Two Dan Sullivans on Alaska Senate ballot after court sides with Democrat-backed confusion
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Incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan will face Democrat Mary Peltola and a second Republican, Dan J. Sullivan, after a state supreme court ruling that many see as enabling Democrat tactics to split the conservative vote.
Incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan, a proven conservative voice for Alaska, will be joined on the November U.S. Senate ballot by Democrat Mary Peltola and a second Republican candidate, Dan J. Sullivan, a retired school teacher and former Forest Service employee. The state’s nonpartisan primary, which often muddles party lines, showed Sullivan with about 43% of the vote, Peltola with more than 48%, and Dan J. Sullivan with roughly 2.5% when 85% of ballots were counted.
The incumbent had rightly called out the challenger as a “sham” candidate, pointing to Democrat-backed efforts to create confusion among Republican voters. Despite these concerns, the state supreme court sided with the left and reinstated Dan J. Sullivan on the ballot after election officials had tried to prevent this obvious attempt at voter manipulation. Both Sullivans will appear side by side, with the incumbent clearly marked as “registered Republican” and “incumbent,” while the challenger’s name will have no additional label, potentially misleading voters.
Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, a controversial change pushed by progressives, means that even if voters are tricked into selecting the fake Republican, they can still rank the real conservative as a backup. This race is just one front in the Democrats’ aggressive campaign to flip Republican-held Senate seats, while they scramble to defend their own vulnerable incumbents.