Report says Peltola campaign helped recruit second Dan Sullivan in Alaska Senate race

A namesake for the Senate race

The New York Times reported on Wednesday, 28 October, that operatives aligned with Democrat Mary Peltola spent months recruiting candidates named Dan Sullivan to draw votes from Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan. The paper said the effort started in the summer of 2025, when a Peltola campaign staffer was told by top aides to find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as possible. The staffer combed through voter records to compile a list of Dan Sullivans across the state. The aim was to find a namesake who could run and split the incumbent's support on the state's four-candidate ballot.

How the second Sullivan entered the race

The search ended with Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, a small fishing community reachable only by air and sea. He announced his candidacy in the spring and made it through the state's August open primary, and he is now one of four candidates on the ranked vote ballot for the 3 November general election. Dan J. Sullivan has long denied running at Democrats' behest, and in June he said he had no contact with the Peltola campaign, "Zero, none, zilch." Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Senator Dan S. Sullivan's campaign, accused the Peltola side of coordinating the scheme.

“Mary Peltola, her campaign and her senior advisers colluded with the DSCC, national Democrat lawyers and Alaska Democrat operatives to recruit candidates to deliberately confuse and deceive voters.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which the Times said had staffers on text messages with the Peltola campaign about the second Sullivan, rejected that account.

“The DSCC is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan.”

Ballot challenge and court ruling

A top state elections official ruled Dan J. Sullivan ineligible after he declared his candidacy, arguing that the filing was meant to confuse or mislead voters and compromise the ballot's neutrality. The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified to run. The US Constitution sets only age, citizenship and residency requirements for a Senate candidate. Separately, the US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit, and President Donald Trump said the department acted on his instructions so that a possible Peltola win would not be officially confirmed.

Senate stakes and reaction

Democrats hold 47 Senate seats to the Republicans' 53, which makes Alaska one of the states they are targeting to win back a majority. Recent polls have shown Peltola, a former congresswoman, in the lead.

Democrats47

Republicans53

Democrats

47 seats

Republicans

53 seats

Data from the article text

Republicans have condemned the presence of two Dan Sullivans on the ballot as a Democratic ploy to split votes. Peltola's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AP, but a spokesperson told the Guardian that the Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign. Elisa Rios, whom Peltola fired in August, told the Times that Alaskan voters need to know, and she later tried to retract her interview, the Guardian reported. According to the Times, Rios said she did not take part in the effort but knew about it.