The Shady Name Scheme Rocking A Crucial Senate Race

“It should be a criminal offense to buy or mislead the electorate. Yes, yes, let’s work for that.”

Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate for Senator in Alaska, said that.

Yet apparently her campaign tried to cheat Alaska voters with one of the most absurd tricks in American political history.

This is an insane story.

If you’ve been watching that Alaska Senate race pitting incumbent GOP senator Dan Sullivan against Peltola, you know it is extremely, extremely tight.

It also includes another person named — wait for it — Dan Sullivan. Gigantic coincidence, right?

Wrong.

Two guys named Dan Sullivan, both running for Senate in Alaska? Strange. How could such a thing have occurred? 

The New York Times (yes, that New York Times) is reporting the sordid details of how this happened. According to the New York Times:

In the summer of 2025, a staff member for Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat who was eyeing a run for Senate, received unusual instructions from top campaign aides: Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can. The staff member complied, combing through voter records to produce a list of Dan Sullivans from across the state.

This was no random request. Dan S. Sullivan is the name of the state’s Republican senator. And if the Peltola campaign or its allies could track down and persuade another Dan Sullivan to run for Senate, the confusion could cost the senator crucial votes on the state’s unusual, four-person ballot.

The plan worked. This spring, a retired teacher from a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle, reachable only by air and sea, announced his candidacy for Senate. His name was Dan J. Sullivan.

The Peltola campaign has repeatedly denied any involvement in his candidacy. But The New York Times has found, based on interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that not only did Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Dan J. Sullivan to run for Senate, but also the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory.

One of the people speaking up is Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager and longtime aide, who was fired in August. She said Alaskan voters need to know there’s a lot of speculation and should get the full picture when deciding.

Peltola was not directly involved in the project, Rios said, but she was “definitely aware.”

The New York Times interviewed about 12 people who participated in or were told about the plan and obtained dozens of text messages providing updates on the effort’s progress. 

Last week, as the Times prepared to publish this article, Rios, who had been planning to file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Peltola campaign, contacted the Times and said she wanted to take back her previous statements. … It is rare for a source to seek to retract comments made in previous interviews, and the Times’ standards do not obligate reporters to comply with such requests. The Times had never agreed that those previous interviews could not be published and informed Rios last week that they would be a part of this story. In addition, Rios’ interviews were consistent with the Times’ other reporting. She has not filed a lawsuit against the campaign.

According to the New York Times:

The operation began in the summer of 2025 to lure potential spoiler candidates onto the state’s unusual four-person ballot, Rios said. In one early meeting, she said, aides with the DSCC introduced a veteran Democratic operative named Jerid Kurtz to Rios and Anton McParland, who at the time was Peltola’s chief of staff. Kurtz, a native of Ohio, was introduced as a specialist in secret ballot maneuvers, Rios said.

Months later, in early 2026, Kurtz participated in a video call with members of the ballot composition team, Rios said. He told the group he had made contact with one of the Dan Sullivans. This Sullivan lived in the tiny village of Petersburg, and Kurtz described him as amenable to running if it would help Peltola, Rios said.

Kurtz “told us when he found him,” she said. He said Sullivan “said he hated Trump, and if it was going to help Mary, he liked Mary. He didn’t have any interest in being a politician, but if this could help.”

Sullivan, who has maintained that he entered the race of his own volition, did not respond to repeated requests for comment over the past week.

According to Federal Election Commission records, a pro-Peltola super political action committee called 49th State PAC paid Wingspan Strategies, a firm co-owned by Kurtz, about $87,000 this fall. The PAC said in a statement this week it had “never hired or paid Jerid Kurtz for performing any services.”

The Times added:

Text messages viewed by the Times show officials with the DSCC and the Peltola campaign communicating for months about the project. … in June, the DSCC celebrated alongside the campaign when an Alaska court cleared the way for the other Dan Sullivan to stay on the ballot. … Three people — two Peltola aides and a member of the DSCC staff — reacted with heart emoji.

On the actual Alaska ballot, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. is listed just above Dan Sullivan. His middle initial, J, puts him first alphabetically. So, if you’re in a rush and want to vote for Dan Sullivan, the actual senator, you may mark the ballot for the first guy named Dan Sullivan. You’re mildly confused, and it’s deliberately designed to be. 

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche says that whether or not it is illegal, it certainly should be illegal. 

Obviously that’s true. If it’s cheating, if it’s fraud, shouldn’t it be illegal?

Answer: It certainly should be. 

It is truly insane that this is not illegal. 

It is perfectly obvious what is happening here. The Democrats are trying to steal this election by activating a fake Dan Sullivan to be on the ballot next to the real Dan Sullivan. Mary Peltola is desperately attempting to misdirect away from this story.

Here’s hoping Alaskans are as disgusted by this cheating as we are.