Alaska's U.S. Senate race took a sharply contentious turn this week as Republicans leveled fierce accusations against Democratic candidate Mary Peltola, alleging her campaign orchestrated a scheme to recruit a namesake rival to confuse voters and siphon support from incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK). The controversy, first reported by The New York Times, has sparked a Department of Justice lawsuit and drawn fire from top national GOP figures.
According to the Times, Peltola's campaign directly approached Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a former opponent from her 2022 midterm race, to enter the race as a spoiler candidate. The name similarity—Sullivan Jr. shares the same first and last name as the incumbent—is at the heart of the allegations. Peltola has denied any involvement, calling the reports false, but the Sullivan campaign is not buying it.
“Alaskans deserve to know the truth. Mary Peltola, her campaign, and her senior advisors colluded with the DSCC, national Democrat lawyers, and Alaska Democrat operatives to recruit a candidate to deliberately deceive and confuse voters, and then repeatedly lied about it,” said Nate Adams, a spokesperson for the Sullivan campaign. “Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along.”
The backlash has been swift and bipartisan in tone, though entirely from Republican quarters. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, took to social media to warn voters. “Alaskans will leave Peltola unranked on the ballot because of her dirty tricks. Voters can trust the real Dan Sullivan, and I’m confident he’ll be re-elected,” he wrote.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) mocked Peltola’s legislative record while hammering the alleged tactic. “Two terms in Congress. Zero bills signed into law. But she found time to hunt down every Dan Sullivan in Alaska,” Cruz posted. “Let’s elect the REAL Dan Sullivan.” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) went further, claiming Peltola was involved in “a direct scheme to undermine the integrity of the election.”
The legal battle adds another layer. The DOJ filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block certification of the election if Sullivan loses, citing potential voter confusion. Peltola dismissed the suit as “desperate” and expressed confidence in Alaska’s electoral process. “We’ve been running great elections for decades. There have never really been any abnormalities or irregularities to speak of,” she said in an interview. “I have total confidence in Alaskans’ ability to know who they’re voting for.”
Alaska’s GOP-led legislature has moved to dismiss the federal lawsuit, filing a motion Monday. The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of Common Cause, also sought dismissal. The legal wrangling has intensified speculation about a potential Senate floor fight over Peltola’s seating if she wins, a scenario Senate Republicans are already bracing for.
Former President Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social, accusing Democrats of illegal activity. “It has just been determined that the Democrats in Alaska illegally searched for, and recruited, a man named Dan Sullivan to run against our distinguished Republican Senator, Dan Sullivan, in order to defraud, confuse, and obfuscate the Election, thereby taking votes away from the REAL Senator, Dan Sullivan,” he wrote. Trump has also demanded that Peltola be barred from the race, though no such action is imminent.
Peltola’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment, but she has previously characterized the allegations as a distraction. The race remains one of the most closely watched in the country, with ranked-choice voting adding another layer of complexity. As the legal and political battles converge, Alaskans are left to navigate a ballot that features two men with nearly identical names—a situation that has already drawn national scrutiny and could have lasting implications for election integrity laws.
