This story was originally published by The 19th.

This story was originally reported by Grace Panetta of The 19th. Meet Grace and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.

Former Rep. Mary Peltola is challenging GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska, potentially putting a tough race in reach for Democrats.

Peltola, a Democrat who served one term as Alaska’s at-large U.S. House representative from 2022 to 2025, was widely seen as a prized top recruit for the race and for national Democrats, who have an uphill battle to reclaim control of the U.S. Senate in 2026.

Peltola, the first Alaska Native person elected to Congress, focused on supporting Alaska’s fisheries while in office.

“My agenda for Alaska will always be fish, family and freedom,” Peltola said in her announcement video Monday. “But our future also depends on fixing the rigged system in D.C. that’s shutting down Alaska while politicians feather their own nest.”

“It’s about time Alaskans teach the rest of the country what Alaska first and really, America first, looks like,” she added.

A 2025 survey by progressive pollster Data for Progress, which regularly polls Alaska voters, found that Peltola has the highest approval rating of any elected official in the state. She narrowly lost reelection to Republican Rep. Nick Begich in 2024.

Elections in Alaska are conducted with top-four nonpartisan primaries and ranked-choice general elections. In the Data for Progress poll, 46 percent of voters said they would rank Sullivan first and 45 percent said they would rank Peltola first in a matchup for U.S. Senate. Sullivan won reelection by a margin of 13 points in 2020.

Republicans control the Senate by a three-seat majority, 53 to 47, and senators serve six-year terms, meaning a third of the Senate is up every election cycle. For Democrats to win back the chamber in 2026, they’d need to hold competitive seats in states like Georgia and Michigan while flipping four GOP-held seats in Maine, North Carolina and even more Republican-leaning states like Alaska, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) – Growing food during the Alaskan winter requires a lot of energy use, but research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) aims to use existing technologies to make the process more efficient and allow more gardeners to cultivate plants year-round.

This research ultimately comes with the goal of increasing local food production in the Interior, leading to greater food security.

“We don’t want to be dependent on other regions because you never know what can happen. We can be cut off and then food security becomes really important that we can sustain ourselves with what we can grow locally,” said Professor of Horticulture Meriam Karlsson.

UAF is hosting an hourlong seminar starting at noon on Tuesday to show members of the community where their research into light-emitting diode (LED) technology has taken them.

“There is a lot of technology and new innovations that are being developed, but not necessarily for growing plants,” Karlsson explained, “so we need to be observant and take advantage of what’s being developed in other areas, engineering and marketing, and all these other areas as well.”

These lights, which are able to be purchased by anyone, tend to be more efficient than older technology in generating light, which is a necessity for many plants to grow.

“Of course, up here, we don’t have much natural light at this time of the year, so we do need to have supplemental lighting, and that has become much more affordable… In the past, it really cost a lot of money and took a lot of energy,” Karlsson said, who is presenting the seminar.

She added that LED lights also allow for more control of the quality and spectrum of light emitted, and the university has been researching which factors are ideal for plant growth.

“It’s very different for plants depending on if we are trying to find crops that will produce… leafy greens or microgreens or just have the vegetative parts or the leaves versus reproductive and flowering because flowering often have very specific requirements, both in form of light quality and the day length,” Karlsson explained.

Currently, the university is growing fruits, vegetables and flowers at its Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station Greenhouse, attached to the Arctic Health Research Building.

With the knowledge gained, Karlsson hopes the growing season in the Interior could be expanded for both those in the industry and those who grow in their home.

“We can do it commercially, but also there is a lot of applications and a lot of opportunities for gardeners or those who want to grow something in the winter, even in their kitchen or their garage or their basement, because some of this technology can be adapted and used in all kinds of different sizes of production,” she said.

The seminar, part of a monthly series covering issues with agriculture in circumpolar regions, is open to UAF students as well as the general community, with both in-person and online attendance provided, and is expected to be available online sometime after it is completed.

Karlsson said the university is also planning a conference for a couple of years from now, dealing with agriculture in polar regions to expand collaboration with other arctic nations.

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Democrats are going after Alaska’s Senate race this year, and they’ve landed probably the only candidate that can make it competitive: Mary Peltola.

The former congresswoman on Monday jumped into the race against GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, adding yet another hard-fought campaign to what Democrats hope is shaping up to be a wave year that could carry them in red states like Alaska.

Peltola certainly doesn’t sound like a typical Democratic candidate as she starts her bid: She’s proposing term limits, is campaigning on “fish, family and freedom,” and has already name-dropped former Republican officials in her state multiple times.

“Ted Stevens and Don Young ignored lower 48 partisanship to fight for things like public media and disaster relief because Alaska depends on them,” Peltola says in her launch video, referencing the former GOP senator and House member, respectively.

“DC people will be pissed that I’m focusing on their self-dealing, and sharing what I’ve seen firsthand. They’re going to complain that I’m proposing term limits. But it’s time,” she says.

Peltola is clearly appealing to the state’s ranked choice voting system and its unique electorate, which elevated moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, over a candidate supported by President Donald Trump. The last Democrat to win an Alaska Senate race was Mark Begich in 2008, though Peltola won the state’s at-large seat twice — even defeating former Gov. Sarah Palin.

Sullivan defeated Begich in 2014, followed by independent Al Gross in 2020; Sullivan also recently voted to extend expired health care subsidies, a sign of the state’s independent streak.