DOJ tells about 20 Democrats they may be targets in Alaska Senate inquiry as votes are counted

Alaska voters went to the polls on Tuesday with two men named Sullivan on the U.S. Senate ballot, a dismissed federal lawsuit, a pending appeal, and a criminal inquiry that widened hours before the count began. The New York Times reported on Election Day that the Justice Department had sent letters to about 20 Democrats, including election lawyer Marc Elias and at least one official of the Senate Democrats' campaign arm, telling them they may be targets of the inquiry, per the Philadelphia Inquirer's account of the report. A target letter signals that prosecutors consider someone a potential defendant; it is not a charge, and it proves nothing about guilt. The Alaska Senate race between Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola could decide control of the chamber. It has also become a test of how far the Justice Department can reach into a state-run election.

Who the second Sullivan is

Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. is a retired elementary and middle school teacher from Petersburg, an island town of about 3,000 people in southeast Alaska. He has no relation to the senator. He says he ran out of frustration with an incumbent he sees as unresponsive. "I want something to change, and it's my right to do that," he told the Associated Press in July, in a story carried by Alaska Public Media. He called the claim that he worked with Peltola "entirely false."

He filed as a Republican three days before the deadline, according to Wikipedia's summary of the race. In August he marked "undeclared" on an absentee ballot request, which changed his registration. "I am frazzled by all of this," he told Alaska Public Media.

The state tried to keep him off the ballot. Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher ruled on June 15 that he had not filed a "good-faith candidacy," citing his lack of Republican Party ties and a campaign site that looked like the senator's. Anchorage Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews reversed her on June 26, finding that Alaska law contains no motive test for candidates. The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed in a one-paragraph order on June 29 (No. S-19935) and told the Division to decide how to list him "within the confines of existing Alaska ballot design law." A full opinion was promised later.

He finished third in the August 18 top-four primary with 4,107 votes, or 2.5 percent, Wikipedia reports. He has raised about $20,000, mostly from Petersburg residents, per Alaska Public Media.

Why ranked-choice voting matters here

Alaska's general election uses ranked-choice voting. Voters may rank one candidate or several. If no one clears 50 percent of first choices, the last-place candidate is dropped and those ballots move to their next choice, as Alaska Public Media explains. The ballot lists the incumbent as "Dan S. Sullivan (Registered Republican) Incumbent" and the challenger as "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr." with no party label, per Alaska Public Media.

The state argues the system limits any damage. A voter who ranks the wrong Sullivan first and the right one second still has their vote count for the senator once the challenger is eliminated, the Department of Law said in its motion to dismiss. The weak spot is a ballot that ranks only "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr." That ballot is exhausted when he drops out. Data for Progress found that if every exhausted Sullivan Jr. ballot had gone to the senator, its October poll would have shown a tie instead of a 51-49 Peltola edge.

1. 2026-06-15Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher rules Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. ineligible
2. 2026-06-26Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews orders him restored to the ballot
3. 2026-06-29Alaska Supreme Court affirms (No. S-19935); ballots print the next day
4. 2026-08-18Top-four primary: Peltola 49.5%, Sen. Sullivan 41.4%, Sullivan Jr. 2.5%
5. 2026-10-19Early voting begins in Alaska
6. 2026-10-22Justice Department sues Alaska to bar certification if Sen. Sullivan narrowly loses
7. 2026-10-28New York Times reports Peltola aides helped recruit a second Sullivan; Trump posts; Gov. Dunleavy orders a state probe
8. 2026-10-29DOJ files amended complaint adding Supremacy Clause claim
9. 2026-10-30U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman confirms a criminal investigation
10. 2026-11-01Judge Sharon Gleason dismisses the suit; DOJ files notice of appeal within an hour
11. 2026-11-03Election Day; Times reports DOJ letters to about 20 Democrats

What the Justice Department alleged and asked

The United States filed suit on October 22, 11 days before the election, and a judge set a fast schedule to hear it. President Trump said the next day, "I'm the one that said do it," per Oregon Public Broadcasting's AP report. The complaint, signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, asked the court to block Alaska from certifying a Peltola win "pending an investigation to determine whether votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan were meant to be cast for Senator Sullivan." It relied on the National Voter Registration Act. The relief was conditional: it would apply only if the senator lost and would have won had the challenger's votes gone to him, per ABC News.

On October 29 the department filed an amended complaint that added a Supremacy Clause count and cited the Times reporting, per Democracy Docket. It also asked the state to "preserve and segregate" ballots marked for the challenger, per Alaska Public Media. It came amid a wider federal push that includes DOJ poll monitors in all 50 states and a Ninth Circuit ruling letting the department resume demands on election officials.

What the judge ruled, and why

U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason dismissed the case in a 20-page order on Sunday, November 1. The case is United States v. State of Alaska (CourtListener docket 75009254; no civil action number appeared in coverage we could open). Gleason found the government lacked standing. The United States "failed to satisfy its burden to show that its alleged injury is redressable by a court order," she wrote, per CBS News.

She also found the plan unworkable. Ballots already cast "have been commingled and cannot now be segregated," and the government "provides no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day" while keeping votes secret, per Law&Crime via Yahoo. "These requests certainly involve the time, place, and manner of Alaska's election," she wrote, and "such late-breaking changes to the election rules are strongly disfavored," per the Juneau Independent. She did not rule on whether the challenger was recruited.

The department filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit about an hour later. A spokesperson said the judge "did not dispute the argument of the United States that Daniel J. Sullivan (a/k/a Decoy Dan)" was a frivolous candidate, and that "Alaskan voters deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes," per CBS News.

The Trump, DOJ and Sullivan-campaign position

President Trump has treated the second candidacy as fraud. On October 28 he posted on Truth Social that "the Democrats in Alaska illegally searched for, and recruited, a man named Dan Sullivan" to "defraud, confuse, and obfuscate the Election, thereby taking votes away from the REAL Senator, Dan Sullivan." The post is at truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117520106264955050, as reported by Breitbart. He added that Democrats "perjured themselves" in court filings and that "Mary Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences," per Newsweek. On Tuesday he said on Fox & Friends that lawyer Marc Elias "should go to jail, in my opinion," per the Inquirer.$

U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman said on October 30 that the Times report caused a "significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska." "We are acting on it intensely and swiftly," he said, per the Daily Independent. He named no statute.

Sen. Sullivan kept some distance from the lawsuit. Spokesman Nate Adams said in October, "We'll let the DOJ complaint run its course," per OPB. After the Times report, Adams said Peltola had spent "months gaslighting Alaskans," per Newsweek. On CNN on Sunday the senator said, "I'm going to accept the election results," and of Peltola, "There is no way this went on for a year that they weren't informing her," per Al Jazeera. The NRSC has called him "Fraud Sullivan" since June, "a Democrat planted by Mary Peltola and Chuck Schumer," per the NRSC.$

The Peltola and Democratic position

Peltola denies knowing about any recruitment. "I knew nothing about any other candidates on the ballot except for me and the incumbent," she said on October 29. "I am not interested in tricking voters," per Alaska Public Media. Asked whether someone on her staff could have been involved, she told KTUU, "I honestly have no idea," per Al Jazeera. Her campaign's written line is that it "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign," per CBS News.

On the lawsuit, Peltola called it "a complete lack of respect for Alaskans and their vote." Her campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee moved to intervene on October 23, arguing that the NVRA "exclusively regulates voter registration" and that "Nothing in the NVRA regulates which candidates are listed on ballots or how they are displayed," per Alaska Public Media. DSCC executive director Devan Barber called it a "sham lawsuit to overturn the will of Alaska voters," per OPB.

The Times account, as summarized by Newsweek, described an effort that began in 2025 to list Alaskans named Dan Sullivan; former Peltola campaign manager Elisa Rios was a source. Democrats say recruiting candidates, or "ballot stacking," is common and "not clearly illegal under state law," per the Inquirer. After the Times reported Tuesday that about 20 Democrats, including Elias and at least one DSCC official, had received letters saying they might be targets, Elias posted, "This is not normal and yet here we are." We could not find an Alaska Democratic Party statement.

The state's position

The State of Alaska, through the Department of Law, opposed the federal suit. Its motion called the complaint "half-baked" and said pulling ballots aside was "not even possible," since ballots carry no names and are mixed in the box, per Alaska Public Media. "If any voter remains confused, Alaska law allows voters to receive assistance from others," the state wrote, per Alaska Public Media.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, ordered a state criminal probe on October 28. "We're going to ensure that we aren't going to send a scam to Washington," he told NewsNation, per Newsweek. Under Alaska Statute 15.15.450, the Division director, not the governor, certifies results; the governor later signs the senator-elect's credentials, a step law professor Jeff Feldman called typically "a ministerial act." The target certification date is November 25. Ranked-choice tabulation is set for November 18, and ballots postmarked by November 3 keep arriving for days, per Alaska Public Media. Nationwide closing times and mail deadlines are in our Election Day guide.

What election-law experts and civil-liberties groups say

Legal scholars across the spectrum doubted the suit. "The statute simply doesn't let the Department of Justice enjoin certification," Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller said, per OPB. Former Republican state Senate president Rick Halford said, "I think it's pretty well established law that states are in charge of their elections, not the federal government," per Alaska Public Media.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, wrote that "The Department of Justice should have never filed this lawsuit," per KATU. The ACLU, ACLU of Alaska, League of Women Voters of Alaska and Common Cause sought to join the case against the government, per Alaska Public Media. On the criminal side, Norman Eisen said, "The criminal process is being abused for political purposes — if there was any doubt, just look at the timing," per the Inquirer.$

Precedent: same-name candidates elsewhere

In Florida's 2020 Senate District 37 race, a no-party candidate named Alex Rodriguez drew more than 6,000 votes against Democratic incumbent José Javier Rodríguez, who lost by 32 votes. Former Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles was convicted in September 2024 of three felonies for paying Rodriguez $44,000 and was sentenced to 60 days in jail, per WUSF. The judge there noted that running a ghost candidate was not itself illegal; the crime was in the payments. No such payment has been alleged publicly in Alaska.

The final polls

Our earlier report on the final Siena poll of Alaska has more on the governor's race and the ranked-choice rounds.

Sources: Data for Progress, Newsweek, The Hill/DDHQ and Political Wire. Sullivan Jr. drew 4 percent in the Data for Progress survey and 1.7 percent in InsiderAdvantage's. Every lead is inside the margin of error.

What people are saying online

We planned to close this story with a sample of posts from X and threads from r/politics, r/Conservative, r/alaska and r/moderatepolitics. We are not doing that, and readers deserve to know why. During the reporting window on the evening of November 3, our tools could not open X or Reddit pages, and the tool we use to verify a post against its live permalink failed on every X link we tried. Search-engine previews pointed to posts from a Fox News correspondent about new subpoenas, from a Republican senator urging a federal conspiracy charge, and from users on the left calling the suit a double standard. A preview is not a verified quotation, and this is a story about alleged deception, so we have left them out.

What the verified record shows is in the sections above: an administration and a Republican committee calling the second candidacy a planted fraud; a Democratic candidate and party saying recruiting candidates is lawful and that she knew nothing of it; a Republican state government that fought the federal suit while opening its own probe; and a Republican senior senator, Lisa Murkowski, who said the suit should never have been filed. None of that is a measure of what Alaskans think. The only representative evidence is the polling above, which asked about the candidates, not about the lawsuit.

Money in the race

Campaign money does not settle who recruited whom, but it shows who has a stake. The Federal Election Commission's record for Sen. Sullivan's 2026 campaign (candidate S4AK00214, committee C00570994), as retrieved in our snapshot on November 3, 2026, lists 395 contributions from PACs and other committees totaling $1,936,758 for the 2026 cycle. That figure covers committee receipts only. It excludes individual donors and conduit gifts, does not net out refunds, and is not a career total. The largest committee givers at the $10,000 limit include the Air Line Pilots Association PAC, the American Bankers Association PAC, ConocoPhillips Spirit PAC, ExxonMobil PAC, Chevron Employees PAC, Koch Inc. PAC and JPMorgan Chase PAC. Employee PACs are distinct from corporate treasury money, which federal candidates may not accept.

Independent spending, reported separately and not coordinated with the campaigns, was larger and ran in both directions in the same snapshot: Right for Alaska reported about $1.15 million opposing Sullivan, AB PAC about $1.05 million opposing him, Americans for Prosperity Action about $987,000 supporting him, and SLF PAC about $328,000 supporting him. Smaller filers include VoteVets and the 907 Initiative on the opposing side and High Plains PAC on the supporting side. Comparable committee-level figures for Peltola were not pulled for this story. Funding alone shows interest, not control, and none of it bears on whether a second Sullivan was recruited.

What remains unknown

Whether the challenger was recruited, and by whom, is alleged, not found. No court has ruled on it, and no one has been charged. The Peltola campaign and Sullivan Jr. deny it. The letters to about 20 Democrats have not been published, and the Inquirer notes it is unclear when they were sent or whether all recipients got them.

The Ninth Circuit's handling of the appeal is unknown. A wide Peltola win or a Sullivan win would likely moot it. Whether Gov. Dunleavy would sign credentials for a Peltola victory is also open; he has said officials would "follow the law." The Alaska Supreme Court's full opinion on Sullivan Jr.'s ballot access had not appeared in sources we could access.

Sources and method

This piece draws on court filings as reported by Alaska Public Media, CBS News, the Juneau Independent, Democracy Docket and Law&Crime; the Alaska Supreme Court's June 29 order; AP stories via OPB; the Times report as reprinted by the Philadelphia Inquirer; and the other outlets linked above. CNBC, NBC News, The Hill, Axios, the Alaska Beacon, the Anchorage Daily News and CourtListener blocked our fetches, so we relied on other accounts of the same documents. Quotes appear as the cited outlet printed them. Campaign-finance figures come from a Federal Election Commission snapshot retrieved November 3, 2026, covering Schedule A committee receipts and separately reported independent expenditures; readers should open the FEC filings for current totals. X and Reddit pages could not be opened or verified during reporting, so no social posts are quoted. See our methodology for how we handle allegations, polls and online reactions.

Differing perspectives

Should the federal government have intervened over the second Sullivan on Alaska's Senate ballot?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Dismiss the suit and let Alaska's count stand

  Who holds it: Mary Peltola; Alaskans for Mary campaign; Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee; Elias Law Group

  Peltola says she knew nothing about any other candidate and is "not interested in tricking voters." Her campaign and the DSCC argue the suit rests on a statute that "exclusively regulates voter registration" and that "nothing in the NVRA regulates which candidates are listed on ballots or how they are displayed." They describe the filing as a threat to overturn an election before it is held, saying Alaskans "must elect Senator Dan S. Sullivan or the President will not let them elect anyone at all." Democrats more broadly say recruiting candidates is a common tactic and that no Alaska law forbids it.

  In their words: Alaska Public Media (Peltola/DSCC intervention filing and statements) ↗

• Leave the election to state officials under state law

  Who holds it: Alaska Department of Law; Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher; Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom's office

  The state says the lawsuit "has no legal basis" and that the only law it cites governs registration, not counting or certification. It argues the ballot already minimizes confusion by listing the incumbent as the registered Republican incumbent and the challenger with no party label, that ranked-choice voting lets a confused voter rank both Sullivans, and that voters who remain confused may receive assistance. It calls segregating and investigating ballots impossible and a threat to ballot secrecy, since ballots carry no names and are commingled. Delaying certification only if one candidate loses would interfere with election administration.

  In their words: Alaska Public Media (State of Alaska motion to dismiss) ↗

• Let the suit run its course, accept the result, and investigate the recruitment

  Who holds it: Sen. Dan S. Sullivan; campaign spokesman Nate Adams; National Republican Senatorial Committee; Sen. Eric Schmitt

  The senator's campaign says it did not request the lawsuit and will "let the DOJ complaint run its course," while insisting Alaskans can tell the two Sullivans apart. Sullivan says he will accept the results but does not believe Peltola's account of her campaign's role, saying there is "no way this went on for a year that they weren't informing her." The NRSC has called the challenger a sham candidate planted by Peltola and Chuck Schumer since June. Some Senate Republicans want DOJ to investigate whether recruiting a same-name candidate to deceive voters violates federal conspiracy-against-rights law.

  In their words: Al Jazeera (Sen. Sullivan CNN remarks) ↗

• Pause certification and investigate the second candidacy

  Who holds it: The Justice Department and President Donald Trump; Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward; U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman

  The department says Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. is a frivolous candidate placed on the ballot to siphon votes from the incumbent, and that the National Voter Registration Act's integrity purpose lets it seek to pause certification pending an investigation into voter intent. Trump says Democrats "illegally searched for, and recruited" the candidate to "defraud, confuse, and obfuscate the Election." After the dismissal, a spokesperson said the judge ruled on procedure and "did not dispute" the frivolous-candidate claim, adding that Alaskans "deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes." The department has appealed and is pursuing a criminal inquiry.

  In their words: CBS News (DOJ spokesperson statement) ↗