The Republican governor of Alaska, Mike Dunleavy, ordered an investigation into a Senate candidacy allegedly promoted by the Democratic campaign to harm Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.
© Spencer Platt/Getty Images
29/10/2026
by
Lusa
O republican governor of Alaska, Mike Dunleavy, ordered an investigation into an American Senate candidacy allegedly promoted by the Democratic campaign to harm Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.
The preliminary investigation aims to determine whether the state's electoral laws have been violated and whether there are grounds to proceed with criminal or civil prosecutions, Dunleavy announced on social network X.
It is about the candidacy of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired professor who shares the name and surname of Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, supported by American President Donald Trump, and who faces a close dispute with Democrat Mary Peltola.
An investigation released on Wednesday by The New York Times revealed that members of Peltola's campaign encouraged the candidacy of the retired professor in a strategy aimed at dividing Republican votes.
The journalistic investigation, based on interviews, messages and documents, however, did not identify any illegal behavior.
The governor considered that the revelations constitute “new disturbing evidence of an organized effort to manipulate elections in Alaska,” through recruitment of candidates to confuse voters.
“ Deliberately deceiving voters to vote for someone other than the candidate they want to support achieves the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy said.
The Alaskan election authorities had initially rejected the candidacy of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., considering that it could compromise the impartiality of the ballot.
However, the state Supreme Court decided in June that the candidate met the legal conditions to compete.
The retired professor, residing in the fishing community of Petersburg, repeatedly denied having been recruited by the Democrats and ensured that he had never kept in touch with the Peltola campaign.
In the voting papers, the two candidates are differentiated by name and party identification: the senator appears as “Dan S. Sullivan”, identified as Republican and holder of the position, while his homonym appears as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.”, without indicated party affiliation.
Alaska uses an electoral system in which voters can order candidates by preference, instead of choosing only one name.
Mary Peltola, a former Democratic congressman, rejected the charges, classifying the controversy as an attempt to divert attention from political issues, including the Republican senator's support for the war against Iran.
On Wednesday, Trump defended the opening of criminal proceedings against Peltola and those responsible for his campaign, and also called for the invalidation of applications by the Democrat and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.
The US President had already announced a preventive judicial initiative to challenge a possible Democratic victory in Alaska.
The Justice Department filed an action in a federal court to prevent state authorities from certifying election results that may have been affected by the alleged confusion between candidates.
The initiative aims to force the electoral authorities to determine, in the event of the defeat of the Republican senator, to what extent the candidacy of his homonym may have influenced the result.
The dispute is one of the elections considered decisive to determine the control of the Senate in the mid-terms of November 3.
Although Trump won in Alaska in the 2024 presidential period by a 13 percentage point margin, the most recent polls cited by the American press put Peltola slightly ahead of the Republican senator.