Longtime political commentator James Carville defended Alaska's Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate on Monday, saying staffers who complain about Democrats needed to put their heads down to "save the country." The allegations against Mary Peltola, the state's former congresswoman, included alleged use of slurs and angry outbursts, which her campaign defended as coming at a time when she was struggling with the losses of her mother and husband. While those reports drew widespread attention in political circles, it remains to be seen whether voters will take Carville's stance or be swayed by the anonymous allegations when making their choice in a key Senate race that could decide the balance of power in the country's top legislative chamber.
"Let’s stop this nonsense that everybody that works in politics is all equal and everyone’s opinion needs to be respected," Carville said in a video shared to his YouTube channel. "Oh s**t, I listen to all this nonsense online. But do me a favor, if you’re that f***ing delicate, if you’re that much of some kind of a honeysuckle or whatever it is, go do something else with your life, all right?
Don’t get into a rough-and-tumble, live-or-die, win-or-lose, winner-take-all business—because you’re too weak. You’re too soft." Carville ended the video by speaking to staffers, saying, "Just put your head down, work your a** off, save the country, and f**k your feelings!" Newsweek reached out to Peltola's campaign for comment Thursday afternoon. Since the allegations were published by The New York Times last week, publicly available data on voter sentiment appears unchanged.
The most recent indications come from prediction markets, with Polymarket showing Peltola with a 73 percent chance of winning the election over her Republican rival, incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan, although the lead took a slight hit in the past seven days. Kalshi also showed Peltola with a strong lead over Sullivan, at around 69 percent to 31 percent. Art Hackney, a longtime Alaskan political strategist and commentator, told Newsweek it was hard to tell whether the reports around Peltola's conduct would matter to voters at all.
"As a political/messaging consultant since the late 70s, the best answer is 'who the Hell knows!?'" Hackney said. "Mary Peltola has been known as a no-show hothead with no critical thinking abilities and no record of accomplishment for the last 20 years. But she has a great smile and a high level of favorability as a result." Hackney suggested Sullivan's recent record may outweigh the allegations, saying the senator had worked "with an increasingly unpopular President to achieve great progress on Alaska resource issues." The strategist said those achievements might outweigh being described as the president's "yes man." Recent polling, largely conducted before the Times article, also showed Peltola in the lead, although with a far narrower margin than on prediction markets.
RealClearPolitics' latest average showed the Democrat with 50.3 percent of the vote compared to 48 percent for Sullivan, while Pollsmax, another aggregator, put them at 49.7 percent and 47.1 percent respectively. "This election is balanced on the head of a pin and will be played out in the final two weeks as undecideds weigh the impact their vote will have on them personally," Hackney said. Peltola's campaign has continued to post frequently on social media about her policies and criticisms of Sullivan.
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