ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign and senior officials at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee secretly worked to recruit spoiler candidates — including a man who shares the incumbent's name — to siphon votes from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), according to a New York Times report published Wednesday and first highlighted by the Washington Examiner.
The report, based on interviews with a dozen people and dozens of text messages, says the effort was internally called the "ballot composition project." In the summer of 2025, a Peltola staffer was directed to find as many people named Dan Sullivan as possible in Alaska. The goal was to put another Dan Sullivan on the ballot to confuse voters and peel support from the senator.
Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from the Panhandle community of Petersburg, ultimately filed and appears on the November ballot alongside Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, Peltola, and long-shot candidate Gerald Heikes.
The Times reported that Peltola campaign aides and senior DSCC officials participated in regular discussions about the project. The Peltola campaign denied involvement, telling the Times: "The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and did not recruit any candidates into the race. Sullivan."
The DSCC also pointed to Republican ballot efforts in Alaska, saying the GOP has a "long history of recruiting and propping up candidates" and citing a prisoner with a New York address recruited to run against Peltola and nearly half a million dollars spent to secure a ballot spot for an Arizona resident.
The story has drawn the attention of the Justice Department." Nearly 60,000 early votes had already been cast in the election, according to the Associated Press.
The White House communications department issued a firm rebuke of the reporting, Fox News Digital noted.
Alaska's ranked-choice system is central to the controversy. Under the rules, voters rank candidates, and a spoiler sharing the incumbent's name can create confusion that costs the senator first-choice support and reshapes later rounds. Peltola's campaign has promoted her candidacy on Instagram, including a post captioned "Game on for the general election, Mary Peltola ..." — a post that presents her as the Democratic standard-bearer heading into November.
Sen. Sullivan's office did not issue a statement included in the initial coverage. The DSCC and the Peltola campaign have both denied recruiting the second Sullivan. It is not yet known what specific evidence the DOJ is examining or whether the inquiry will produce charges before Election Day.
Our Take
This is what the Left's "defend democracy" routine looks like when the curtain gets pulled back. According to the Times' own reporting, Peltola's people sat in regular discussions with DSCC officials about stacking an Alaska ballot with a decoy who shares the senator's name — not to compete on ideas, but to confuse voters. That's not campaigning. That's a scheme to scramble the ballot and hope Alaskans don't notice.
The denials are waving red flags: the Peltola campaign and the DSCC both insist they had "no involvement" with Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy — yet the Times says those same aides and officials discussed the project for months. Patriots, ask yourselves: if this was all above board, why the secrecy?
The media will try to bury this under a pile of both-sides noise. Don't let them. The DOJ's own words — that a close Peltola win would be a "tainted victory" — tell you everything about how serious this is. Alaskans deserve a straight vote, not a rigged ballot. Rank Dan S. Sullivan, and don't let the decoy scheme steal your voice.
