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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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Julie Fate Sullivan, the wife of Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, has accused Democratic challenger Mary Peltola of spreading "lies" about her family as the state's closely watched Senate race intensifies.
On Tuesday, in a video the incumbent senator posted on social media, Fate Sullivan defended the family's finances and condemned attacks related to stock holdings inherited after the deaths of her husband's parents.
"Mary Peltola's lies about our family have hit rock bottom. When Dan's parents died, they left their family some stocks. Now, Mary Peltola is using the deaths of my in-laws to lie about our family. Mary knows Dan is an honest man, but she's lying to you anyway just to win an election," Fate Sullivan said, adding that Peltola "should be ashamed."
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Sullivan's business dealings have been a point of vulnerability in his campaign, one that Peltola has used against him. In 2022, the Republican was found to have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, a transparency law introduced 10 years prior that requires federal lawmakers to disclose their stock trades.
According to reports by the Alaska Current, Sullivan is the Alaska congressional delegation's most active stock trader, and his trades have helped him triple his personal wealth during his two terms in the Senate. According to the Current, Sullivan has made an estimated $2 million in stock trades during his time in office.
Peltola, on the other hand, has actively campaigned on a platform supporting a ban on congressional stock trading, and her financial disclosures show no significant individual stock holdings.
On social media last month, the former congresswoman wrote, "It's time for leaders who are ready to set aside their own stock portfolio and personal wealth, and work for Alaskans."
The publication of the ad featuring Fate Sullivan, who has largely stayed out of the public spotlight during her husband's political career, was accompanied by the launch of a website, on which Sullivan's campaign disputes Peltola's claims.
Newsweek contacted the Sullivan and Peltola campaigns for comment by email on Wednesday.
Fate Sullivan's Rare Clash With Husband's Critics
Fate Sullivan, a former journalist, grew up in Alaska as part of a traditional Athabaskan family. Her mother, Mary Jane Fate, was co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives. Her father, Hugh "Bud" Fate, was a Republican state legislator and dentist.
The Sullivans have been married for 32 years, Fate Sullivan said in the video published on Tuesday. According to reports, the couple met while attending Georgetown Law and got married in 1994.
"We met while I was working for Senator Ted Stevens, and the first place I brought Dan was to my family's fish camp on the Yukon River. He fell hard for me—and for Alaska. And after Dan completed his active duty service in the Marines, we came home to Fairbanks to raise our family," Fate Sullivan said in a 2014 campaign ad for her husband.
The couple decided to move to Alaska in 1997 and raised their three daughters in the state.
Sullivan and his wife have appeared side by side on numerous occasions, with Fate Sullivan accompanying her husband at campaign events and during his swearing-in ceremony with then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2015 in Washington, D.C. While she has rarely taken the microphone to speak out for her husband, she has previously done so to highlight the Ohio-born politician's ties to Alaska.
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In another 2014 ad, Fate Sullivan hit back at Mark Begich, the Democratic incumbent who criticized Sullivan over his residency and tax history while he served in federal and military roles outside the state. "Alaskans respect military service. We don't attack it," Fate Sullivan said.
Despite his residency becoming a major issue during the 2014 Senate race, Sullivan won the election by 8,100 votes.
Fate Sullivan has otherwise kept a relatively low profile, appearing regularly in anniversary and Mother's Day social media posts published by Sullivan.
Peltola Leads in Polls, Race Shifts to ‘Likely D’ on Kalshi
Most of the latest polls show Sullivan trailing Peltola. The Alaska Survey Research gave the Democratic challenger nearly 50 percent of the vote over the Republican incumbent's 43.8 percent. The other two candidates in the general election—Republican Gerald Heikes and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., who is running as an independent—had 4 percent and 3.7 percent of the vote, respectively.
The survey was conducted among 1,352 likely Alaska voters between September 10 and 12 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
In a second round with only three candidates, the poll showed Peltola with 50 percent of the vote, Sullivan with 44.8 percent and Heikes with 5.1 percent. In a third hypothetical round between Peltola and the incumbent, the Democrat's share of the vote went up to 51.9 percent while Sullivan still trailed her with 48.1 percent.
A Fabrizio Ward/Impact Research poll conducted between September 8 and 11 among 800 likely voters showed Peltola ahead with 50 percent of the vote, followed by Sullivan with 43 percent.
Only a Co/efficient poll conducted between September 14 and 17 among 799 likely voters showed Sullivan ahead with 48 percent of the vote, followed by Peltola with 46 percent.
On the betting platform Kalshi, the Alaska Senate race has shifted to "Likely D" as traders expect Peltola to win the election on November 3.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Shakeema Edwards.
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