Alaska voters opening their Senate ballot this fall will find two men named Dan Sullivan. Federal investigators now want to know how that came to be.
Prosecutors at the US Attorney’s Office, District of Alaska, are conducting an “aggressive criminal investigation” into how the second Sullivan qualified, Fox News reported Wednesday evening.
The news arrived the same day as a New York Times investigation that pointed to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola’s campaign as the force behind the arrangement.
Her campaign denied any involvement in his candidacy in a statement to the Daily Mail.
Middle initials are the only thing separating the two men.
Republican incumbent Dan S Sullivan holds the seat. Dan J Sullivan, a retired teacher from a small fishing village, announced his run in the spring.
According to the Times, a Peltola staffer received a specific assignment: find as many people named Dan Sullivan as possible.
Interviews, text messages and documents the newspaper reviewed indicate the search produced several prospects, not just one.
The Times said the work went by the name Ballot Composition Project.
One participant, described as a “mysterious Midwestern operative,” reportedly traveled the state and met potential recruits in pubs.
Campaign lawyers and senior staffers from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee reportedly held roles in the effort.
The Times also reported that Democrats discussed forming a new political party to draw in Republican voters.
President Donald Trump answered reporters’ questions about the story Wednesday evening.
He said Peltola should leave the race and that she and the Democratic Party “should be prosecuted.” “To me that’s voter fraud at the highest level,” he said.
Earlier that day, Trump had cited the Times report on Truth Social, where he referred to a “monthslong secret plan” to recruit a “fake” Dan Sullivan.
He wrote that Peltola should “suffer the legal and political consequences for what she has done, a fraud on the American public.”
He also wrote that “Dan Sullivan should be allowed to run without either Mary Peltola or fake Dan Sullivan on the ballot.”
Vice President JD Vance took the same position Tuesday.
“When you put a person on the ballot explicitly to try to confuse voters, I think that’s the definition of electoral fraud. And I don’t think that we should endorse it,” he told reporters.
Trump has repeatedly accused Democrats of putting forward a rival named Daniel J Sullivan Jr.
A legal fight is already underway.
The Justice Department sued Alaska last Thursday in an effort to block certification of the state’s Senate results if the incumbent loses, and Trump ordered the filing himself.
“I’m the one that said do it,” he told reporters Friday as he arrived in Florida for a campaign rally.
Sullivan’s campaign gave the Daily Mail its own account.
A spokesperson said: “Not one player in this operation has acted in good faith with Alaska voters. Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along.”
The margin is narrow. A Data for Progress poll conducted October 8-16 put Peltola ahead of Sullivan, 51 percent to 49 percent.
Peltola has faced hardship away from the campaign trail as well. She and her family suffered injuries in an overnight car crash last Sunday.
In 2023, she lost both her mother and her husband within a span of four months.
Trump visited Alaska earlier this month to support Sullivan’s re-election.
In his speech, he said he is “going to give all adult citizens in the United States $5,000” if Republicans keep control of both chambers of Congress in November.
He attached a condition. “You gotta spend it in the United States of America,” the president said. “I don’t want you going to China.”
Prices in the state have shaped the debate. In late August, a store in the village of Shungnak listed regular gas at $26.82 per gallon, up from $13.99 the day before.
Earlier this month, Peltola posted photos from a rural grocery store showing 12 rolls of paper towels for as much as $40.99 and a set of paper plates for $53.99.
Fishing policy has also drawn attention.
Peltola, who grew up catching salmon with her father, built her campaign around the slogan “Fish, Family, Freedom.”
She wants to ban large out-of-state trawlers and expand financial safety nets for local fishermen.
Sullivan has centered his message on keeping unregulated foreign seafood fleets out of Alaska waters and US markets.
