Alaska Supreme Court Rules Dan Sullivan Can Run Against Dan Sullivan

Daniel S. Sullivan, a 64-year-old Republican who serves in the United States Senate representing Alaska, is a Georgetown University graduate and onetime Alaska attorney general now running for his third term in the 2026 midterm elections.Then there’s Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher and United States Forest Service employee from Petersburg, Alaska. He once served on Alaska’s Public Safety Advisory Board, but his aspirations run higher: He wants to win the U.S. Senate seat held by Daniel S. Sullivan.The inclusion of both men on the ballot has roiled the Alaskan primary election.On Monday afternoon, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that challenger Daniel J. Sullivan has the right to appear on the state’s nonpartisan U.S. Senate primary ballot — ending a weekslong legal battle that drew national attention amid allegations of Democratic trickery.The ruling, issued just three hours after oral arguments concluded, was fewer than 100 words. Chief Justice Susan Carney said a longer opinion would follow. The case now returns to the Division of Elections to determine how the challenger’s name will appear alongside the incumbent. According to a report from Alaska Public Media, the division has proposed to list the challenger with his full name and no party affiliation. The primary is August 18. The top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, will move on to a ranked-choice general election in November.“We’re disappointed in the court’s decision because as the sham candidate Dan J. Sullivan’s lawyers made clear in their legal arguments, the only reason he is running is to deceive voters and manipulate Alaska’s election system,” the incumbent senator’s campaign team said in a statement issued on X.“However, we are encouraged by the fact that the Director of the Division of Elections will be able to use her expertise to differentiate between the Petersburg fraud and the incumbent — Senator Dan Sullivan — to the benefit of Alaska voters,” the post continued.The controversy centers on a name game. The challenger, Dan J. Sullivan, is a recently registered Republican whose presence on the ballot Republicans allege is the result of a coordinated Democratic scheme to confuse voters. Democrats and a former Democratic representative Mary Peltola, who is also running against the incumbent senator, have denied the allegations.The elections division, overseen by Alaska’s Republican lieutenant governor, removed Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot earlier this month, citing the risk of voter confusion. A state superior court judge reinstated him last week, ruling that “there is no statute which provides such a criterion” for removing a candidate on the grounds of lacking “good faith.”The Supreme Court agreed, ordering the Division of Elections to include the challenger on the ballot within existing Alaska ballot design law. The justices repeatedly raised the possibility of differentiating the candidates using tools like middle initials, rather than an outright removal.“Why not use one of the lesser ones?” Chief Justice Carney asked the attorney representing the division, noting the division had chosen “the most extreme remedy possible.”The division’s attorney, Christopher Murray, argued that disqualification was warranted, pointing to a series of suspicious behaviors. Among the allegations, the challenger had only recently registered as a Republican, appeared to work with a Democratic strategist, and when asked how he wanted to appear on the ballot, initially wrote “Dan S. Sullivan” — the incumbent’s middle initial rather than his own.“That’s not an innocent mistake or random mistake,” Mr. Murray told the justices. “There’s a lot of other letters in the alphabet that could have been a typo. The fact that he picked the middle initial of the sitting United States senator that he’s purporting to genuinely challenge — we don’t think that the division is obligated to not notice that as very, very troubling.”Daniel J. Sullivan, the teacher, told The Associated Press on Monday he “just decided it was something I needed to do. I will find out if it was the right thing or not, but I’m going to give it a shot.”He added that he hopes to pull votes from the incumbent, just as any challenger would, “but no, I’m not trying to trick people.”

Alaska Supreme Court Rules Dan Sullivan Can Run Against Dan Sullivan

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