In Alaska the Senate race is already unusual. The state uses a top-four primary and ranked-choice voting in the general election. That system put four candidates on the November ballot. One of them is a retired teacher from a small fishing town named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. The incumbent Republican senator is also named Dan Sullivan. A New York Times report published this week says aides to Democratic candidate Mary Peltola worked with campaign lawyers and staff from the national Democratic Senate campaign arm to locate and recruit people named Dan Sullivan to run. The goal, according to the reporting, was to create confusion on the ballot and pull votes away from the incumbent.
How the Ballot Got Stacked
Alaska’s primary advanced the top four finishers. Peltola led with 49.5 percent. Incumbent Dan S. Sullivan finished second with 41.4 percent. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. finished third with 2.5 percent. A fourth-place Democrat later withdrew, which moved a long-shot Republican named Gerald Heikes onto the general-election ballot. The result is three candidates who appear as Republicans or non-affiliated and one Democrat. The other Dan Sullivan is listed as No Party Affiliation. On the ballot the names appear close enough that a voter in a hurry could mark the wrong line.
AK Sen. Sullivan: Two ‘Dan Sullivans’ on Ballot Is Corruption at the ‘Highest Level’
https://t.co/ISJNaGnAVk— Funny_Guy (@FunnyGu31492803) October 29, 2026
The Times account, based on a former Peltola campaign staffer and supporting documents, describes an internal effort called the ballot composition project. Staff members searched voter records for people named Dan Sullivan. An operative traveled the state under a different name to pitch potential candidates. The retired teacher from Petersburg agreed to run. He has said he entered on his own. Peltola’s campaign and the national Democratic Senate committee have denied any role in recruiting him. The former staffer told the Times that Peltola herself was aware of the effort even if she did not direct it day to day. Alaska’s Republican governor has ordered a state investigation into whether any laws were broken. Federal authorities have also issued grand-jury subpoenas examining the candidacy.
🚨 JUST IN: President Trump demands IMMEDIATE CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS and REMOVAL from the 2026 midterm ballot of Alaska Democrat for Senate Mary Peltola and the Fake Dan Sullivan, after the illegal scheme was exposed
“She should be removed from the ballot and PROSECUTED and so should the fake Dan Sullivan!” 🎯
“They LIED IN FRONT OF COURTS.”
“This is voter fraud at the highest level.”
Planting a decoy “Dan Sullivan” on the ballot to confuse voters is about as low as it gets in a Senate race.
And it’s ONLY ALLOWED because of Ranked Choice Voting
Now, there is a DOJ lawsuit, DOJ investigation AND state investigation. https://t.co/6VLkX9DFsr
— John F.Kennedy Jr (@real_jfkjr01) October 29, 2026
What It Means for the Race and the Senate
The race is close. Recent public polls have shown Peltola ahead by a few points, within the margin of error in several surveys. Ranked-choice voting means first-choice totals do not decide the outcome if no one reaches a majority. Votes for the other Dan Sullivan and for Heikes can be redistributed in later rounds. If a meaningful share of voters who intended to support the incumbent mark the similar name instead, those ballots may not return to the Republican in later rankings. In a race decided by a few thousand votes, that is enough to change the result.
Senate control is expected to be tight. A Democratic pickup in Alaska would improve the party’s chances of taking the chamber. The opposite outcome would help Republicans hold it. The presence of a second Dan Sullivan does not guarantee a Democratic win. It does create an opportunity for confusion that would not exist on a normal ballot. Whether the recruitment effort was coordinated by the Democratic campaign or merely known to it is still under investigation. The names on the ballot are not. Voters in Alaska will see two of them. The rest of the country will learn after Election Day whether the tactic mattered.