In Alaska’s tossup Senate race, Democrat Mary Peltola has put out a new ad misleadingly accusing Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of casting “the deciding vote” to keep the Epstein files “hidden.” While Sullivan voted against considering an amendment to an otherwise unrelated bill that would have released the files earlier, he, like the rest of the Senate, supported a bill to make the records public.
The Peltola ad also seeks to tie Sullivan to the late convicted sex offender through donations from “Epstein associates.” The Peltola campaign points to donations from two people to Sullivan’s campaign who were either listed in Epstein’s contact list or are referenced in Epstein emails that have been publicly released. Neither is alleged to have committed any crimes in connection with Epstein.
The ad also criticizes Sullivan for taking money from a man accused of sex trafficking. Sullivan did accept small campaign donations from a Republican political operative accused in February of sex trafficking. But the donations came before the charges had come to light. And soon after the man’s arrest, the Sullivan campaign donated the contributions to a local charity.
Meanwhile, the Sullivan campaign put out a press release on Aug. 10 highlighting a news story from a conservative publication that claims Peltola has accepted more than $140,000 in campaign contributions from “associates of Jeffrey Epstein.” But none of the alleged “associates” have been charged with any crimes, and some of them — while mentioned in various investigative records or Epstein email chains — have tangential associations with Epstein.
Attempting to link political opponents to Epstein has been a frequent campaign tactic this political season from candidates of both parties.
Peltola, who served for two and a half years in the House, is challenging Sullivan for his Senate seat. An open “jungle” primary guided by Alaska’s ranked-choice voting will be held on Aug. 18. The top four vote-getters will advance to the November general election. The race is rated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report.
Sullivan’s Votes on Release of Epstein Files
The narrator in the Peltola ad asks, “Who’s the real Dan Sullivan? Sullivan claimed the Epstein files should be released, but when it came time to vote, Sullivan cast the deciding vote to keep them hidden.”
The ad focuses on Sullivan’s Sept. 10 vote to table an amendment Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer proposed to a National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment sought to compel the attorney general to make “publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to the investigations of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein recruit, groom and abuse minors.
Despite having said during the 2024 presidential campaign that he would have “no problem” making the Epstein files public, by the summer of 2025, Trump sought to tamp down calls for release of the files.
“I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody,” Trump said on July 15, 2025. “It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring. And I don’t understand why it keeps going.” He said it was “only pretty bad people, including fake news” that wanted to keep the issue alive.
Later that same month, Amanda Coyne, a spokesperson for Sullivan, released a prepared statement saying, “President Trump directed the DOJ and AG Bondi to release grand jury transcripts related to the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein. Senator Sullivan believes the DOJ should release as much information as possible on Epstein’s horrific crimes, while protecting victims.”
Sullivan’s vote in September helped deny Schumer’s amendment from moving forward to debate. The final vote, which came down mostly along partisan lines, was 51-49 to table the motion.
Sullivan released a statement at the time, saying in part that he “has repeatedly said that he believes the DOJ should release as much information as possible on Epstein’s horrific crimes, while protecting survivors.” The statement added, “Chuck Schumer tried slipping the Epstein provision into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), knowing full well it would be stripped out as the bill went through the process, leaving no doubt he’s using Epstein’s atrocious crimes as a political pawn.”
Legislators in the House, including several Republicans, continued to push for release of the Epstein files — which Trump initially attempted to thwart. But Trump ultimately relented and on Nov. 16 posted on Truth Social that he would not oppose legislation to release the Epstein files because “we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics. … I DON’T CARE! All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”
On Nov. 18, the House passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act that required “the Department of Justice (DOJ) to publish (in a searchable and downloadable format) all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in DOJ’s possession that relate to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein.” And a day later, on Nov. 19, the bill passed in the Senate via unanimous consent. So, Sullivan ultimately supported the release of the files. That day, Trump signed it into law.
Donations from Epstein ‘Associates’
The Peltola ad goes on to say that “shortly after voting against releasing the files, Sullivan received nearly $10,000 from two known Epstein associates.”
According to the Peltola campaign, the ad refers to two donations. The largest of the two is an $8,500 donation made by Henry Kravis, the founder of the private equity firm KKR, to the Sullivan Victory committee on April 1. Vanity Fair reported in 2019 that Kravis showed up in Epstein’s so-called “little black book” of names and contact information kept by Epstein. Although his name comes up in some of the Epstein emails released by the Department of Justice, he has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
The second donation referenced in the Peltola ad is a $693 donation made by real estate magnate Howard Lorber to Alaskans for Dan Sullivan on June 28. Lorber is referenced in emails from the released Epstein files related to some real estate deals contemplated by Epstein. The left-leaning Meidas News highlighted one email released by the House Oversight Committee in which Epstein in 2018 suggested Lorber as one of a handful of “heavy hitters” for his proposed “war council” to help Trump in his response to the Russia collusion investigation. But there is no evidence that such a “war council” ever materialized, or that Lorber ever participated. Nor has Lorber ever been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
While the ad notes that these donations came after Sullivan’s September 2025 vote against the Schumer amendment to compel the release of the Epstein files, they also came after Sullivan voted — along with all other members of the Senate — for the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025.
Donations from Man Later Accused of Sex Trafficking
The ad goes on to say, “Even worse, Sullivan also took money from a political insider arrested on charges of sex trafficking.”
On Feb. 20, the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Alaska announced the arrest of Craig Scott Valdez on charges related to using “the popular social media application Snapchat to identify, groom and entice juvenile females in Alaska for the purposes of sexual exploitation.”
At the time of his arrest, Valdez was the chief of staff for Republican Alaska state Sen. George Rauscher.
Valdez was charged with one count each of sex trafficking of children; sexual exploitation of children (production of child pornography); coercion and enticement of children; and receipt of child pornography.
Federal Election Commission records show Valdez contributed a total of $149 to Sullivan’s Senate campaign — $100 in August 2024 and $49 in September 2025.
The later contribution came five months before Valdez was charged in February 2026. Upon learning of the arrest, Sullivan’s campaign told us it donated Valdez’s contributions to the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault. FEC records show a donation from the campaign to the charity on Feb. 27.
Sullivan’s Counter Accusations
A post on Sullivan’s campaign website highlights an article in the conservative publication Townhall, saying it alleges Peltola “has accepted more than $140,000 in campaign contributions from individuals the outlet identifies as associates of Jeffery Epstein across her campaigns for House and Senate.”
According to the Aug. 7 Townhall story, “One of those donors is Reid Hoffman, who visited Epstein’s island multiple times. Tim Zagat and his wife Nina also had social connections with Epstein, and Tim Zagat flew on Epstein’s private jet to a 2002 TED Conference in Monterey. They donated $13,000 to Peltola’s campaigns. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who attended dinners with Epstein at the invitation of Google co-founder Sergey Brin; he donated more than $6,000 to Peltola. Melissa French-Gates is the ex-wife of Bill Gates, who appeared numerous times in the Epstein files; she gave Peltola’s campaigns $9,500.”
As we have written, Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a well-known Democratic donor, had meetings with Epstein as late as 2018. He said this year that he knew Epstein “because of a fundraising relationship with MIT, which I very much regret.” Hoffman’s donations to Peltola came in 2023 and 2024, when Peltola was running for a House seat.
None of the “associates” listed in the story have been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
A spokesperson for the Peltola campaign said the donations highlighted by the Townhall article “fall into two buckets.”
The first is contributions made to Peltola’s “past congressional campaigns before the Epstein files were released.” And the second are “contributions from donors like Melinda Gates and Steven Spielberg who were only incidentally named in the files but were not actually associated with Epstein.”
The Peltola campaign told us it is in the process of donating Tim and Nina Zagat’s 2026 contribution to Tundra Women’s Coalition.
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