President Trump accused Democrats of running a same-name candidate against Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan to confuse primary voters, a charge bolstered by ties between the challenger's campaign and Democratic operatives linked to Chuck Schumer's political network.
With Alaska's primary election days away, Trump took to social media Friday to endorse the two-term Republican incumbent and warn voters about what he called a deliberate scheme to split the GOP vote. A retired fifth-grade teacher named Dan J. Sullivan filed to run in the same race, listing himself as a Republican, and the Alaska Supreme Court ruled he has every right to stay on the ballot.
The result: two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the same primary ballot, in a state where the top four finishers advance to the general election regardless of party. That means both Sullivans could appear again in November, compounding the confusion in a race that could help determine control of the U.S. Senate.
Trump posted a screenshot of the Alaska Division of Elections sample ballot, marking Sen. Dan S. Sullivan's name with a green check and a "Trump-endorsed" label. His message left nothing to interpretation.
ABC News reported the full text of Trump's post:
"Because of the trickery in the Voting, the Crooked, Radical Left Dumocrats have put up another man named 'Dan Sullivan,' and they did this to take Votes away from our Great Senator of the same name. Democrats are trying to 'trick' Alaskans, and treat Alaskan Voters with contempt."
Trump went on to give Sen. Sullivan his "Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election," calling the incumbent a "GREAT man" and a "very distinguished and Highly Respected Senator."
Sen. Sullivan has not been subtle about his own view. He has called the challenger a "sham" candidate and accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of orchestrating the scheme. As Fox News reported, Sullivan framed the stakes bluntly:
"His primary purpose is not to win an election, it's to confuse Alaskans and rig the vote for my opponent, the Democrat."
That opponent is Mary Peltola, the former Democratic congresswoman who became the first indigenous member of Congress and the first woman to hold Alaska's at-large House seat when she won in 2022. Peltola is now running for the Senate seat Sullivan holds.
Dan J. Sullivan, the challenger, insists he is a legitimate candidate exercising his constitutional right to run. A retired teacher from Petersburg, Alaska, he told the Petersburg Pilot newspaper earlier this summer that his name is a family legacy, not a political weapon.
"I have every right to stand up and do this. It's my name, my grandfather's name: Dan Sullivan. My dad's name: Dan Sullivan."
Both the Alaska Democratic Party and Peltola's campaign told ABC News they have no involvement or affiliation with either Dan Sullivan. Schumer's Senate Majority PAC issued a similar denial.
But the paper trail tells a different story. Metadata from Dan J. Sullivan's campaign press release listed a person named Amber Lee as its author, the same name as a Democratic strategist who has worked for and been paid by a super PAC supporting Peltola. Federal Election Commission filings show Dan J. Sullivan himself previously donated to Peltola's campaign. And National Review detailed how Democratic operatives helped get the copycat candidate onto the ballot despite the Alaska Division of Elections initially disqualifying him for attempting to mislead voters.
The connections run deeper still. Alan Harris, the romantic partner of strategist Amber Lee, officially delivered Dan J. Sullivan's declaration of candidacy to Alaska election officials on June 1, acting as a campaign representative. Nine days after Schumer's Senate Majority PAC denied any connection to the Sullivan challenger, Schumer's nonprofit Majority Forward began running an ad that featured Harris. The Washington Free Beacon uncovered the overlap, directly contradicting the blanket denials from Schumer's operation.
A Senate Majority PAC spokesman had stated: "Neither Senate Majority PAC nor Majority Forward has ever communicated with Dan J. Sullivan, directly or indirectly, nor did Senate Majority PAC encourage him to run or have any involvement in his campaign." The Harris connection makes that denial difficult to take at face value.
Alaska's Division of Elections initially blocked Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot, finding he was running to mislead voters. But a superior court judge overturned that decision. Judge Thomas Matthews ruled that the division lacked clear legal authority to remove a candidate based on his perceived motivations.
As the Washington Examiner reported, Matthews wrote that the division director's assertion that Sullivan sought to confuse voters was "not supported by a preponderance of evidence," and that the division "must identify clear statutory or regulatory authority before removing the candidate from the ballot which it has not done."
The Alaska Supreme Court upheld that ruling in late June, affirming that a candidate's motivations for running are irrelevant to ballot eligibility. The AP reported the court found the Division of Elections had improperly applied a "good faith" standard that had no basis in Alaska law. The court sent back to election officials the narrower question of how the challenger should be listed on the ballot, but his place on it was settled.
A separate track remains open. The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into the copycat candidacy. The precise scope of that probe has not been disclosed publicly, and no charges have been announced. A criminal indictment could potentially remove Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot before or after the primary, but as of the article's publication, no such action has materialized.
Alaska's election system makes this situation especially consequential. The state uses a nonpartisan primary in which the top four vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party. That means both Dan Sullivans could end up on the November ballot alongside Peltola and any other qualifying candidate.
Trump has made his opposition to ranked-choice voting clear. In April, he posted that the system is "ONE OF THE GREATEST THREATS TO DEMOCRACY" and urged Alaskans to support efforts to repeal it. The Alaska Senate race is one of roughly half a dozen competitive contests nationwide that could determine which party controls the chamber during the final two years of Trump's term.
Sen. Sullivan connected the dots between Schumer, Peltola, and the copycat candidate in stark terms. He told Fox News: "Think about it. Schumer has talked about flipping the Alaska seat, he hand-recruited and handpicked Peltola as his top recruit for Alaska, and now he's trying to rig the election in Alaska by deceiving the voters."
The denials from Democratic officials are on the record. So are the metadata, the FEC filings, the campaign representative who doubles as an ad subject for Schumer's nonprofit, and the strategist who links them all. Voters in Alaska will sort it out Tuesday. Whether the system that allowed it will get sorted out is another question entirely.
When the same name shows up on the same ballot with the same party label, and the fingerprints lead back to the opposing party's operatives, calling it a coincidence asks a lot of the people being asked to vote.
