Mary Peltola's campaign tied to effort to place second Dan Sullivan on Alaska ballot

Mary Peltola's Senate campaign played a role in putting a second Dan Sullivan on Alaska's ballot, according to a New York Times report published Wednesday. The report said the effort was designed to create voter confusion and benefit Peltola's race against incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

The Times said its account drew on 12 sources, text messages and documents. Those materials showed Peltola campaign members, lawyers for Peltola and senior advisers at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee worked to put Dan J. Sullivan, a Republican, on Alaska's four-way ballot. Campaign operatives internally labeled the effort the ballot composition project, according to the Times. The goal, the report said, was to find a candidate who could draw votes away from Sen. Sullivan.

Alaskans for Mary, Peltola's campaign committee, said through a spokesperson on Wednesday that it has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee told ABC News it was not involved with Dan J. Sullivan. A committee spokesperson wrote that Republicans have a long history of recruiting and propping up candidates in an attempt to boost their own campaigns. The spokesperson pointed to Peltola's 2024 House reelection race, when the state Republican Party backed a Democratic House candidate serving time in a New York federal prison to stay on the ballot against her.

Peltola led Alaska's August primary with 49.5% of the vote. Sen. Sullivan took 41.4%, Dan J. Sullivan took 2.5% and Democrat David Leslie took 1.1%. Leslie dropped out afterward. Republican Gerald Heikes, who placed fifth with 1%, moved into the fourth spot on the November ballot. On the general election ballot, the incumbent is listed as Dan S. Sullivan, a registered Republican. The other candidate appears as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation.

Former Peltola aide Elisa Rios told the Times that Peltola was not directly involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan but was definitely aware of the effort. The Times reported that Rios later asked the newspaper to retract her statements and did not give a reason. Rios was fired from the campaign this past summer, days before the primary. The campaign said at the time that it had undergone staffing updates as it moved into the general election.

President Donald Trump wrote on social media Wednesday afternoon that Peltola should suffer the legal and political consequences for what she has done and that she and Dan J. Sullivan should be removed from the ballot. Trump also called her actions election fraud and wrote that Dan Sullivan should be allowed to run without either Mary Peltola or what he called FAKE Dan Sullivan on the ballot. Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan, said in a statement Wednesday that Alaskans deserve the truth and that Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans to deceive voters.

Alaska courts reviewed Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy and found nothing illegal about his bid to appear on the ballot, though they did not find it was entirely in good faith or free of an attempt to confuse and mislead, as the Trump administration and Republicans contend. The Department of Justice has an active criminal investigation into the circumstances of Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy that dates back several months, ABC News has reported. The Trump administration filed a lawsuit last week to block certification of the Alaska Senate race if Sen. Sullivan narrowly loses, citing voter confusion over two Dan Sullivans on the ballot. District Judge Sharon Gleason signaled skepticism of the Justice Department's approach on Monday and noted that Alaskans have already begun casting ballots.