Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered a criminal investigation into Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign after the outlet report exposed a scheme to recruit a spoiler candidate sharing Sen. Dan Sullivan’s name.
Dunleavy, 63, announced the probe early Thursday, directing the Department of Public Safety to determine whether the plot violated state law and if charges or civil action are warranted. The Republican governor framed the effort as a direct attack on voter integrity, describing it in a statement as “an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates—including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator—to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes.”
“Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support,” Dunleavy added. “Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections. Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable.”
The controversy centers on Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher and former U.S. Forest Service employee who appears on the November 3 general election ballot alongside Peltola and Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan. Republicans had long complained about the ballot-stacking tactic, which is legal in Alaska though widely criticized as ethically dubious.
The Times report, published Wednesday, detailed how veteran Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz made initial contact with Dan J. Sullivan earlier this year. Kurtz reportedly told Peltola aides that the retired teacher “hated Trump” and was willing to pursue a spoiler campaign “if it was going to help Mary.” Both Peltola’s campaign staff and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee were involved in the recruitment scheme, according to the report.
Dan J. Sullivan has maintained that he entered the race of his own volition and describes himself as a moderate Republican. However, the Times noted that he participated in anti-Trump “No Kings” protests, supported Peltola in her 2022 and 2024 congressional bids, and keeps a magnet of far-left revolutionary Che Guevara on his refrigerator.
The ballot saga has already wound through Alaska’s courts this year. In June, the state’s Division of Elections removed Dan J. Sullivan from the primary ballot, determining that a “preponderance of the evidence” showed his name and Republican party affiliation were selected to potentially confuse voters. Days later, the Alaska Supreme Court reversed that decision and ordered “Decoy Dan” back onto the ballot, ruling that state law does not require candidates to run in good faith. The court directed the Division of Elections to take less drastic steps to distinguish between the two Sullivans instead.
The legal framework around ballot-stacking leaves unclear what specific offenses Peltola’s team might have committed beyond the ethically fraught recruitment itself. The practice of running namesake candidates to split votes remains permissible under current Alaska law, complicating any potential prosecution even as Dunleavy pushes forward with the investigation.
The Peltola campaign has not publicly responded to the governor’s order or the Times report as of Thursday.