Alaska US Senate candidate Mary Peltola has rejected the support of Kamala Harris, her fellow Democrat, after the 2024 presidential candidate sent out a seemingly unsolicited fundraising appeal on Peltola’s behalf.

Harris, who lost Alaska – typically a Republican-voting state – by 13 points during her unsuccessful White House run, on Wednesday sent an email from her political organization to supporters of Peltola, a former US House member.

“If there’s anyone who can flip Alaska and secure the Senate majority for Democrats – it’s Mary,” the email, which was signed “Kamala Harris”, said. “But she cannot do it alone.”

It asked recipients to donate to Fight for the People Pac, which Harris set up last year. Donations would be split between Harris’s organization and Peltola, the email said.

It was a fairly innocuous message and didn’t explicitly endorse Peltola. But the unwanted help was swiftly batted away by the Alaskan’s campaign.

“Mary isn’t seeking endorsements from anyone from the Lower 48 – her focus is and always will be Alaska,” a Peltola spokesperson said in a statement to KTUU that invoked a term for the contiguous US. “That’s why she’s proud to have the endorsement of [the American Federation of Government Employees], the Alaska [American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations], the Alaska [International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers] Local 1547 and more than 10,000 Alaskans who have signed up to volunteer with the campaign.”

The campaign was right to be concerned because Peltola’s Republican opponent almost immediately used the email to try to tie Peltola – a moderate Democrat whose campaign has focused on Alaskan issues rather than party politics – to Harris.

“Kamala Harris supported the Biden administration’s disastrous anti-Alaska agenda, which is why Alaskans rejected her by double digits,” Nate Adams, a spokesperson for the Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan, said in a statement. “Alaskans can see exactly whose team Mary Peltola and Kamala Harris are on, and it isn’t Alaska’s.”

The episode suggests Harris remains a divisive figure within the Democratic party, even as the former vice-president weighs another run for president. Earlier this year, Harris, who also ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, left the door open when asked about her future ambitions.

“Listen, I might, I might. I’m thinking about it, I’m thinking about it,” Harris said, when US civil rights leader Al Sharpton asked if she was planning to run again.

Harris replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic 2024 presidential candidate after questions and concerns about Biden’s fitness as he initially ran for re-election became inescapable. With only 107 days to run her campaign, she lost the electoral college and the popular vote to Donald Trump to hand him a second presidency.