Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday ordered an investigation into whether Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign should face criminal charges or civil penalties for recruiting a candidate who shares the name of Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, less than a week before Alaskans finish voting in one of the country's closest Senate races.
Senior Peltola advisers and aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee helped recruit Dan J. Sullivan, a retiree from a small Alaska fishing village, because his first and last name match the incumbent's, according to The New York Times. Text messages the Times reviewed show the Peltola campaign and the DSCC discussed the recruitment for months. Both Sullivans, Peltola and Gerald Heikes will appear on Tuesday's ballot.
"Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support. Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections," Dunleavy, a Republican, wrote on X. "Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable."
Peltola's former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, described the plan to the Times. The campaign pushed Rios out in an August staff shake-up. She told the paper that Peltola did not take part in the recruitment herself but was "definitely aware" of it.
"Alaskan voters need to know," Rios said, adding that voters "should get the full picture."
Peltola and the DSCC denied any involvement before the report. Speaking at a rally Wednesday, Peltola called the revelations "just another distraction."
A spokesman for Sen. Sullivan said Peltola and her campaign "have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along."
President Trump addressed the story Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews before leaving to campaign for Republicans in Ohio. He said Peltola should leave the race and face prosecution.
"Mary Peltola should resign from the race. I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did," Trump told reporters.
"They said they didn't do it, and they did do it, and they got caught," the president said, describing the effort as "a plot by the Democrat Party" and adding, "To me, that's voter fraud at the highest level."
Trump also called for removing Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot and said any Peltola allies who helped recruit him should face criminal charges. Peltola herself said back in August, "It should be a criminal offense to lie or mislead the electorate."
Fox News reported that the Justice Department is conducting an "aggressive criminal investigation" into how Dan J. Sullivan reached the ballot and expects to issue subpoenas within days. Investigators have told cell phone companies to preserve texts and emails. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Alaska opened the probe months ago and stepped it up after the Times report. Possible charges involve depriving Alaska voters of their rights.
The Alaska Supreme Court has already rejected an effort to remove Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot, ruling that neither state law nor the U.S. Constitution authorized it to judge a candidate's motives. Dan J. Sullivan has said he voted for Democrats in the last three presidential elections and for Peltola in her 2022 and 2024 House races.
Last week, at Trump's direction, the Justice Department sued to block Alaska from certifying a Peltola victory if Dan J. Sullivan stays on the ballot. The lawsuit said his purpose was to "dupe Alaska's voters into believing that he is Senator Sullivan." The filing cited no specific illegal activity and sought an investigation only if the incumbent lost.
Alaska moved to dismiss the case. The state said its elections division had worked to distinguish the two Sullivans. It argued that "the United States lacks authority to intervene in state elections at all, much less in support of a favored candidate." Election officials list Sen. Sullivan as the incumbent and print each candidate's initials on the ballot.
Chief U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason approved an expedited schedule and gave the Justice Department until Thursday afternoon to respond to the motion to dismiss. In her order, Gleason noted the administration filed suit after Alaskans had begun voting and nearly four months after the state Supreme Court ordered Dan J. Sullivan onto the ballot. She could rule as early as Friday night.
Democrats tried to defend the tactic by comparing it to past Republican efforts to boost minor Democrat and third-party candidates in other races - a tactic both parties have used, and even actively recruiting a candidate with the same name to confuse voters isn't new.
In John F. Kennedy's first House race in 1946, his campaign paid a 27-year-old janitor named Joe Russo to get on the ballot and split the vote of Joseph Russo, a well-known Boston city councilor.
Peltola is the only Democrat on the four-person ballot after Democrats pressured David Leslie, who had also advanced from the primary, to drop out.
Murkowski, who endorsed Peltola in past races and backs Sen. Sullivan this year, condemned the scheme.
"While some may try to write this off as just how politics works now, ballot-stacking should have no place in our electoral process," Murkowski said. "Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Mary and her campaign - what has been revealed is a pattern of lies and coverups and a culture of deception."