The suit asks a federal judge to hold certification in one narrow scenario if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses. Attorney General Todd Blanche says it only preserves information for state officials; critics, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, say it should not have been filed.
The Justice Department has asked a federal judge in Alaska to keep the state from certifying its U.S. Senate race in one specific circumstance: if Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican, loses, and the votes cast for a second candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. would have been enough to change the outcome.
The complaint, filed Oct. 22 in U.S. District Court in Anchorage and assigned to U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason (United States v. State of Alaska, No. 3:26-cv-00376), asks that certification be held “pending an investigation to determine whether votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan were meant to be cast for Senator Sullivan.” The race could help decide control of a Senate that Republicans now hold 53 to 47 — a margin that shapes what California’s two Democratic senators can accomplish in Washington.
The government’s case
The department argues that the National Voter Registration Act, whose stated purposes include protecting “the integrity of the electoral process,” lets the United States sue to stop an election from being decided by voter confusion.
The factual core of the complaint comes from Alaska’s own election director. On June 15, Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher found that the second Sullivan’s candidacy was “for the purpose of confusing or misleading voters” and moved to keep him off the ballot. The complaint says he sought to appear as “Dan Sullivan,” switched his registration to Republican and worked with a political consultant described as a longtime supporter of Democratic candidates, including former Rep. Mary Peltola. A state Superior Court judge reversed Beecher on June 26, and the Alaska Supreme Court summarily affirmed on June 29, with a full opinion still pending. In the August primary, Peltola, the Democrat, received 49.5 percent, Sen. Sullivan 41.4 percent and Daniel J. Sullivan 2.5 percent.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said on X that the department “does not seek to stop any ballot from being cast or to stop the certification of Alaska’s election.” He wrote: “This litigation seeks to ensure that after Alaskans cast their ballots, they are preserved in a manner so that only Alaska’s governing officials have the information necessary to make a determination as to whether Alaskan voters were confused or mislead [sic].” He added: “The lawsuit was written by Justice Department attorneys and the Department did not coordinate with any campaign or candidate, but rather relied solely on federal law.”
President Trump, who has endorsed Sen. Sullivan, has called the second candidacy a “SCAM” on Truth Social and said his administration was looking at “powerful legal options” to remove the challenger from the ballot. Asked about the suit on Friday, Trump said: “I’m the one that said do it.” At a rally in Florida the same day, he described the situation as “cheating like hell.”
The responses
Sen. Sullivan’s campaign said it had “no prior knowledge of this lawsuit and no role in it.” Spokesman Nate Adams called Peltola’s suggestion that the senator was involved “categorically false” and said: “We’ll let the DOJ complaint run its course. Alaskans can tell the difference between a Democrat sideshow and Senator Sullivan’s strong record of delivering for Alaska, a record he’ll keep building on for the next six years.”
Peltola told reporters, “I feel very much that it’s interference and very corrupt.” Harry Child, a spokesperson for Alaskans for Mary, Peltola’s campaign, told The Inquirer: “This is a despicable political threat to overturn an election, designed by Senator Dan Sullivan’s allies to suppress the voices of Alaskans.” He added: “We will fight to ensure every single eligible voter in Alaska can make their voice heard and that no bureaucrat or politician from the Lower 48 can interfere with our lawful, secure elections.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, wrote on X: “Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year’s ballot. The Department of Justice should never have filed this lawsuit.” On the general election ballot, the senator is listed as “Sullivan, Dan S.” with “(Registered Republican) Incumbent,” while the challenger, a retired Petersburg teacher, appears as “Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.”
“The complaint is being reviewed, and we do not have any comment on the litigation,” said Sam Curtis, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Law. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. said by text that he had “no comment for now.”
Scott Kendall, an Anchorage election lawyer with Cashion Gilmore & Lindemuth, offered criticism of both the candidacy and the suit. “I personally believe that the second Dan Sullivan who is running is engaging in a dirty trick and it’s a lousy thing to do,” he told The Inquirer. “HOWEVER, the Alaska Supreme Court has determined that no provision of law prohibits his candidacy. Since elections are run under state law, that is the end of the matter.” He said “the suit has absolutely zero basis in law” and predicted it “will be dismissed by Judge Gleason very quickly.”
Jonathan Diaz of the Campaign Legal Center said: “The expression of a voter’s intent is the ballot itself.” The Inquirer also contacted the Alaska Division of Elections, the Alaska Republican Party and Stanford law professor Nathaniel Persily; none responded by publication.
In court
On Oct. 23, Alaskans for Mary and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee moved to intervene, calling the suit an “unprecedented pre-emptive strike” brought by a department “acting on the President’s personal orders.” Two Alaska voters, the League of Women Voters of Alaska and Common Cause, represented by the ACLU, also moved to intervene, filed a proposed motion to dismiss and asked the court to consider sanctions against the department’s lawyers.
Election Day is Nov. 3. Under Alaska’s ranked-choice system, the Division of Elections plans to release preliminary first-choice results after Election Day and its initial ranked-choice tabulation on Nov. 18; certification follows the state’s review after that. Whether the department’s scenario ever arises depends on a count that has not yet begun.
Anjali Venkatram covers national news and the federal policies, court rulings and trends that reach California, for National News. More from Anjali Venkatram
