KODIAK, Alaska — Incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) held their first head-to-head debate Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026 — a session hosted by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce and focused exclusively on Alaska’s fishing industry, The Hill reported. C-SPAN carried the Alaska U.S. Senate Fisheries Debate from Kodiak.

In a speed round, the candidates were asked about the effectiveness of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries. According to The Hill’s account of the C-SPAN feed, Peltola quickly raised her paddle to “no.” Sullivan paused for a few moments, appeared to glance at her paddle, then flipped his to “no” as well. After the debate, Peltola posted on X: “Happy to help, Dan.”

Peltola tied fishermen’s costs to the wider energy shock from the Iran war. “This is the number one cost for all fishermen, this war in Iran is driving up our gas and diesel prices,” she said during the debate, per The Hill.

Sullivan’s opening priority, as quoted by The Hill, was trade enforcement against foreign trawl fleets: start “with the ban on the bad actors, banning Russian and Chinese trawl caught fish coming into the United States.”

That fisheries-only framing tracks the industry’s weight in Alaska’s economy — and the heat on the federal managers who set the rules. NOAA Fisheries has reported that Alaska’s seafood industry suffered a $1.8 billion loss across 2022–2023, with profitability down nearly 50 percent. Separately, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative says Alaska was the country’s largest seafood-exporting state in 2025, shipping more than $2.5 billion in domestic seafood exports abroad.

The Senate seat is a national toss-up. Cook Political Report moved the race into Toss Up in July 2026; Decision Desk HQ likewise rates it a Toss Up while narrowly favoring Peltola in its forecast model. On fundraising, the Anchorage Daily News, citing second-quarter FEC filings, reported Peltola raised about $6.9 million from April through June versus about $2 million for Sullivan — though Sullivan still held more cash on hand at the start of July (about $8.3 million to Peltola’s $6.1 million).

Saturday’s Kodiak debate put federal fishery councils, NOAA, fuel costs, and foreign trawl imports on the same stage — a reminder that Alaska’s Senate race is being fought as much over who runs the water as who holds the seat.

Dated Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026: Sullivan and Peltola’s first head-to-head Alaska Senate debate, hosted in Kodiak and focused only on fisheries, drew a shared “no” on NOAA/council effectiveness, clashing answers on diesel costs and Russian/Chinese trawl imports, and fresh attention on a Cook/DDHQ toss-up race.

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