An ad from the campaign of Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska features a mother whose 22-year-old son died from fentanyl and who claims Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola took contributions from “liberals [who] opened our borders to the drug cartels” and then “voted with them against securing our border.”
But the ad leaves out several important points of context.
After saying that her son died from fentanyl, the mother, Sandy Snodgrass, says that “lower 48 liberals opened our borders to the drug cartels.” While the ad suggests a link between illegal immigration and her son’s death, experts — including government officials — say the vast majority of fentanyl coming into the U.S. is smuggled through legal ports of entry, mostly by American citizens.
As for Peltola voting with Democrats “against securing our border,” Peltola voted against a Republican bill in 2023 called the Secure the Border Act, which sought a return to many of the hardline border policies enacted by President Donald Trump during his first term. But the following year, Peltola was among a handful of Democrats who joined Republicans in support of a nearly identical bill. Setting aside the impact of either party’s border policies, Peltola often bucked her party when voting on immigration bills.
Peltola, a former U.S. House member, is attempting to unseat Sullivan, the Republican incumbent. The Cook Political Report lists the race as one of seven toss-ups that will decide control of the Senate.
The ad features a direct-to-camera message from Snodgrass, whose son, Bruce, died from fentanyl in 2021. Since her son’s death, Snodgrass has become a dogged advocate for legislative policies aimed at fentanyl prevention and raising awareness of the dangers of fentanyl.
Sullivan was a co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill Snodgrass fought for called “Bruce’s Law” — named in honor of her son — which seeks to enhance fentanyl education and prevention strategies, including an interagency work group to improve the federal response to the fentanyl epidemic. Peltola, who came to the House the year after Bruce Snodgrass’ death, was a co-sponsor of that same legislation in the House. The law was folded into a bill that ultimately passed into law in 2025.
“My only child Bruce was killed by fentanyl,” Snodgrass says in the Sullivan campaign ad. “Lower 48 liberals opened our borders to the drug cartels. Now the same people want Mary Peltola to be our senator. Peltola’s taken their money and voted with them against securing our border. That is disgraceful and dangerous. Mary Peltola is liberal and weak. We cannot leave our children’s safety in her hands.”
As we said, the ad is missing important context.
When we asked the Sullivan campaign for backup for the ad, a spokesperson pointed us to Peltola’s 2023 vote against the Secure the Border Act, a Republican bill that aimed to implement many of the same border policies from Trump’s first term, such as restarting construction of border wall, increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, enhancing technology at the border to slow illegal immigration and ending the so-called “catch-and-release” policy whereby some immigrants caught in the U.S. without proper documentation were released back into the U.S. while they awaited an immigration court hearing (often to determine whether they qualified for asylum).
To be clear, while the bill sought to crack down on illegal immigration, opposition was not a vote for “open borders,” as text in the ad states.
The Secure the Border Act passed the House almost entirely along party lines (of those who voted, all but two Republicans voted for it; every Democrat, including Peltola, voted against it). But victory in the Republican-majority House was largely symbolic, as the bill never came up in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
However, through the remainder of her term in the House, Peltola proved to be anything but a reliable Democratic vote on border security and immigration issues.
Indeed, the following year, on April 20, 2024, when Republican leadership again attempted a similar bill to the Secure the Border Act, Peltola was among five Democrats — and every Republican present — who voted in favor of it. The End the Border Catastrophe Act was proposed through a fast-track procedure that required a two-thirds majority to pass. It failed, 215-199.
“No one can deny we face an ongoing crisis at our Southern border,” Peltola said in a press release at the time. “Currently, fentanyl flows across it and all the way up to Alaska, where it continues to tear families and communities apart. We must take real action to address our ongoing border crisis – that’s why I voted to pass this measure and stop cartels in their tracks.”
That same day, Peltola voted along with majorities of both parties in support of the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act, which, among other things, declared the international trafficking of fentanyl a national emergency and took measures to prevent its transport into the U.S.
Peltola also broke ranks with a majority of Democrats on border/immigration issues when she:
- Voted along with five other Democrats on Nov. 30, 2023, for the Protecting our Communities from Failure to Secure the Border Act, which sought to block the Biden administration from using federal lands as migrant camps for immigrants in the country illegally.
- Voted on Jan. 17, 2024, along with 13 other House Democrats and every Republican, in favor of a nonbinding resolution denouncing the Biden administration’s border enforcement efforts, and “urg[ing] President Biden to end his administration’s open-borders policies.”
- Voted on March 7, 2024, in favor of the Laken Riley Act — which required the federal detention of immigrants in the country illegally who are accused of theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting.
- Voted on May 15, 2024, with 53 other Democrats in support of a bill that would mandate the Department of Homeland Security to take custody of and deport any immigrant in the country illegally charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer or other first responder.
- Voted on May 15, 2024, along with just 14 other Democrats in favor of a nonbinding resolution condemning the Biden administration’s border policies.
- Voted on Sept. 20, 2024, in support of the No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act, which sought to cut off some federal funds for so-called sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
“Time and time again, Mary was one of few members in her party to call out Joe Biden for his failures at the southern border,” a spokesperson for the Peltola campaign told us.
As we have written, illegal immigration surged to historic highs during Biden’s presidency. In June 2024, Biden announced a series of emergency policies designed to curb “substantial levels of migration” due to “global conditions.” Illegal immigration dropped dramatically for the remainder of Biden’s presidency.
At the time of Biden’s announced crackdown on illegal immigration, Peltola and three other Democrats in the House released a statement calling Biden’s orders “an overdue step,” and urging the president to do more.
“We’ve long demanded President Biden change course and empower the Border Patrol, and he’s finally acting and listening to the law enforcement agents in the field, like we’ve been telling him to do,” the statement reads.
The four Democrats implored Biden to return to the Trump policy of requiring immigrants to wait in another country while their immigration cases are pending in the U.S. And they called on Congress to pass legislation to reinstate the use of Title 42, a public health law invoked by Trump during the pandemic that allowed border officials to immediately return many of those caught trying to enter the country illegally, even those who sought asylum.
Fentanyl Smuggling
The ad ties Bruce Snodgrass’ death to the issue of migrants smuggling fentanyl across the border — it says “liberals … opened our borders to the drug cartels.” But experts say the vast majority of fentanyl coming into the U.S. is smuggled through legal ports of entry, mostly by American citizens.
In testimony presented to the Senate on Nov. 17, 2021, Diane Sabatino, deputy executive assistant commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations, said, “Most illicit fentanyl is synthesized in Mexico and like other illicit drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamine, large volumes are encountered and seized at our southwest border ports of entry. It is brought in by privately owned vehicles, concealed within commercial vehicles, and even on pedestrian travelers. Although much less frequently now, we also encounter fentanyl and other synthetic opioids in international mail and express consignment shipments.”
“Our investigations do tell us that the vast majority of fentanyl is coming in the ports of entry,” Anne Milgram, then administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said in Senate testimony on Feb. 15, 2023. (At the 1:25:35 mark.)
According to a Government Accountability Office report on Sept. 4, 2025, “[M]ost of the fentanyl, chemicals, and equipment used to make it are coming in from Mexico or China. About 80% of fentanyl was seized in the southwest border region. Most of the illicit drug is coming across U.S. borders in passenger vehicles. The chemicals used to make fentanyl are largely being transported via commercial vehicles like cargo trucks, ships, and planes. And nearly half of the equipment used to make fentanyl pills is being sent by mail. “
According to an analysis by the American Immigration Council, “There is little evidence to suggest migrants are bringing fentanyl across the border on foot—or that migration is linked to fentanyl at all. While some have speculated that high levels of irregular migration provide an opportunity for drug smuggling (on the logic that border agents are distracted), the data provides no support for this theory. Migration has risen and fallen with no correlation between drug seizures.”
Citing data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the report states that “the majority of fentanyl smuggled across the southern border enters not on the backs of migrants crossing the border on foot, but in the vehicles and on the bodies of U.S. citizens and other lawful entrants seeking admission at land ports of entry.”
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