When Alaska elected a Democrat three years ago to represent the state in the House of Representatives — for the first time in half a century — the party saw signs that the Republican grip over rural areas was loosening.
Mary Peltola, a former state legislator from a remote Alaskan city, offered a compelling model for how Democrats could make gains in rural districts. She ran on local issues, with indisputable Alaskan credentials, touting her background as a fisherwoman on the Kuskokwim River and as the proud owner of guns — 176 to be exact.
It was a model that Democrats also saw working for Reps. Jared Golden in Maine and Marie Gluesencamp Perez in Washington. And it was one that state and national Democrats hoped would buoy the 49-year-old Peltola to a lengthy, Don Young-style political career in Washington, where she quickly distanced herself from national topics and carefully broke with her party on Alaskan issues like a massive oil development project.