Two Dan Sullivans on an Alaska Ballot, and the Fight Over Who Gets to Confuse the Voters

The name on the ballot

Alaska’s ranked-choice Senate ballot this fall carries two men named Dan Sullivan. One is the incumbent Republican senator, Dan S. Sullivan, two-term holder of the seat, listed as Sullivan, Dan S. (Registered Republican) Incumbent. The other is Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher with no prior political experience, listed as Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr., with no party affiliation. They sat side by side on the general election ballot after a long, public legal fight to get there. The story began in late May, when Daniel J. Sullivan officially declared his candidacy. Sen. Dan Sullivan objected immediately, calling him a sham candidate whose purpose was to confuse Alaskans and rig the vote in favor of Democrat Mary Peltola. Acting on a complaint from the state GOP, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom opened an investigation into the legitimacy of his campaign.

She wrote to him that she was troubled by the allegation that he filed for office in coordination with another campaign with the intention of confusing voters. Daniel J. Sullivan replied that the allegations were entirely false. He said he was running as a Republican under his lawfully given name, a name shared with his father and grandfather, and that he had had no conversations with the Peltola campaign. On June 15, Carol Beecher, director of the state’s Division of Elections, determined that the preponderance of evidence did not support his eligibility to run, concluding his bid was not an actual good-faith candidacy but was filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead. The decision was overturned. On June 27, Alaska Superior Court Judge Thomas A.

Matthews ruled that the Division’s decision to exclude him was based on a good-faith requirement that does not appear in the Constitution, the Alaska Statutes, or implementing regulations. The ruling was affirmed by the state Supreme Court, where justices repeatedly returned to the idea of differentiation, with middle initials, and Chief Justice Susan Carney said the Division had chosen the most extreme remedy possible. Daniel J. Sullivan was among 16 candidates on the Aug. 18 primary. The top four advanced to the general election, with Peltola leading the field.

The story that set off the storm

Calm in Alaska politics broke on Oct. 28, when The New York Times published an investigation into an alleged recruitment effort tied to Peltola’s campaign. The paper said staffers for Peltola spent months recruiting candidates named Dan Sullivan to peel votes from the incumbent. The rumor was fueled by Elisa Rios, a former staffer and campaign manager for Peltola who had been recently fired. Rios claimed top campaign aides instructed her to find as many people named Dan Sullivan as they could in Alaska and convince them to run for Senate, causing confusion among voters and possibly costing the incumbent crucial votes. The Times said it reviewed text messages and conducted numerous interviews with Rios and 12 people who participated in the alleged plan, knew about it, or were would-be candidates.

Shortly before publication, Rios attempted to retract her statements, the newspaper reported, and she was planning to file a wrongful-termination lawsuit against the Peltola campaign. The Times kept her statements in the story. The report named an operative said to be involved. Jerid Kurtz, an Ohio native, reportedly posed as a man named Zane and approached people to try to convince them to run or to drop out. He used an email that included the word buckeye, a reference to Ohio. Rios also alleged that Jacquelyn Lopez, an attorney for the Peltola campaign, was involved in efforts to create a right-wing state party that could challenge the incumbent Republican senator. The Peltola campaign denied being involved in Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy.

Jim Lottsfeldt, a local political consultant aligned with super PACs supporting Peltola, called Rios a source of disgruntled, anti-Mary Peltola stuff that he thinks is often not true. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also denied participating in such a project, though the Times said it had reviewed texts and documents showing otherwise. Peltola herself addressed the allegations on Thursday, speaking to supporters in Juneau, Alaska’s capital. She said she wanted to clear the air. I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters, she said.

A prosecutor walks into the room

The Times story landed as federal and state authorities were already watching the race. President Donald Trump called Peltola’s alleged actions a fraud on the American public and said she should resign and be prosecuted criminally. On Oct. 22, the Department of Justice had filed a preemptive lawsuit arguing that if Sen. Sullivan didn’t win reelection and lost to Peltola by fewer votes than Daniel J. Sullivan received, the state should not certify any election result that may be impacted by voter confusion. On Friday, the top federal prosecutor in Alaska, U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman, held a news conference in Anchorage and confirmed the existence of both a criminal and a civil investigation.

He cited the New York Times reporting, saying the Senate campaign of Democrat Mary Peltola and national Democrats had orchestrated a sprawling conspiracy to recruit and prop up Daniel J. Sullivan as a sham candidate. We are taking that extremely seriously, Heyman said. This new information has resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska, he added. As we speak, law enforcement around the country are taking investigative steps with respect to a criminal investigation on these matters. Heyman would not say what potential crimes authorities were looking into or the targets of the probe, but asked members of the public to come forward with tips.

It is highly unusual for Justice Department officials to publicly discuss an open criminal investigation, much less confirm its existence, and the timing is particularly notable given the department’s longstanding practice of avoiding public steps in the weeks leading up to an election. Separately, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, announced plans to launch a criminal investigation, saying the story revealed disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates, including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. senator, to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes. Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections, Dunleavy said.

Washington gets involved

In a filing accompanying the ongoing lawsuit, Assistant U.S. Attorney E. Bryan Wilson said the government seeks to preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary. The request asked for a decision by Monday, before Election Day, because the modest precautionary measures will be impossible after Election Day. Attorneys for the state argued that elections officials already took steps to distinguish the two Sullivans on the ballot and that Alaska’s ranked voting system allows voters to rank both.

The Department of Justice also filed a list of proposed questions it seeks to compel the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee as part of the civil case seeking to block certification of the Senate race if the incumbent loses. The Justice Department’s move comes amid a broader pattern of election disputes in the 2026 cycle. Federal prosecutors this week issued dozens of grand jury subpoenas and requests to preserve records after the Times report, according to the Associated Press. Neither the recipients nor the number were immediately clear. Peltola’s denial has not stopped Republicans from condemning the presence of two candidates named Dan Sullivan, calling the newcomer a ploy by Democrats to cost the incumbent reelection by splitting the GOP’s supporters.

The race is considered one of the most important contests of the midterms and will be key to determining control of the Senate.

What the law says, and what it doesn’t

Ballot-stacking is described as an election tactic where political parties recruit additional candidates to draw votes away from an opponent by confusing voters. Snopes noted that even if Peltola’s team engaged in ballot-stacking, it’s not unprecedented, and Republicans have also employed the tactic during elections. Election expert John Fortier told Snopes that while people have been prosecuted for deceiving voters, there is no specific law related to the process of ballot-stacking. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said such actions should be illegal but stopped short of saying they are. The legal history of the two Sullivans illustrates how the courts have handled the dispute. The Division of Elections had removed Daniel J. Sullivan from the primary ballot, but the courts restored him.

The state Supreme Court allowed him to appear, and the ballot lists the two men with differentiating initials and incumbent status. Voters familiar with ranked-choice voting in Alaska know they can rank both Sullivans if unsure. The state has argued that the system addresses concerns about potential confusion. The Justice Department’s filing argues there is a substantial risk that Daniel J. Sullivan’s candidacy will mislead voters and ultimately result in an electoral process that lacks integrity.

The final stretch

With less than a week until Election Day, the controversy has become the dominant frame around an already tight race. Democrats are targeting Alaska as one of a handful of states where they hope to win Senate seats, and recent polls have shown Peltola in the lead. The Cook Political Report lists the race as a toss-up. Trump on Thursday cast doubt on whether Peltola would be seated if she won, saying you’re going to have to see what happens. The president has weighed in repeatedly, calling the issue voter fraud at the highest level. In Juneau on Thursday, Peltola began her speech by saying she wanted to clear the air, repeating that she knew nothing about any other candidates on the ballot except for her and the incumbent.

The Peltola campaign and the DSCC have repeatedly denied involvement in any campaign trick. Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest. The Alaska Senate race has become a test of how far a name can matter on a ballot, and how a story about confusion can itself confuse the contest. The ballots are printed, the courts have ruled, prosecutors have announced investigations, and voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether the two Dan Sullivans are a footnote or the hinge on which Senate control turns.