Trump declares Alaska Senate race “decided” for Dan Sullivan amid still-unfinished count
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
President Trump proclaimed Senator Dan Sullivan the winner of Alaska's Senate race even as the vote count still showed former Representative Mary Peltola with a narrow lead. The tally remained incomplete, and Alaska's ranked-choice rules and mail-ballot deadlines meant the result was not yet final.
President Donald J. Trump posted on Truth Social that Senator Dan Sullivan is the winner of Alaska's Senate race, claiming that votes for other candidates on the ballot should be added to Sullivan's total. At the time of the statement, official results showed Sullivan trailing former Representative Mary Peltola by fewer than 700 votes, with about 74% of precincts reporting. Trump argued that the presence of a candidate listed as "Daniel J. Sullivan" and another minor candidate were designed to split the Republican vote and should be counted for the incumbent, despite the fact that Alaska's election process was still ongoing. Alaska's election rules allow up to 10 days for mailed ballots and 15 days for overseas ballots to be processed, and the state uses ranked-choice voting, which can shift votes from eliminated candidates to voters' next preferences. A New York Times analysis released on November 5 indicated that the ranked-choice tabulation was unlikely to give Sullivan a significant advantage because many voters who selected the "decoy" candidate listed Peltola as their second choice. Sullivan has previously warned that the alleged scheme could cost him votes.
"Daniel Sullivan is leading substantially in the Alaska Senatorial Race. When you add Daniel (3,600, 1.68%) into Dan, and Gerald Heikes (4,846, 2.27%), Senator Dan Sullivan is up by thousands of Votes. Remember, Heikes was also fraudulently put into the Race," Trump wrote. "I don’t know what takes so long to announce his win. This should be immediate! Anyone voting for Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr., a man who tried to change his middle initial, but was unable to get it done in time, and who was otherwise nonpolitical – Never even voted – is a vote for Senator Dan Sullivan. The Alaska Race is OVER. Dan Sullivan WON, BY A LOT!"