Congress
Republican Begich unseats Peltola in Alaska House race
Alaska Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola lost her reelection campaign Wednesday, a little more than two years after she unexpectedly flipped the Republican-held seat.
Peltola lost to Republican challenger Nick Begich III, a businessman and grandson of former Sen. Nick Begich (D). The winner ended up with 51 percent of the vote after more ballots were counted and the state applied its rank choice voting process.
Peltola got to Congress following a 2022 special election following Republican Rep. Don Young’s death. She flipped the seat from Republican control on a centrist message that included promoting fisheries, natural resources and abortion rights, among other priorities; she made “Fish, Family, Freedom” a campaign motto.
She continued to push fishery priorities through a seat on the Natural Resources Committee. But some of her conservative or centrist positions on natural resources ruffled feathers within the Democratic Party.
One of Peltola’s priorities was to get the Biden administration to permit the Willow Project, a major oil and gas endeavor in Alaska.
“It was frustrating to hear [the Willow] project referred to as a carbon bomb,” she told Blue Light News’s E&E News last year.
“When, actually, the carbon bomb has been on the demand side,” she continued. “The folks who were saying that about this project came from districts where every single day the mere existence of their district is a carbon bomb.”
She made Willow and other actions on natural resources a central part of her reelection campaign.
“Because of the role that I’ve played within the delegation … we saw Willow get approved for a second time,” Peltola said in a debate. “We saw a president go back on his campaign promise, ignore his senior most advisers … because I was able to make compelling and convincing and winning arguments for the development of this project.”
She voted with Republicans on matters like EPA regulations, mining development and environmentally focused investing.
In one case, Peltola co-sponsored legislation to open up drilling rights in the Arctic but went on to oppose and vote against it, saying it would nullify conservation protections.
Begich appears poised to mainly stick with Republicans on issues around energy and natural resources. At the debates with Peltola, he avoided answering a question on climate change, instead calling for easing regulations on insurers, and said he would be better at representing Alaska’s interests, like supporting the Donlin gold mine, which Peltola initially opposed but now supports.
A former state lawmaker, Peltola was buoyed in both the 2022 special and general elections by ranked choice voting, which was new to Alaska. In both races, Begich and former Gov. Sarah Palin (R) split the Republican vote, and enough voters ranked Peltola second that she was victorious, a result that angered GOP leaders.
In the 2024 race, the other Republican to advance from the primary, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, dropped out, uniting the GOP behind Begich.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to cut the House schedule short won’t affect one late-September congressional spectacle: Multiple members said Thursday that the Congressional Women’s Softball Game will proceed as planned on Sept. 23.
The event, which pits a team of women members against an all-media team, is a fundraiser for the benefit Young Survival Coalition, a group supporting young women diagnosed with breast cancer.
“It’s the only day we can play,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), a captain of the member team. “We’re playing in Audi Field, and yeah, members are coming back.”
Leon Black, a billionaire investor with ties to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, declined to show up for his scheduled transcribed interview Thursday with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee — choosing instead to file a lawsuit calling the panel’s subpoenas for his participation “invalid.”
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that the subpoenas served to Black compelling his testimony and demanding he turn over certain non-disclosure agreements go beyond the committee’s “delegated authority in seeking private information that bears no legitimate connection to [the committee’s] legislative purpose.”
Black’s escalation is likely to trigger a corresponding dramatic response from the Oversight Committee, where Republicans are still endeavoring to show they are taking their Epstein investigation seriously more than a year since its launch.
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said that Black’s deposition will move forward with an empty chair this morning and that he will talk to his members about next steps.
“It’s a shame Leon Black is hiding behind litigation rather than provide answers to the American people,” Comer said in a statement. “Our investigation is examining how the federal government for decades failed survivors of Jeffery Epstein and [co-conspirator] Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes and how Mr. Epstein sought to curry favor with influential individuals to avoid scrutiny. Mr. Black’s testimony is crucial to our investigation as he was one of Mr. Epstein’s fee paying clients and has several nondisclosure agreements.”
Democrats are also eager to send a strong message that those who defy the panel now won’t be spared if the party retakes control of the House in 2027.
“By refusing to testify today, Leon Black is now defying two Congressional subpoenas. Black gave Jeffrey Epstein over $180 million over six years. He funded Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of women. Multiple women have also accused Black of sexual assault,” said Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the Oversight Committee’s top Democrat who is poised to take the gavel if Republicans lose their majority in the midterms.
“His connections to Epstein and his unwillingness to cooperate are unacceptable,” Garcia continued. “We must hold him in contempt immediately.”
Black, who founded Apollo Global Management, appeared in a closed door session with the Oversight Committee earlier this summer to discuss his association with Epstein. As a result of that meeting, Black was slapped with a subpoena to produce certain non-disclosure agreements he signed with women tied to Epstein and told to come back for a second grilling.
The panel has been counting on the NDAs to shed further light on how Epstein and his network were able to sexually exploit women and girls and evade liability for decades.
Black has since produced one NDA between himself and a woman with whom he had an affair and to whom he paid $9.5 million. Comer called that insufficient, demanding Black turn over the others and threatening to pursue contempt proceedings if Black did not cooperate.
Black’s attorneys contend the subpoenas “would … expose women who value their privacy, who have no known or public connection to Epstein, who bargained for confidentiality and have refused to release it, and who have no ability to protect themselves and their privacy before the Committee.”
Susan Estrich, one of Black’s lawyers, in a statement accused the Oversight Committee of going on “a fishing expedition that oversteps its authority and completely ignores its responsibility. This is no longer about finding the truth about Epstein. It is about trying to destroy Mr. Black. We were left with no choice but to file this lawsuit in response to an abuse of Congressional power.”
Estrich added that Black continues to deny his knowledge of Epstein’s misconduct and “feels terrible for Epstein’s victims.”
Republican leaders are set to announce Thursday that the final two weeks of the pre-election House session are canceled, according to two people granted anonymity to describe the decision ahead of a public announcement.
That means members are set to depart Washington no later than Sept. 17 and not return until mid-November. The House will recovene for one additional week of business after next week’s Labor Day break.
Leaders would recall the House for those canceled weeks if the Senate moves forward with a party-line budget reconciliation package in the meantime, the people said.
The decision comes as candidates agitate to get back on the campaign trail and as GOP leaders continue to struggle to maintain control of the House floor. Earlier this week, a procedural measure setting up votes on several Republican bills was poised to fail until two Democrats voted in favor, rescuing Speaker Mike Johnson’s agenda for the week.
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