Trump calls for Peltola to leave the Alaska Senate race after a report says her allies recruited a second Dan Sullivan

Alaska voters face two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the Senate ballot. One is Dan S. Sullivan, the Republican senator asking voters for a third term. The other is Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher who is not actively campaigning and has no party listed beside his name.

The New York Times reported this week that the second Sullivan did not wander into the race on his own. The Times said, based on interviews, text messages and documents prepared for a possible lawsuit, that people working closely with Mary Peltola campaign and with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee recruited him, and that the effort went wider than one man. The group also tried to coax other would be spoiler candidates into the race to dilute the senator's support and help Peltola, the Democratic challenger, according to the Times. An operative named Jerid Kurtz, introduced through Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee aides, flew to Sullivan's remote village in Alaska and talked him into running, the Times reported. Sullivan told the operative he had no interest in being a politician but disliked President Trump and wanted to help Democrats win the Senate. Peltola's former campaign manager Elisa Rios spoke to the Times for its report and later tried to retract her comments. She was fired in August.

Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee deny any involvement in recruiting the second Sullivan.

Trump took the story up on Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews, before flying to Ohio to campaign. “We caught them cold, and Mary Peltola should resign from the race,” he told reporters. “I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did, and I think that the people that participated with her should.” On Truth Social he called the scheme voter fraud at the highest level, said Peltola should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted, and said the fake Dan Sullivan should not be allowed to run either. He accused Democrats of lying to a court about their role, which he called perjury. Trump did not name the law he believes Peltola broke.

The Justice Department sued in federal court on October 22 to delay certification of the Alaska Senate result in a case where votes for Daniel J. Sullivan could have changed the outcome. Fox News reported that the department is running an aggressive criminal investigation into his appearance on the ballot, with subpoenas expected in the coming days.

Alaska election officials pushed back on the federal role. “Placing candidates on the ballot is a matter of state law, not federal law,” Sam Curtis, a spokesman for the state election office, told CNN. Alaskans vote on November 3 and rank the candidates who advanced from the August nonpartisan primary. Polls have put Peltola and Senator Sullivan close together in a state that usually votes Republican, and control of the Senate could turn on the result.