Alaska Has Two Dan Sullivans on Its Senate Ballot. Trump Calls the Second One a 'SCAM' and Wants Him Off

Alaska voters filling out their Senate ballots this fall will find two men named Dan Sullivan. One is Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, the Marine veteran who won the seat in 2014. The other is Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher from the fishing town of Petersburg who voted for Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. President Trump says the second one is a setup, and late Wednesday he said Republicans are looking at ways to get him off the ballot.

"It's ridiculous that the Court didn't stop this SCAM. Even 1, 2, or 3% could make the difference," Trump wrote on Truth Social at 10:28 p.m. Eastern. "Dan S. Sullivan is leading by a lot, but this is CHEATING in an Election, and the Judge that allowed this to happen should be ashamed of himself. We are looking at powerful legal options to remove the fraudulent Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the Ballot, and holding the Democrats accountable for their Election Interference."

How a second Dan Sullivan got on the ballot

The other Sullivan announced in late May that he would run for the Senate as a Republican. He joined the party the same day he filed, The New York Times reported. When the state asked how he wanted his name to appear, he wrote "Dan S. Sullivan," the senator's middle initial instead of his own, and corrected it hours later, Alaska Public Media reported. He calls it a typo. A longtime Democratic consultant, Amber Lee, helped him file, according to metadata on the filing document, the Times found. Republicans also pointed out that his campaign website looked like the senator's.

Alaska's Division of Elections threw him off the ballot in June, concluding he had made "a determined effort and a deliberate attempt" to confuse voters, CBS News reported. A Superior Court judge reversed that, and on June 29 the Alaska Supreme Court ordered him back on in an order barely 100 words long, Alaska Public Media reported. Chief Justice Susan Carney said kicking him off was "the most extreme remedy possible." Fourteen states had filed a brief backing the state's decision to remove him.

Think of a restaurant opening next door to a famous one under the same name, with the same sign colors. The owner can swear it's a coincidence. The customers who walk into the wrong door still spent their money there.

Who the other Sullivan is

When a Times reporter tracked him down in Petersburg in August, Sullivan said he has never voted for Trump. He voted for Democrat Mary Peltola, the senator's opponent this year, in both of her House races and never voted for Sen. Sullivan. He has attended a "No Kings" protest against the Trump administration and has donated to Peltola. Asked whether he would prefer Peltola over the senator in November, he said: "If it was between those two, it'd probably be that," according to the Times.

He still insists he is a sincere moderate Republican. "My intention is not to trick people," he said. He told the Times he found Lee by searching online and would not discuss her further because of the federal investigation. Democrats, including Peltola's campaign, deny any connection to him.

Federal investigators are already looking

Federal investigators in Alaska are probing whether he entered the race "to confuse voters and steal votes from the incumbent," NBC News reported in August. A grand jury issued subpoenas to witnesses tied to his campaign the week of the primary, a law enforcement official told NBC.

A conservative watchdog, Americans for Public Trust, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in September. It says Lee sat on the board of 907 Initiative, a group the complaint calls a liberal dark-money outfit, which spent about $575,000 on ads attacking Sen. Sullivan in the 90 days before the primary, at the same time she was being paid by the other Sullivan's campaign for "Website Services and Campaign and Digital Consulting," per the complaint. It calls that illegal coordination.

Why a few points matter

In the August all-party primary, the retired teacher drew 4,107 votes, 2.47% of the total, without running much of a campaign, according to the state's official results. That is right in the range Trump warned about. Alaska's general election is ranked-choice, and some voters rank only one candidate, NBC noted. A voter who meant to back the senator and marks the wrong Sullivan may never know his vote went somewhere else.

Control of the Senate could ride on this seat, and Democrats targeted it long before the name fight began, NBC noted. The state lists the senator as "Sullivan, Dan S." with his Republican label and incumbent tag, and the challenger as "Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr." with no party, the Times reported.

Team Trump is already telling Alaskans which one is which.

What's next

Trump did not say what the legal options are, Newsweek noted, and early voting in Alaska is already underway, with Election Day Nov. 3. The senator himself has been blunt about the man sharing his name. In June he said the challenger was "purposely trying to trick my constituents to rig the election for Peltola," the Times reported. For now, both Dan Sullivans stay on the ballot, and the one Trump endorsed is asking Alaskans to check the middle initial before they vote.