Alaska formally disqualifies namesake challenger to Sen. Dan Sullivan from appearing on the ballot

Dan J. Sullivan from Petersburg, right, is challenging Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan, left, in Alaska’s 2026 U.S. Senate race. (Photos provided by Dan J. Sullivan, right, and by Bill Roth / ADN, left)

The head of the Alaska Division of Elections said Monday that the state will not allow Dan J. Sullivan, the namesake challenger to Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, to appear on the Aug. 18 primary ballot.

Division director Carol Beecher said in a three-page letter to the challenger Monday that she believes he filed in an effort to confuse voters.

“On review of the complaints and other information in the Division’s possession, I conclude that your declaration of candidacy was not properly filed with the Division because it was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality,” Beecher said.

Dan J. Sullivan, 69 and a retired teacher from Petersburg, filed to run as a Republican for the U.S. Senate seat last month, days before the filing deadline.

The Division of Elections decision drew pushback from state Sens. Forrest Dunbar and Bill Wielechowski, Democrats from Anchorage, who are separately seeking a legal review of the removal from legislative attorneys.

Wielechowski said Monday that he was still waiting on a formal opinion, but the Legislature’s attorney had so far told his office that there was nothing apparent in state law to prohibit Sullivan from appearing on the ballot. The attorney had also indicated that the decision to remove him may be in violation of the federal Civil Rights Act, Wielechowski said.

Section 1983 of that law allows individuals to sue state or local government officials who violate their constitutional or federal statutory rights.

“It looks like a pretty outrageous abuse of power, in my opinion,” said Wielechowski. “If he files a civil rights lawsuit, he’s going to win.”

“I think it’s about as close to a slam dunk as you can get in a legal case,” he added.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee early this month urged state officials to keep Dan J. Sullivan’s name off the ballot, arguing that he had worked with Democrats or their supporters to run for office in an attempt to draw votes from the senator to benefit top challenger Mary Peltola, a former U.S. representative and a Democrat.

The group had alleged that Peltola was part of the ruse.

Peltola’s campaign has maintained that it had no involvement with Dan J. Sullivan’s bid.

“Alaskans saw right through Chuck Schumer and Mary Peltola’s tricks to confuse and deceive them with a sham candidate,” Nick Puglia, with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement on Monday.

The Alaska Republican Party also filed two complaints with the state elections division in an effort to keep him off the ballot.

Dan J. Sullivan has maintained that he has met every legal requirement to run, and said he was challenging the senator because he does not serve the interests of everyday Alaskans.

“To me it’s not complicated,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday, four days after the state’s preliminary decision to remove him from the ballot. “I met the qualification and I entered this race because I am unhappy with the 12 year record of the current Senator and I feel we need a change. It’s that simple.”

He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday following the release of the final decision letter.

Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees Alaska elections, announced the probe last week.

Dan J. Sullivan said in response that it sends the wrong message to voters, who should decide who can serve.

“The Lieutenant Governor’s job is to oversee elections fairly and impartially,” he said in a statement last week. “Instead, her actions create the impression that the state government is being used to protect an incumbent senator from facing competition at the ballot box.”

The second-term U.S. senator’s campaign praised the decision in a statement.

“Every Alaskan has the right to a free and fair election, free from deception and gamesmanship. We thank Lieutenant Governor Dahlstrom for upholding that right and for ensuring Alaskans can choose their next senator without a sham candidate whose primary purpose was to confuse Alaskan voters, treat Alaskans with contempt, and rig the election for Peltola” said Billy Mackey, Sullivan’s campaign manager.

The division had issued a preliminary decision last Wednesday saying Dan J. Sullivan was ineligible to run.

Noting that declarations of candidacy are filed under oath, Beecher wrote in her letter that state statute prevents her from placing a name on the ballot “in a manner that is confusing or misleading to voters or compromises the fairness or neutrality of the ballot.”

She listed multiple reasons for her decision, including that the challenger wanted to be listed on the ballot as a Republican, though until two days before filing his declaration of candidacy, division records show he had never been affiliated with the Republican Party in Alaska.

Alaska law explicitly allows candidates to change their party affiliation upon becoming candidates.

Beecher said that the challenger wanted to be listed as Dan Sullivan on the ballot, though records indicate he never registered to vote under that name, and is registered as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.

“Indeed, you yourself appeared to be confused when you initially emailed the Division asking to be listed on the ballot as ‘Dan S. Sullivan,’” Beecher wrote. “‘S’ is Senator Sullivan’s middle initial, not yours.”

The incumbent Sullivan is also registered to vote under his full legal name, Daniel Scott Sullivan, according to state records.

Beecher also said Dan J. Sullivan’s website uses “a format, color scheme and overall theme similar to the public website for Senator Sullivan’s campaign.”

The Petersburg Sullivan’s website uses blue and gold, the colors of the Alaska flag.

“While the Division takes no position on whether you have appropriated the intellectual property of Senator Sullivan’s campaign, the similarity — particularly in light of the other facts I outline in this letter — appears to be deliberate,” Beecher said.

Finally, Beecher said a political consultant who helped Dan J. Sullivan start his campaign “is a known longtime supporter of Democratic candidates including the primary Democratic challenger to Senator Sullivan.”

This is an apparent reference to Amber Lee, a political consultant who helped Dan J. Sullivan launch his run for office, the challenger has said. He said he learned about her work through people he knows who are “somewhat politically active.”

Lee has performed work for Democrats and other campaigns, and backed Peltola in the past.

“This consultant’s work on your behalf is, in isolation, innocuous,” Beecher said. “Alongside the other facts I have catalogued in this letter, however, it suggests a determined effort and a deliberate attempt to use the similarity of your name to confuse Alaska voters in the upcoming primary election.”

Carmela Warfield, chair of the Alaska Republican Party, said on social media that the decision is a “win” for Alaska voters and the rule of law.

She used the incident to attack the state’s ranked-choice voting system with its open primaries. She said the challenger would not have attempted to “game the system” and run as a Republican under the former structure, before ranked choice voting and open primaries were implemented in 2022.

“Under our traditional voting systems, he would have never tried to run as a Republican candidate because he would have been handily defeated by Senator Dan Sullivan in our primary,” Warfield said.

Beecher said her decision is final, but Sullivan can challenge the matter in Alaska Superior Court.

She also noted that primary election ballots will be printed June 28.

Sen. Forrest Dunbar said he’ll be seeking a legal review of the final decision from legislative legal services, the nonpartisan attorneys employed by the Legislature.

He’ll also be asking for a review from counsel with the bipartisan Alaska Senate majority, of which he’s a member, he said.

“If Petersburg’s Dan Sullivan meets the statutory requirements for running for office, which he does, then it does not appear that Beecher or Dahlstrom have the legal authority to exclude him,” Dunbar wrote on a social media. “Even if they feel some confusion might arise, the remedy should be something like adding the middle initials of the two candidates, not throwing one of the candidates off the ballot.”

“I urge folks to set aside their partisan biases and think about the precedent this sets if it is allowed to stand, the authoritarian power we would be handing incumbent administrations to decide who is or is not permitted to run against them or their allies,” Dunbar wrote.

The Alaska House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Anchorage Democratic Rep. Andrew Gray, has scheduled a hearing later this month to hear from Dahlstrom and Division of Elections staff on candidate eligibility criteria.