violate their constitutional rights.”

Description:

The initiative aims to]incrementally increase the Alaska minimum wage: first to $13.00 per hour effective July 1, 2025, then to $14.00 per hour effective July 1, 2026 and then to $15.00 per hour on July 1, 2027. Thereafter it will be adjusted annually for inflation as well as provide employees the ability to accrue up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year if their employers have 15 employees or more and up to 40 hours of paid sick leave if their employers have fewer than15 employees. It also seeks to prohibit employers from compelling employees to attend meetings focused on religious or political matters unrelated to employees’ work.

Read more here.

Ballot Measure 

No. 2 (22AKHE)

Recommendation: VOTE NO 

“An Act to get rid of the Open Primary System and Ranked-Choice General Election.”

Description:

This initiative seeks to replace the nonpartisan, open top-four primary election system with a party primary system as well as replace the rank-choiced general election with “an  easily understood election system” and eliminate all provisions of ranked-choice voting and jungle primaries.

Read more here.