Lower 48ers may not understand

We deserve a senator who knows that fishing isn’t just a hobby – it’s who we are.

On the Kusko, a baby’s first solid food is salmon strips. I know because I was born here in Alaska and raised on the Kuskokwim River, where we have always depended on salmon. For me and for so many Alaskans, fishing is our way of life.

I grew up salmon fishing here with my father, and when I was 14, I became a commercial fishing permit holder. Decades later, I’m still spending long days putting up fish at fish camp every summer, only now it’s my kids and grandkids beside me.

I want my kids, grandkids, and future generations to inherit the same Alaska I knew growing up. A place of abundance. But unfortunately, that Alaska is slipping away.

The fish that used to fill our freezers are smaller and harder to find, and the communities that depend on them are suffering. When I started fishing on the Kusko, six salmon returned for every spawning fish. Today, the return rate is less than one.

The truth is, out-of-state factory trawlers and excessive bycatch are hurting Alaska. They are sweeping up more than 140 million pounds of bycatch every year and damaging our fisheries. But instead of reining in corporate trawlers, folks in DC are giving into their pressure. And Alaska subsistence, sport, and family commercial fishing are being hurt while the corporations doing the damage are being protected.

This is just one of too many examples of the corruption that’s taken over DC and is bleeding Alaska dry. The politicians that are supposed to represent us – including my opponent – are instead doing the bidding of corporate trawlers and the other Lower 48 special interests who fund their campaigns. They’re trading stocks and taking meetings with the same CEOs driving up our costs and draining our rivers of fish. And their self-dealing is hurting Alaskans.

My opponent Dan Sullivan has accepted nearly $400,000 in donations from the trawling industry. My Senate campaign has taken $0.

Over the past few months, I’ve spoken with Alaskans from Ketchikan to Fairbanks. I’ve talked with Elders in tears about their empty fish racks, and families stretching paychecks so thin you can see through them – just to afford the skyrocketing cost of gas and groceries.

From Juneau to Utqiaġvik, our state is struggling. Prices keep rising. Every Alaskan is feeling the weight of crushing costs, and no one in DC is doing anything about it.

We can ban factory trawling and restore our fisheries – but it starts with sending leaders to DC who actually know what it’s like to live here and to rely on fishing to feed our families.

We can bring down the cost of groceries, fuel, healthcare, childcare, and housing – but it starts with fixing the rigged system in DC that rewards self-preservation over service and puts corporate special interests in the driver’s seat instead of Alaskans.

I’m running for Senate to do just that. As an independent voice for Alaska, I will stand up to anyone to lower costs, restore abundance, and put Alaska first – but I need your support to get there. If you can, any amount that you are able to contribute today will go a long way toward helping us win what’s shaping up to be the most competitive Senate race in the country.

This is our home. Alaska is worth fighting for, and I’m grateful to be in the fight alongside you to put Alaska first, save our fish, lower costs, and restore abundance.

It means more than I can say.

- Mary