It was three days earlier than the submitting deadline when Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan realized of an eleventh-hour Republican challenger in his high-stakes reelection race.
The challenger’s title: Dan J. Sullivan.
Sen. Sullivan says it’s not a joke.
The two-term Republican incumbent, and the GOP’s Senate marketing campaign arm, are raising main alarms about his same-name rival, warning that it might value them a seat by complicated the citizens and provides a leg-up to his well-funded Democratic challenger, former Rep. Mary Peltola.
In an interview with NCS, the senator accused Democratic leaders of planting Dan J. Sullivan within the race with the exact hope of undercutting his marketing campaign – an allegation high 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 mentioned.
Sullivan and the National Republican Senatorial Committee are urgent state officers to take away his challenger’s title from the poll, with the senator telling NCS that he might take the matter to court docket in the event that 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 earlier than the submitting deadline. And the one factor that will distinguish the 2 males on the poll is their center preliminary. (The senator’s center preliminary is “S.”)
“When people are going, ‘Oh, there’s two Dan Sullivans, isn’t that funny?’” an animated Sen. Sullivan mentioned. “No, it’s cheating.”
Dan J. Sullivan, a resident of a small fishing city in southeast Alaska, has mentioned little publicly about his marketing campaign – and he didn’t return a number of calls, emails and texts from NCS to debate his bid. But in his few public feedback, Dan J. Sullivan insists his marketing campaign is authentic.
In a press launch saying his marketing campaign, Dan J. Sullivan described careers within the US Forest Service and as an elementary college trainer. And he instructed his native newspaper, the Petersburg Pilot, on Thursday that he had no contact with Peltola previous to working, saying “I wouldn’t even know who to speak to.”
But Dan J. Sullivan appeared to acknowledge donating to Democrats through the years, together with $130 to Peltola’s two House campaigns, whereas additionally enlisting a advisor whose shoppers embrace Democratic and progressive candidates to draft up his preliminary press launch.
Dan J. Sullivan argued that he’s voted and supported each Democrats and Republicans up to now. And he known as himself a “pragmatic Republican centrist,” contending his nascent Senate bid was motivated over the senator’s reluctance to name out President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” and speak of inserting his picture on a $250 bill.
He dismissed considerations from the senator that the candidacy would merely confuse the citizens.
“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 instructed the native 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 mentioned he wouldn’t drop out.
“I have every right to stand up and do this,” mentioned Sullivan, the GOP challenger. “It’s my name, my grandfather’s name: Dan Sullivan. My dad’s name: Dan Sullivan.”
The final time a Democrat received a senate race in Alaska was in 2008, when Mark Begich received by a razor-thin margin in opposition to the late-Sen. Ted Stevens, a pillar within the state and a titan within the Senate who had simply been convicted on corruption fees that, after the election, in the end have been overturned.
But at the same time as Republicans have dominated the state within the years since, Democrats this yr see their greatest path since Begich’s triumph to flip the seat – largely due to the souring surroundings over Trump’s job efficiency and rising prices for voters, significantly over healthcare. Democrats have already spent about $6.4 million on advert airtime within the race, in comparison with Republicans’ $3.4 million, in accordance with AdImpact – with hundreds of thousands extra on the way in which.
The distinctive circumstances in Alaska additionally give Democrats hope that the seat could possibly be one among 4 they will flip to retake the Senate. Not solely have they got a well-funded challenger in Peltola, who received the state’s lone House seat in 2022 earlier than shedding in 2024, however the state’s ranked-choice voting system additionally might give her a lift.
Since elections in Alaska begin with an open main, during which candidates of all events compete and all voters are allowed to take part, the highest 4 vote-getters, no matter occasion, advance to the final election.
And with two Dan Sullivans competing within the August main, Republicans are particularly nervous that each might get into the November normal election and cut up the vote, giving Peltola a transparent benefit.
“This is dirty politics,” Sen. Sullivan mentioned. 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 mentioned.
But high Democrats throughout Washington and in Alaska say that they had nothing to do with Sullivan’s bid.
“Our campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign,” a Peltola marketing campaign spokesperson mentioned. “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 marketing campaign declined to make her accessible for an interview.)
“The DSCC has no involvement with Dan J. Sullivan or his campaign,” a spokesperson for the occasion committee mentioned. When requested if Gillibrand or anyone related together with her have any involvement in Dan J. Sullivan’s resolution to run and his marketing campaign, a spokesperson for the senator mentioned “No.” A Schumer spokesperson additionally mentioned “no,” when requested if the Senate minority chief or any of his associates have been concerned in Dan J. Sullivan’s marketing campaign in any method.
Alaska Democratic Party government director Jenny-Marie Stryker additionally mentioned her group “is in no way affiliated with either Dan Sullivan.”
Lauren French, spokesperson for Senate Majority PAC, a high Democratic tremendous PAC, mentioned the group has “never” communicated with Dan J. Sullivan, “directly or indirectly” and had no involvement in his marketing 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 strain on native officers to take motion in opposition to Dan J. Sullivan – and level to different circumstantial proof to make their case in opposition to the challenger.
In a letter obtained by NCS, the National Republican Senatorial Committee requested Alaska’s lieutenant governor and elections chief to take away Dan J. Sullivan from the poll, arguing that it threatens election integrity. And within the interview with NCS, Sen. Sullivan mentioned if the lieutenant governor doesn’t take away his challenger’s title from the poll, “then this will probably lead to litigation.”
The Alaska Division of Elections declined to remark, and the lieutenant governor’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The NRSC and Sullivan spotlighted metadata of Dan J. Sullivan’s marketing campaign announcement, which ties the doc to Amber Lee, a advisor who has publicly supported Peltola up to now.
In his interview with the Petersburg Pilot, Dan J. Sullivan, a former fifth grade trainer, appeared to substantiate he enlisted Lee, contending he discovered her when trying up consultants on-line.
“I Googled looking for political consultants,” he mentioned. “In her bio it said that she writes middle school literature. I thought: well, she’d be interesting to talk to.”
Lee didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
Dan J. Sullivan’s previous marketing campaign contributions have additionally been flagged by the GOP, for the reason that main challenger seems to have given to Democratic causes and candidates up to now.
According to FEC filings, both a Daniel or Dan Sullivan in Petersburg has donated $650 to ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s essential fundraising platform, lately, together with contributions earmarked for Peltola’s House campaigns in 2022 and 2024. There is no proof of contributions to Republican campaigns from a Daniel or Dan Sullivan in Petersberg, FEC filings present.
Dan J. Sullivan instructed his native paper that he backs candidates in each events, and even in contrast himself to Alaska’s different GOP senator, Lisa Murkowski, a swing vote within the Senate who is usually at odds with Trump and out of favor with the bottom.
“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 mentioned.
But the senator isn’t shopping for it, calling his new rival a “sham candidate.”
“This is just corruption,” the senator mentioned. “They’re trying to cheat. I mean, there’s no plausible explanation.”