Mary Peltola missed 794 of 4,265 votes in the Alaska House of Representatives, 22 of 60 Bethel City Council meetings, and 235 of 1,370 recorded roll-call votes in Congress. Her record now follows her into another run for federal office, where the attendance totals are likely to shape how voters judge her service.
Across five terms from 1999 through 2009, she served in the Alaska House under the names Mary Sattler, Mary Kapsner, Mary Sattler Kapsner, Mary Nelson, Mary Sattler-Nelson, and Mary Peltola. In the 23rd Alaska Legislature in 2003 and 2004, she missed 334 of 1,019 votes, and the full Alaska House total came to 18.6%.
Bethel City Council records
From 2011 through 2013, Peltola served on the Bethel City Council and missed 22 of 60 meetings. She missed 11 of 32 meetings in 2012 and 9 of 22 in 2013, a pattern that turns council attendance into a concrete record rather than a general complaint.
The campaign says the raw state legislative numbers are unfair because three of her children were born while she was serving in the Alaska House and she took maternity leave. On the council side, the campaign said, “Peltola spent summers fishing and some meetings conflicted with that activity.”
Congress and primary bills
In Congress, where she served from mid-2022 through 2024 after Don Young’s death and before Nick Begich replaced her, Peltola missed 235 of 1,370 recorded roll-call votes. That is 17.2%, compared with a median of approximately 2.2% among House members serving at the end of 2024.
Her congressional tenure also produced no bills or resolutions for which she was a primary sponsor that became law. That leaves the attendance numbers as part of the broader record voters can check against her bid for another federal office.
Mary Peltola in Alaska
The unresolved part is narrow but important: which specific votes, meetings, or sponsored measures were missed or failed is not identified here. Voters weighing her next race have the totals, the time periods, and the campaign’s explanations; what they do not have is a line-by-line list of every absence tied to a single decision.
