Alaska Governor Launches State Probe Into Senate Ballot Strategy
The inquiry follows a report that Mary Peltola’s team recruited a candidate with her opponent's name, prompting federal and state actions ahead of the November 3 election.
By Rafael Bailey ·
Alaska politics entered a new phase of scrutiny when Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy announced a state investigation into the Senate campaign of Democrat Mary Peltola. The decision came after media reports detailed how Peltola’s team worked to place candidates on the ballot who could draw votes away from her Republican opponent, Dan Sullivan.
Dunleavy posted the announcement on social media overnight, citing new evidence that the campaign sought to mislead voters. He described the tactic as a direct attack on election integrity. The move escalated a dispute that has involved the White House, the Justice Department, and state courts in the weeks leading up to the general election.
The controversy stems from a report revealing that Peltola’s campaign operated a project known internally as ballot composition. Campaign lawyers and senior aides from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee participated in the effort. The goal was to recruit men named Dan Sullivan to run for Senate, creating confusion for voters in Alaska’s nonpartisan primary system.
Elisa Rios, who served as Peltola’s campaign manager until an August staff shake-up, told reporters that the operation began in the summer of 2025. She stated that Peltola was definitely aware of the project, even if she was not directly involved in the daily execution. Rios also noted that the campaign worked with veteran Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz to identify potential candidates.
One such candidate is Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher from Petersburg. He has denied running at the behest of Democrats, and Alaska’s Supreme Court upheld his eligibility for the ballot earlier this year. However, state election officials had previously flagged his candidacy, a finding Dunleavy said the new reporting supports.
President Donald Trump intensified the pressure on Peltola by calling for her prosecution in a series of social media posts on Wednesday. He argued that the presence of a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot constituted voter fraud. Trump said the Democrat candidate should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted, a stance that Vice President JD Vance echoed by calling the effort disgraceful.
Peltola responded by dismissing the reports as a distraction from policy issues, particularly the incumbent Sullivan’s support for the war in Iran. During a campaign stop in Soldotna, she described the coverage as a strategy to sell newspapers and get subscriptions. Her campaign spokesperson said in an email that the team had no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and made no assertions in federal court about how the candidacy came about.
The Justice Department has already filed a lawsuit seeking to block the certification of election results under specific conditions. The suit cites potential voter confusion and wants results recalculated as if votes for Daniel J. Sullivan went to the incumbent. Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News on Wednesday that he expected to hear more from his department this week as officials review new information.
The election is scheduled for November 3. Voters in Alaska will rank candidates in order of preference, with the lowest-ranking candidates eliminated in successive rounds if no candidate wins an initial majority. The state’s unique system means that the presence of multiple candidates with similar names can influence how ballots transfer during the count.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, who endorsed Dan Sullivan, issued a statement demanding that Peltola tell the honest truth about the ballot-stacking effort. She argued that recruiting candidates to manipulate the field is fundamentally wrong. Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sullivan’s campaign, added that no player in the operation had acted in good faith with Alaska voters.
