Sullivan and Peltola clash in a combative first forum, previewing a bitter Senate race

In their first major forum since advancing from the August primary, Sen. Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola turned a policy discussion about oil and gas permitting into a preview of a contentious general election — with Sullivan repeatedly casting Peltola as a secret ally of "Lower 48 liberals" and Peltola insisting her record proves otherwise.

The two agreed on a striking amount of substance. Both said Alaska needs permitting reform, both want a recent Supreme Court decision narrowing environmental reviews written into law, both complained that "out of touch" Lower 48 regulators don't understand the state, and both called the Trans-Alaska Pipeline's looming right-of-way renewal essential. But the forum was less about those overlaps than about Sullivan's sustained effort to drive a wedge between Peltola's pro-development rhetoric and her voting record.

He returned to that theme again and again. His sharpest example was the Alaska's Right to Produce Act, which Peltola co-sponsored and served as the Democratic co-lead on. "It came up in committee, she voted yes, and then when it came to the floor, she voted present," Sullivan said. "I don't even know what present means. And then she lobbied her colleagues to vote against the bill that would help Alaska." Peltola has said she turned against the final bill because it would also have nullified the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area; she sought an amendment to preserve that designation, but it was not allowed to reach the floor. He made a similar charge about a Biden-era water rule she twice declined to help repeal — "twice on a WOTUS rule that was essential to our state, she voted with her Lower 48 liberal allies, not Alaska" — and tied nearly every answer back to the senators he said she would "empower" if elected, from Chuck Schumer on down.

Sullivan's overarching pitch was that the work is already done, by him. He pointed to congressional repeals of Biden-era rules on the National Petroleum Reserve, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a major land plan, and to mandatory oil and gas lease sales now written into law for a decade — measures he said prevent a future administration from shutting Alaska down. "If Kamala Harris wins the presidency in two years and wants to shut down Alaska again, they won't be able to do that, because we've already gotten permitting done," he said. He credited labor unions and industry, and repeatedly framed the choice as between allies and adversaries: "She would be allied with them. I would be allied with you."

Peltola argued she is the more effective operator — and landed shots of her own. She pointed to the Willow project, describing her push to keep the Biden administration from shrinking it late in the process. "You're interested in social justice? Well, that's great, because all the Native groups in Alaska, all of the Alaska Federation of Natives, every union in state want this project," she recalled arguing, adding that the Willow fight "was the honor of my life." She said she would "use every tool in the toolbox and invent new ones" to speed permitting, and pressed a point Sullivan mostly avoided: that agencies are badly understaffed and Congress should use "the power of the purse" — "a major hammer that we are not using" — to hold them accountable. She turned one confirmation vote back on Sullivan, noting he voted to confirm former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whom Peltola called "one of the biggest stumbling blocks Alaska has ever seen."

Sullivan gave no ground on the credit. He said the Willow groundwork was laid before Peltola reached Congress and mocked her account of the meeting she prized: "My opponent claims one meeting with Joe Biden, which was actually an embarrassment. He was clueless." Willow only needed saving, he argued, because her "Lower 48 liberal allies came to power and worked to kill" it. The project's history gives both something to point to: Willow was approved under the first Trump administration, thrown out by a federal court in 2021, then cleared again after the Biden review — a stretch in which Sullivan and Murkowski pushed it for years before Peltola arrived, and Peltola was an active advocate during the final review.

Where they did align, the agreement came with an edge. Both back building a long-sought road out of King Cove through the Izembek refuge — but Sullivan used even that to needle her: "You can't empower the people who want to shut us down and then say, I don't want to shut you down." Peltola pressed a theme she carried throughout the forum: that Washington simply doesn't grasp Alaska. She called the project "a life and death issue for the people of Cold Bay" held up over wetlands, brushing aside the conservation objection as trivial: "it's a measly 11-mile gravel road."

The race is expected to be among the most expensive and closely watched in the country, with control of the Senate potentially at stake. Sullivan, seeking a third term, and Peltola, the former U.S. House member who would be the state's first Alaska Native senator, face off Nov. 3 in a ranked-choice general election.