There are two Dan Sullivans on Alaska's U.S. Senate ballot. One is the Republican senator. The other is Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from the fishing town of Petersburg. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled he has the legal right to be on the ballot.
On Election Day, after casting his ballot at the Alaska Zoo, the senator told reporters what he thought of that.
"We are witnessing the biggest election cheating scandal in the history of the state of Alaska, one of the, maybe one of the biggest in the US Senate's history," Dan Sullivan said.
He said "thousands, likely" of Alaskans would "mistakenly throw away their vote." Then he went further. He told reporters there was a story "circulating" about "hush money" paid to a campaign manager.
"Who knows who paid that hush money, if it's true," he said.
That is a sitting U.S. senator, on Election Day, spreading a claim of a payoff and admitting in the same breath that he doesn't know if it happened.
The "scandal" is a tactic that is generally legal
The race did get ugly. The New York Times reported that Democratic operatives linked to former staffers of his opponent, Mary Peltola, tried to get the Petersburg Sullivan to run. Peltola denies any role. The Petersburg Sullivan told the Associated Press in June that he had "zero, none, zilch" contact with her campaign.
Say the Times report is right in every detail. Here is what the Alaska Beacon reported about the tactic, called ballot stacking: it is generally legal, and both parties have used it in Alaska elections. There is no law against convincing someone to run for office for any reason, unless bribery is involved.
And Alaska Republicans know the move. The Associated Press reports that in 2024 the Alaska Republican Party fought to keep on the ballot an imprisoned felon with no ties to the state, who was running as a Democrat for the U.S. House seat Peltola held. She lost that race.
That was his own party in his own state, fighting to keep a spoiler on the ballot against the same opponent two years ago.
The confusion he described came with no numbers
Sullivan also said voters had apologized to him for picking the wrong man. "Just like I said, the scheme is working," he told Fox News.
The ballot identifies him as the Republican incumbent. Alaska's ranked-choice ballot also lets a voter mark both men. Voters the Beacon talked to at the polls mostly shrugged.
"If you know what the word incumbent means, it should not be a problem," said Ella Wheeles, an 18-year-old voting in her first general election.
That doesn't prove no one was confused. Mediaite notes that one Republican voter told NewsNation he worried he'd marked the wrong Sullivan. It does mean Sullivan's "thousands, likely" came with no numbers behind it.
What it looks like when the government takes his side
The senator's complaint isn't just talk. It has the full weight of Trump's government behind it.
Trump's Justice Department sued to stop Alaska from certifying the race if Sullivan lost by a margin smaller than the other Sullivan's vote total. Trump said of the suit, "I'm the one that said do it." A federal judge threw it out the Sunday before the election, and the department appealed. The same morning, James Comer said on Fox there was a "big possibility" Peltola wouldn't be seated even if she won.
Meanwhile, the FBI went to Petersburg.
Agents have been working through the Petersburg Sullivan's list of about a dozen contributors, the AP reports. His donors, most of them in a town of 3,000, gave $7,150 in all.
- Anna Holmes and her husband gave $500. Agents showed up on a Friday night and asked whether they had meant to give to the senator. "I told the agent I would not have done that," she said.
- Sharon Hunter gave $1,000 with her husband. Agents knocked on her door on a Saturday. "It just seems like such a waste of our taxpayer money," she said.
- Barry Bracken told reporters two agents asked if he had given to the correct Sullivan. He said he told them he wouldn't give "a nickel to the other guy."
The AP says Trump's administration is weighing criminal charges over the tactic. The U.S. attorney in Alaska said the department is taking seriously allegations of a "sprawling conspiracy."
So picture it. A race is tight. The Republican calls it the biggest cheating scandal in state history. And federal agents show up at the doors of small-town donors to ask about their checks to a former elementary school teacher.
Where the race stands
Early Wednesday the race was still too close to call, with Peltola ahead by a few hundred votes and thousands left to count.
Whichever way it goes, Sullivan has already told Alaskans the election was cheated, with no court finding behind it.
What we know
On Election Day, Dan Sullivan called the candidacy of a second man with his name "the biggest election cheating scandal" in Alaska history and repeated a "hush money" rumor while saying he didn't know if it was true. Ballot stacking is generally legal and both parties have used it in Alaska, including a 2024 fight by the state Republican Party to keep an imprisoned felon on the ballot as a Democrat against Mary Peltola. Trump's Justice Department sued to block certification and had the case thrown out, and FBI agents questioned donors who gave the Petersburg Sullivan a combined $7,150.
