Mary Peltola, official U.S. House portrait

Alaska governor orders state investigation into recruitment of second ‘Dan Sullivan’ for Senate race

Updated Nov. 6: Still uncalled, ~¼ of ballots out. Times doubts RCV saves Sullivan; Trump again claims the second Sullivan’s votes.

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Alaska governor orders state investigation into recruitment of second ‘Dan Sullivan’ for Senate race

Created: 2026-10-29T06:44:00-04:00 (America/New_York)
Last updated: 2026-11-06T06:55:24-05:00 (America/New_York)

Day 7 in the news · first ran Oct. 29 · off Nov. 3, Nov. 4

The short version

Alaska’s Senate race remains uncalled, with ranked-choice tabulation scheduled for Nov. 18 and absentee ballots still arriving. A second candidate named Dan Sullivan remains central to the dispute. The Justice Department’s civil suit was dismissed on standing and appealed; investigations into alleged recruitment continue. Peltola’s campaign, the DSCC and the second Sullivan deny the recruitment claims.

In the Nov. 5–6 count, 23 of 50 headlines focused on the count or the wait, seven on ranked choice, eight on the second Sullivan and three on the federal probe. Both campaigns project victory. The reporting below separates counting from the legal fight and explains why neither projected transfers nor recruitment allegations settle the outcome.

Mary Peltola, official U.S. House portrait
Mary Peltola, official House portrait from her time in Congress (House Creative Services, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, said on the night of Oct. 28 that he was directing the state Department of Public Safety to investigate “whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted.” He was responding to a New York Times report, published the same day, that people connected to Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign and senior staff at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee worked to recruit candidates — including a retired teacher named Daniel J. Sullivan — to draw votes from Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC deny taking part; the second Sullivan says he entered on his own. Election Day is Nov. 3.

Update, Nov. 6: The race remains uncalled. Alaska’s News Source reported both campaigns projecting wins with about a quarter of ballots still outstanding; absentee ballots can arrive through Nov. 13 (overseas Nov. 18) and ranked-choice tabulation is still set for Nov. 18. The New York Times argued ranked-choice transfers are “unlikely to be enough” for Sen. Dan Sullivan if he trails on first choices; Alaska Beacon and FairVote analyses still see a path for him on transfers. Trump again pressed the second-Sullivan votes, saying the incumbent would “easily” win if given those ballots (Politico). Of 50 headlines on the race (Google News, Nov. 5–6, duplicates removed), 23 were about the count or the wait, 7 about ranked choice, 8 about the second Sullivan or “decoy,” 3 about the Justice Department probe, and 9 named Trump.

Update, Nov. 5: The Senate race is too close to call. In the state’s Wednesday afternoon update, Mary Peltola led Sen. Dan Sullivan by 637 first-choice votes, 102,962 to 102,325, with about three-quarters of the vote counted; the second Daniel J. Sullivan drew 3,600, more than five times the margin (Alaska’s News Source results; Newsweek). Absentee ballots can arrive through Nov. 13 (overseas Nov. 18); the ranked-choice tabulation is scheduled for Nov. 18 and certification for Nov. 25 (Alaska News). Separately, news outlets reported on Election Day that the Justice Department had sent at least 20 target and preservation letters to people it believes were involved in recruiting the second Sullivan, including Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias, according to unnamed sources cited by AP, ABC News, Politico and USA Today. Politico’s source said Peltola did not receive one, and said it was unclear when the letters were sent. Elias called it “a sham investigation.” A target letter does not mean charges will follow. Of 88 headlines on the race we found (Google News, Nov. 3–5, duplicates removed), 39 were about the count or its timing and 29 about the margin; 10 mentioned the second Sullivan and 9 the federal probe.

Update, Nov. 2: U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed the Justice Department’s suit on Sunday, Nov. 1, in a 20-page order. She found the government lacked standing because it offered “no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan… in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy,” denied leave to amend as futile and cited the Supreme Court’s caution against late changes to election rules. She did not decide whether the second candidate was improperly recruited. The Justice Department appealed to the Ninth Circuit the same day; a spokesperson said, “Alaskan voters deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes” (AP, Bloomberg Law).

Update, Nov. 1: Alaska’s Republican-run Department of Law asked the federal court on Oct. 31 to dismiss the Justice Department’s suit with prejudice, saying there was “no reason for this Court to entertain this meritless lawsuit any longer” and that “the relief demanded is inappropriate and not even possible given Alaskan voters’ vital right to ballot secrecy” (AP, NBC News).

Update, Oct. 31: FBI agents have been contacting donors to the second Senate candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan (AP). A Petersburg boat dealer who gave $500, Charles Flint, told AP, “I don’t feel like I’ve been misled at all.” Pat Campbell of Groton, Mass., said, “We knew to whom we had contributed.” A Sitka donor was also visited. Alaska’s U.S. attorney, Michael Heyman, cited a “significant surge of law enforcement assets” for the election.

Update, Oct. 30: The Justice Department moved on two tracks on Oct. 29. In federal court in Anchorage it amended its civil suit, which seeks to block certification if Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses and votes for Daniel J. Sullivan could have changed the outcome, adding the New York Times reporting and a new claim under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause; it argues the amended complaint makes pending motions to dismiss moot (CNBC, Democracy Docket). The filing says Peltola’s campaign committee, Alaskans for Mary, and the DSCC misled Judge Sharon Gleason in an Oct. 23 filing in which they said they lacked enough information to admit or deny why the second Sullivan entered the race (Politico). The campaign and DSCC say that answer addressed only his state of mind (CNBC). DOJ also issued new grand jury subpoenas; nobody has been charged (CBS). A DOJ official named 18 U.S.C. §§ 241 and 242 as possible statutes and said the department knew of no confirmed case of a voter choosing the wrong Sullivan (CBS). Peltola said in Juneau: “I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent… I am not interested in tricking voters” (AP).

Most national headlines led with the Republican response — the governor’s order and President Trump’s demand that Peltola be kept off the ballot — while the underlying allegation, and the evidence offered for it, got less room. Alaska outlets on the right treated the allegation as settled (“Decoy Dan”). Neither the allegation nor the response has been tested by any investigator or court yet.

What we can learn from primary-oriented reading

  • Bottom line: A state investigation has been ordered; no one has been charged, and no finding of wrongdoing has been made. Dunleavy’s statement did not name the Peltola campaign: “The evidence will determine what happens next.”
  • The allegation (NYT): The Times said it reviewed text messages and documents and interviewed about a dozen people who took part in, were told of, or were targeted by what participants called a “ballot composition” effort, which it said began with searching voter records for Alaskans named Dan Sullivan. These materials have not been published in full and we could not verify them.
  • The denials: Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC deny participating in the recruitment. Daniel J. Sullivan, of Petersburg, told the Times in August he was running in good faith as a moderate Republican; he has also said he voted for Peltola in past races (BBC).
  • What the state already did: Dunleavy said the Division of Elections looked at these concerns in June and that the new reporting “substantially supports” its findings. That earlier finding was not linked in his statement, and we did not locate it. The Alaska Supreme Court previously rejected Republican efforts to remove the second Sullivan from the ballot (BBC).
  • On the ballot: “Dan S Sullivan,” described as the incumbent Republican senator, and “Daniel J Sullivan Jr” both appear, along with Peltola and Gerald Heikes. The BBC reported the Trump administration has separately filed a case aimed at blocking certification if the Trump-backed candidate loses, arguing the two names could confuse voters.
  • Trump’s demand: In Truth Social posts, Trump said Peltola should be removed from the ballot (CBS: “shouldn’t be allowed to run”). No legal mechanism for removing a certified candidate days before the election was cited.

What questions the legacy media missed

  • Two stories, one headline: Whether a campaign recruited a same-name candidate to confuse voters, and whether a Republican governor should open a criminal probe a week before the vote, are separate questions. Most headlines picked one. Both deserve scrutiny.
  • What law? Neither Dunleavy nor Trump has identified a specific statute. Recruiting a candidate is not obviously illegal; deceiving voters or filing false documents might be. Readers were rarely told where that line sits.
  • Who broke the story: The allegation comes from the Times’ own reporting, not from Republicans. Coverage framing the probe as a partisan move against a Democrat often under-explained that.
  • Timing cuts both ways: An investigation announced days before an election can sway votes without ever producing charges. So can a candidate-confusion scheme, if it happened. A fair reading holds both concerns at once.
  • Update, Oct. 30 — the statute question now has an answer, sort of: DOJ pointed to civil-rights conspiracy laws (§§ 241, 242). Whether recruiting a same-name candidate fits them is untested; coverage rarely said that no court has applied them this way.
  • Update, Oct. 30 — “misled the court” is an allegation: It turns on whether “we lack knowledge” about a candidate’s motive was a truthful answer. Headlines that repeat the charge, and those that ignore it, both skip that narrow question.
  • Update, Oct. 31 — donors as witnesses: The FBI interviews suggest investigators are testing whether donors were misled. The donors quoted so far say they were not; that is a small sample, and how many were contacted is TBD.
  • Update, Nov. 1 — a Republican state against a Republican DOJ: The state’s motion came from the governor’s own administration. That cuts against a purely partisan reading of the dispute and was rarely in the headlines.
  • Update, Nov. 2 — what the suit asked: Headlines said DOJ wanted to block or delay results “if Republican loses” (The Washington Post, Alaska Public Media). The order quotes the request more narrowly: to enjoin certification of “any result that may be impacted by voter confusion… pending an investigation to determine whether votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan were meant to be cast for [Dan S.] Sullivan.” As our Oct. 30 update noted, the suit was aimed at a Sullivan loss narrow enough that votes for the second Sullivan could have changed the outcome. The headlines were not wrong, but they left out the condition, which is what the judge found unworkable.
  • Update, Nov. 2 — what the ruling did not decide: Headlines such as Politico’s “stave off GOP defeat” framed the suit by its political aim. The judge ruled on standing and ballot secrecy; the recruitment question, which the state investigation and the FBI donor interviews are about, is still open.
  • Who did the second Sullivan’s voters rank next? Not the obvious answer. FairVote’s preliminary analysis found 33% of his voters ranked Peltola next versus 22% for the senator. It projects Sullivan narrowly ahead after transfers, about 51–49, and an Alaska News estimate has him about 340 votes ahead. Both are projections, not results.
  • What does the Justice Department want if Sullivan loses narrowly? Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Fox News there is “a scenario where the incumbent Sen. Sullivan could lose but really he didn’t lose,” and called for preserving ballots to check for voter confusion (ABC News). How that squares with the judge’s finding that the government had no workable plan to preserve ballot secrecy is TBD; the Ninth Circuit appeal was pending.
  • Why so few headlines on the probe after the vote? TBD. Target letters to a prominent Democratic lawyer, reported on Election Day, drew 9 of 88 headlines in our count.
  • Update, Nov. 6 — whose ranked-choice math? The Times says transfers likely will not save Sullivan; FairVote and Alaska Beacon still project a path. Both cannot be fully tested until the Nov. 18 tabulation. Headline coverage rarely held the disagreeing models side by side.
  • Update, Nov. 6 — Trump’s “fake challenger” votes claim: Politico carried Trump saying the incumbent would win “easily” if given the second Sullivan’s votes. That assumes those ballots were confusion votes for the senator — the question the dismissed DOJ suit could not operationalize without breaking ballot secrecy.

Primary sources

How outlets framed it

Outlet headlines from today’s scout — their words, not ours.

  • The New York Times: “Alaska Governor Orders Criminal Investigation Into Peltola Campaign”
  • The Washington Post: “Alaska governor orders investigation into Democrat’s Senate campaign”
  • BBC: “Alaska governor orders probe into Democratic campaign’s alleged links to rival candidate”
  • CBS News: “Trump says Peltola “shouldn’t be allowed to run” for Alaska Senate seat over report on why 2 Dan Sullivans are in the race”
  • Politico (Apple News Top Stories): “Trump, Murkowski blast Alaska Democratic Senate candidate over ballot-stacking report”
  • Juneau Independent: “Dunleavy orders state criminal investigation into Peltola campaign ballot-stacking allegations”
  • Alaska Watchman: “Dunleavy orders probe into whether Peltola camp schemed to trick AK voters with ‘Decoy Dan’”
  • Alaska Story: “Breaking: Dunleavy orders state investigation into ‘Decoy Dan’ election scheme”
  • Politico (Oct. 30): “DOJ contends Democrats misled court on Alaska Senate race”
  • The New York Times (Oct. 29): “Republicans Ramp Up Investigation Into Democratic Plan to Pack Alaska’s Ballot”
  • CNN (Oct. 29): “Justice Department’s Dan Sullivan criminal probe accelerates after Alaska campaign revelations”
  • Al Jazeera (Oct. 29): “Trump administration renews bid to block Alaska election results”
  • CBS News (Oct. 29): “DOJ issues new subpoenas in Alaska Senate probe, asks judge to intervene over “conspiracy” involving 2 Dan Sullivans”
  • Mediaite (Oct. 29): “Trump DOJ Cites the ‘Not Always True’ New York Times In Revised Alaska Senate Race Lawsuit”
  • NPR (Oct. 31): “Alaska voters react to allegations of a spoiler in the U.S. Senate race”
  • PBS (Nov. 1): “Attorneys for Alaska say ‘meritless’ Trump demand to set aside Senate ballots ‘not even possible’”
  • The Washington Post (Nov. 2): “Judge tosses DOJ’s attempt to delay Alaska’s Senate results if Republican loses”
  • Alaska Public Media (Nov. 1): “Judge tosses DOJ lawsuit that sought to block election results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses”
  • AP (Nov. 4): “Sullivan, Peltola project confidence while awaiting results in Alaska US Senate race”
  • The Washington Post (Nov. 4): “Why Alaska’s Senate results could take more than two weeks to come in”
  • CBS News (Nov. 4): “Alaska Senate race unresolved as candidates expect weekslong ballot-counting process”
  • The Hill (Nov. 4): “Peltola takes slight lead in Alaska Senate race”
  • Politico (Nov. 3): “DOJ sends target letters to Democrats in Alaska spoiler candidacy probe”
  • The Washington Post (Nov. 5): “Alaska’s tight Senate race raises questions about Justice Dept.’s next moves”
  • NBC News (Nov. 4): “Alaska voters say double Dan Sullivan isn’t confusing”
  • Newsweek (Nov. 5): “Forget the Second Dan Sullivan. Eric Hafner Was Alaska’s Bigger Spoiler”
  • The New York Times (Nov. 6): “In Alaska, Ranked-Choice Ballots Are Unlikely to Be Enough for Dan Sullivan”
  • Politico (Nov. 6): “Trump: Alaska’s incumbent GOP senator would ‘easily’ win if given ‘fake’ challenger’s votes”
  • PBS (Nov. 6): “Alaskans are waiting for more votes in Senate and governor’s races. Both could go to ranked tabulations”
  • Alaska’s News Source (Nov. 6): “Peltola and Sullivan campaigns project wins while a quarter of ballots are outstanding”
  • New York Post (Nov. 6): “Alaska Senate candidate ‘Decoy Dan’ Sullivan has intimate ties to Mary Peltola donor”
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