Democrat Mary Peltola's Team Hunted for a Second Dan Sullivan to Confuse Alaska Voters, Report Finds

In the summer of 2025, a staffer for Mary Peltola, the Democrat now running to unseat Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, got an unusual assignment from top campaign aides: find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as possible. The staffer went through voter records and produced a list, according to a New York Times investigation published Wednesday.

This spring, a retired teacher from the fishing town of Petersburg filed to run for the Senate. His name is Dan J. Sullivan. On Tuesday, Alaskans will find him on the ballot a few lines from the senator, Dan S. Sullivan.

The Times says Peltola's team and senior staff at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the party's national Senate arm, spent months on what they called the "ballot composition project": an effort to recruit spoiler candidates who could pull votes from the Republican incumbent. Peltola's campaign and the DSCC both deny it.

Attorney General Todd Blanche didn't mince words on Fox News Wednesday. "They are cheating. Let's just call it what it is," he said. "They are trying to take votes away from the incumbent, not by running an election and not by running on issues, but by putting up a person with the same name."

What the Times found

The paper says its report rests on interviews with 12 people who took part in or were told about the plan, or whom the team tried to recruit, plus dozens of text messages. Its main inside source is Elisa Rios, Peltola's former campaign manager, who was fired in a staff shake-up in August. Rios said Peltola was not directly involved but was "definitely aware."

The recruiter. DSCC aides introduced Rios and Peltola's then-chief of staff, Anton McParland, to Jerid Kurtz, an Ohio Democratic operative described as a specialist in secret ballot maneuvers.

The find. In early 2026, Kurtz told the team on a video call that he had found a Dan Sullivan in Petersburg who "said he hated Trump, and if it was going to help Mary, he liked Mary," Rios recalled. In late May, just before that Sullivan filed, Kurtz called a Peltola aide to say he had just landed in Petersburg.

The fake name. Kurtz used an alias. An Anchorage man, Matthew Salisbury, said a caller named "Zane" with an Ohio area code pitched him on running for the Senate over beers at an Irish pub. Shown a photo, Salisbury identified "Zane" as Kurtz.

The money. A pro-Peltola super PAC, 49th State PAC, paid Wingspan Strategies, a firm Kurtz co-owns, about $87,000 this fall, according to Federal Election Commission records. The PAC says it "never hired or paid Jerid Kurtz for performing any services."

The celebration. When the Alaska Supreme Court let the second Sullivan stay on the ballot in June, a DSCC employee wrote in a group chat: "Other Dan won, will be on ballot." Two Peltola aides and a DSCC staffer reacted with heart emojis.

The 'scheme.' Watching a focus group, a Peltola consultant wrote, "Do we have a scheme for you," and a pollster said one voter seemed perfect "for our ballot strategy plan :)"

The 'MAGA party.' In January, McParland floated starting a right-wing state party: "Imagine if there was a MAGA party!" The DSCC's director of campaigns, Andrew Piatt, replied: "Smart. Let's see."

The Times also reports that the fourth candidate on Tuesday's ballot, Republican Gerald Heikes, was recruited this spring "by a guy from the Midwest," in Heikes's own words.

The denials

"The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and did not recruit any candidates into the race," Peltola's campaign said in a statement to the Times. The DSCC said it had "no involvement" in recruiting Sullivan "or any other Republican candidate." Neither answered the paper's detailed questions. Kurtz and the Petersburg Sullivan, who says he entered the race on his own, did not respond.

Last week, as the story neared publication, Rios told the Times she was retracting her statements. The paper published them anyway, saying it had never agreed to keep them off the record and that her account matched its other reporting.

Sullivan: 'They've been lying'

Sen. Sullivan went on Fox News's Hannity Wednesday night. "Mary Peltola, her campaign team, senior DSCC Democrats, had a scheme, a secret scheme, to trick Alaskan voters," he said. "And then, Sean, they've been lying for almost a year about it. And now they're caught." He added: "Even today, she has not apologized."

His message to voters: "We're going to make sure every single Alaskan gets out the vote," he said in a second clip, "because we don't want Alaskans to have their election stolen."

The DOJ case

The report lands a week after the Justice Department sued Alaska in federal court in Anchorage. The suit asks a judge to block certification of the Senate result if the senator loses by fewer votes than the other Sullivan receives (our report on the lawsuit). Peltola's campaign and the DSCC, both represented by the Elias Law Group, have asked to join the case on Alaska's side, according to the court docket. The Times reports that an Elias Law Group attorney also took part in the "MAGA party" discussions, according to Rios.

Blanche said the department is not refusing to certify anything. It wants Alaska to have the chance, if needed after the vote, to hold off certification until "a full judicial process" uncovers what went wrong. He said the Alaska Supreme Court ruled "purely on state law," and "President Trump has a separate responsibility under federal law to make sure elections are done properly."

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. The senator is listed as "Sullivan, Dan S." Check the middle initial.