It was three days before the filing deadline when Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan learned of an eleventh-hour Republican challenger in his high-stakes reelection race.
The challenger’s name: Dan J. Sullivan.
Sen. Sullivan says it’s not a joke.
The two-term Republican incumbent, and the GOP’s Senate campaign arm, are raising major alarms about his same-name rival, warning that it could cost them a seat by confusing the electorate and give a leg-up to his well-funded Democratic challenger, former Rep. Mary Peltola.
In an interview with CNN, the senator accused Democratic leaders of planting Dan J. Sullivan in the race with the precise hope of undercutting his campaign – an allegation top Democrats in Washington and Anchorage firmly deny.
“His whole purpose of running is to confuse Alaskans, to make him, make them think – Alaskan voters – that somehow he’s me, so they could rig the vote in favor of Mary Peltola,” Sen. Sullivan said.
Sullivan and the National Republican Senatorial Committee are pressing state officials to remove his challenger’s name from the ballot, with the senator telling CNN that he could take the matter to court if they don’t succeed administratively.
His new rival’s declaration of candidacy was stamped by the Alaska Divisions of Elections on May 29 – three days before the filing deadline. And the only thing that may distinguish the two men on the ballot is their middle initial. (The senator’s middle initial is “S.”)
“When people are going, ‘Oh, there’s two Dan Sullivans, isn’t that funny?’” an animated Sen. Sullivan said. “No, it’s cheating.”
Dan J. Sullivan, a resident of a small fishing town in southeast Alaska, has said little publicly about his campaign – and he did not return several calls, emails and texts from CNN to discuss his bid. But in his few public comments, Dan J. Sullivan insists his campaign is legitimate.
In a press release announcing his campaign, Dan J. Sullivan described careers in the US Forest Service and as an elementary school teacher. And he told his local newspaper, the Petersburg Pilot, on Thursday that he had no contact with Peltola prior to running, saying “I wouldn’t even know who to speak to.”
But Dan J. Sullivan appeared to acknowledge donating to Democrats over the years, including $130 to Peltola’s two House campaigns, while also enlisting a consultant whose clients include Democratic and progressive candidates to draft up his initial press release.
Dan J. Sullivan argued that he’s voted and supported both Democrats and Republicans in the past. And he called himself a “pragmatic Republican centrist,” contending his nascent Senate bid was motivated over the senator’s reluctance to call out President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” and talk of placing his image on a $250 bill.
He dismissed concerns from the senator that the candidacy would merely confuse the electorate.
“Your responsibility as a citizen is to understand, so when you go into the voting booth, you know what you’re doing,” Dan J. Sullivan told the local newspaper. “People can read a voter information pamphlet and maybe listen to the news here and there and figure out which one is which.”
Dan J. Sullivan said he would not drop out.
“I have every right to stand up and do this,” said Sullivan, the GOP challenger. “It’s my name, my grandfather’s name: Dan Sullivan. My dad’s name: Dan Sullivan.”
The last time a Democrat won a senate race in Alaska was in 2008, when Mark Begich won by a razor-thin margin against the late-Sen. Ted Stevens, a pillar in the state and a titan in the Senate who had just been convicted on corruption charges that, after the election, ultimately were overturned.
But even as Republicans have dominated the state in the years since, Democrats this year see their best path since Begich’s triumph to flip the seat – in large part because of the souring environment over Trump’s job performance and rising costs for voters, particularly over healthcare. Democrats have already spent about $6.4 million on ad airtime in the race, compared to Republicans’ $3.4 million, according to AdImpact – with millions more on the way.
The unique circumstances in Alaska also give Democrats hope that the seat could be one of four they can flip to retake the Senate. Not only do they have a well-funded challenger in Peltola, who won the state’s lone House seat in 2022 before losing in 2024, but the state’s ranked-choice voting system also could give her a boost.
Since elections in Alaska start with an open primary, in which candidates of all parties compete and all voters are allowed to participate, the top four vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election.
And with two Dan Sullivans competing in the August primary, Republicans are especially nervous that both could get into the November general election and split the vote, giving Peltola a clear advantage.
“This is dirty politics,” Sen. Sullivan said. He pointed to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
“If somehow the DSCC or Schumer or Gillibrand knew about this or were okay with this or maybe even orchestrated it, my view is this would be a scandal of the highest order,” he said.
But top Democrats across Washington and in Alaska say they had nothing to do with Sullivan’s bid.
“Our campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign,” a Peltola campaign spokesperson said. “It doesn’t matter who else is on the ballot, Mary is going to win by building a broad coalition of Alaskans ready to take on the rigged system and put Alaska first.” (Peltola’s campaign declined to make her available for an interview.)
“The DSCC has no involvement with Dan J. Sullivan or his campaign,” a spokesperson for the party committee said. When asked if Gillibrand or anybody associated with her have any involvement in Dan J. Sullivan’s decision to run and his campaign, a spokesperson for the senator said “No.” A Schumer spokesperson also said “no,” when asked if the Senate minority leader or any of his associates were involved in Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign in any way.
Alaska Democratic Party executive director Jenny-Marie Stryker also said her group “is in no way affiliated with either Dan Sullivan.”
Lauren French, spokesperson for Senate Majority PAC, a top Democratic super PAC, said the group has “never” communicated with Dan J. Sullivan, “directly or indirectly” and had no involvement in his campaign.
“But we will offer some free advice to Senator Sullivan: If you’re so rattled by a real challenger that you’re throwing a temper tantrum over a retired teacher from Petersburg, you might want to spend less time whining and more time explaining to Alaskans why you voted to cut Medicaid.”
Republicans are amping up the pressure on local officials to take action against Dan J. Sullivan – and point to other circumstantial evidence to make their case against the challenger.
In a letter obtained by CNN, the National Republican Senatorial Committee asked Alaska’s lieutenant governor and elections chief to remove Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot, arguing that it threatens election integrity. And in the interview with CNN, Sen. Sullivan said if the lieutenant governor doesn’t remove his challenger’s name from the ballot, “then this will probably lead to litigation.”
The Alaska Division of Elections declined to comment, and the lieutenant governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The NRSC and Sullivan spotlighted metadata of Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign announcement, which ties the document to Amber Lee, a consultant who has publicly supported Peltola in the past.
In his interview with the Petersburg Pilot, Dan J. Sullivan, a former fifth grade teacher, appeared to confirm he enlisted Lee, contending he found her when looking up consultants online.
“I Googled looking for political consultants,” he said. “In her bio it said that she writes middle school literature. I thought: well, she’d be interesting to talk to.”
Lee did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Dan J. Sullivan’s past campaign contributions have also been flagged by the GOP, since the primary challenger appears to have given to Democratic causes and candidates in the past.
According to FEC filings, either a Daniel or Dan Sullivan in Petersburg has donated $650 to ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s main fundraising platform, in recent years, including contributions earmarked for Peltola’s House campaigns in 2022 and 2024. There is no evidence of contributions to Republican campaigns from a Daniel or Dan Sullivan in Petersberg, FEC filings show.
Dan J. Sullivan told his local paper that he backs candidates in both parties, and even compared himself to Alaska’s other GOP senator, Lisa Murkowski, a swing vote in the Senate who is often at odds with Trump and out of favor with the base.
“I’m a moderate on both ends of things … I look for people that I think are going to solve some problems, get things done, I think they’re going to work with people and seem like they’re caring, and that’s why I’ve given money,” Dan J. Sullivan said.
But the senator isn’t buying it, calling his new rival a “sham candidate.”
“This is just corruption,” the senator said. “They’re trying to cheat. I mean, there’s no plausible explanation.”
