Mary Sattler Peltola[1][b] (born August 31, 1973) is an American politician and former tribal judge who served as the U.S. representative from Alaska's at-large congressional district from 2022 to 2025.

A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as a judge on the Orutsararmiut Native Council's tribal court, executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Bethel city councilor, and member of the Alaska House of Representatives.

Peltola defeated Republican former Governor Sarah Palin and Republican Alaska Policy Forum board member Nick Begich III in an upset in the August 2022 special election to succeed Don Young, who had died that March.

[18][19] Peltola's father, Ward Sattler, a German-American from Nebraska, moved to Alaska to work as a pilot and teacher.

[20] As a college student, she worked as a herring and salmon technician for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

In the competition, she performed two Yup'ik dances and wore traditional clothing, including a squirrel skin parka, wolf hair headdress, and mukluks.

[4] Peltola worked as the campaign manager for Ivan's challenger, Independent candidate Willie Kasayulie, in the general election.

[4] In 1998, Peltola was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives,[4] after a successful rematch against Ivan in the Democratic primary.

[28] In the House, Peltola served on various standing committees, including Finance, Resources and Health and Social Services.

[4][29] In 2004, Peltola criticized No Child Left Behind Act rules that would impede continuing the practice of administering tests in some western Alaskan schools in the native Yupik language.

[30] Peltola authored a law which allowed teachers to be given exemption from jury duty if they work at schools that had failed to meet adequate annual progress.

Senator Lisa Murkowski lost her party's primary, Peltola helped run her successful write-in campaign.

[34][35] In 2022 Alaska's at-large congressional district special election was conducted under the newly established ranked-choice voting system to fill the seat of Don Young after his death.

Al Gross, an independent in third place in the primary, dropped out of the ranked choice runoff, leaving two Republicans, former governor Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III.

[35] Three Alaska voters filed a losing suit to challenge the decision not to allow Republican Tara Sweeney, the fifth placer in the primary, to advance to the runoff.

(Votes cast for her as the second-place choice on ballots of the eliminated third-place candidate, Nick Begich III, were added to her total.

After other candidates were eliminated, the final round resulted in Begich receiving 51.3% of the vote against Peltola's 48.7%, making him the winner.

[54][55] In February 2023, Peltola announced that she had chosen Josh Revak, a former Republican state senator who was a competitor in the 2022 special election, to run her Alaska office.

[62][63][64] Peltola supports the ConocoPhillips Willow Project and increased oil development within the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska.

Referring to the bill's focus on the transgender community, Peltola stated, "I don't know why on earth as adults and national leaders, we'd be piling on and targeting them and trying to make their lives even harder.

[82][83] Her third husband, Eugene "Buzzy" Peltola Jr., served as Alaska director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.