Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) on Wednesday shrugged off a detailed New York Times investigation into a Democratic effort to stack Alaska's U.S. Senate ballot with a second candidate named Dan Sullivan, telling CNN's "News Central" the whole thing is "much ado about nothing."
Booker's dismissal came the same day the Times published an extensive report — based on interviews, text messages, and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit — finding that operatives aligned with Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola spent months recruiting candidates to peel votes from incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK). The effort, according to the Times, went beyond the single "fake" Dan Sullivan: the group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race to dilute the incumbent's support.
The second Dan Sullivan — Dan J. Sullivan — is a retired teacher from a small fishing village in the Alaska Panhandle with no prior political experience. He switched his voter registration from "unaffiliated" to "Republican" just before the filing deadline, then switched back, according to the Guardian.
Peltola's campaign has denied involvement with the other Dan Sullivan. But the Times reported that her officials, together with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, worked to find other Alaskans named Dan Sullivan and encourage them to run. Elisa Rios, Peltola's former campaign manager who was fired in August, told the Times: "Alaskan voters need to know. Not one player in this operation has acted in good faith with Alaska voters." The Times noted Rios later tried to retract her interview.
" Last week, the president acknowledged ordering the Justice Department to file suit in federal court to block certification of the election if Sen. Sullivan loses.
The Alaska race is among the most closely watched of next week's midterms. Democrats need to flip seats in historically Republican states to secure a Senate majority, and polls suggest Alaska is one of their best opportunities. The presence of two Dan Sullivans on the Nov. 3 ballot could split the incumbent's support in a state where name recognition is decisive.
Booker's characterization of the scheme as insignificant drew immediate attention given the Times' reporting. The New Jersey Democrat did not address the specific findings — the text messages, the documents, or the recruitment of multiple potential spoilers — instead framing the story as overblown.
The Instagram account associated with the exchange posted a clip of the discussion between the two senators, which circulated Wednesday as the Times investigation gained traction. The post showed the two men on screen together but did not provide additional context.
Our Take
Only in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of the modern Democratic Party could a coordinated scheme to trick Alaska voters into pulling the lever for a fake Dan Sullivan be waved off as "much ado about nothing."
Cory Booker isn't confused. He knows exactly what the Times found: text messages, documents, and a fired campaign manager saying on the record that "not one player in this operation has acted in good faith with Alaska voters." That's not a nothingburger. That's a roadmap of a deliberate effort to deceive the electorate.
Ask yourself: why would Democratic operatives spend months hunting for anyone in Alaska named Dan Sullivan if the goal wasn't to confuse voters? Why did the second Dan Sullivan switch his registration to Republican just before the deadline — then switch back? These aren't accidents. They're tactics.
And notice the timing. The Times story drops, Trump calls it election fraud, and within hours Booker is on CNN telling Americans to look away. The message is clear: the Left will cheat, and its media allies will help minimize the damage.
Patriots, this is why the Justice Department's lawsuit matters. If Sen. Sullivan loses because of a spoiler candidate recruited by the other side, Alaskans deserve to know their election was stolen — and the people who engineered it deserve to be held accountable. The days of Democrats getting away with deceiving voters are over.
