Opinion - Alaska Dems caught red-handed; Mary Peltola knew of ‘Dan Sullivan’ ballot plot

Robby Soave, opinion contributor Thu, October 29, 2026 at 6:05 PM UTC

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Talk about under-handed politics! Alaska Democrats have been caught red-handed trying to rig the Senate race in favor of their candidate, Mary Peltola.

You have probably noticed that this race has an interesting feature: there’s not one but two people on the Senate ballot who are named Dan Sullivan. One of them is the incumbent Republican senator. The other is just some totally random guy who isn't actually interested in serving in the Senate at all.

And, according to bombshell reporting by The New York Times, we now know for certain that this Sullivan doppelganger was recruited by Democratic political activists, who coordinated with the Peltola campaign and operated with Peltola’s full awareness.

Kudos to The Times breaking this story. Reporter Kellen Browning spoke with Elisa Rios, formerly manager of the Peltola campaign before she was fired in August, who provided extensive details about the scheme. Rios said Alaskan voters deserved to know what really happened, and confirmed that Peltola was well aware of it.

According to the Times, the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee worked with a political operative named Jerid Kurtz, who traveled to the remote Alaskan village of Petersburg to personally recruit the second Sullivan. This man, who harbored absolutely no political ambitions, said he hated Trump and would be willing to enter the race if it could help siphon votes from the real Dan Sullivan and elect Peltola.

This Dan Sullivan denies that he entered the race for this reason, and the Peltola campaign and the DSCC also denied involvement. Rios tried to recant her interview to The Times, but the Times rejected that and published the story anyway, saying that in addition to Rios, they had corroboration from countless former staffers and knowledgeable persons that it happened just like she said.

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The Trump administration has filed suit claiming that if Sullivan loses because of the siphoning of votes to the other Sullivan, the election is illegitimate. We’ll see how that argument fares in court — I doubt it will hold up. But the bottom line is that Democrats are clearly willing to play dirty in order to win. And they should be called out for that.

Chris Gustafson, a Republican strategist, wrote on X: “Mary Peltola lied to Alaskans and thinks they are too stupid to notice.”

And that’s exactly the problem. Whether or not this scheme is technically legal, it’s still bad and should be called out. It’s clearly bending the rules. And yes, I know this kind of thing happens all the time at the local and state level, but recruiting a same-named national Senate candidate is a crazy escalation. Keep in mind, this entire tactic relies on assuming some voters are too stupid to realize they are casting a vote for the wrong person, and thus it’s a very cynical and belittling tactic.

I’ll close by reminding everyone that I too recoiled in horror when I learned that Republican Vivek Ramaswamy had greenlit that terrible ad in which his opponent’s mother called her a liar. Maybe this isn’t nasty in exactly the same way, but it is very dirty, and unbecoming of a political figure.

The damage is done. I hope voters in Alaska are paying attention.

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.

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