As of October 23, 2026. Election Day is November 3.
The U.S. Justice Department sued Alaska on Thursday, asking a federal court to block certification of the state’s U.S. Senate election under certain conditions if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola. The lawsuit centers on a second candidate on the ballot, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., who the department says is running to confuse the senator’s supporters.
President Trump said Friday that he told the administration to file the suit.
What the lawsuit asks for
The complaint, filed October 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, names the state, Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher, and the boards that count and review ballots.
It doesn’t ask to block certification in every case where the senator loses. It asks the court to bar certification of any result “that may be impacted by voter confusion,” which it defines as a result where both of these are true:
- Sen. Sullivan does not win, and
- He would have won if all the votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan had gone to him instead, with Alaska’s ranked-choice tabulation run accordingly.
In that case, the department wants certification held while an investigation determines whether votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan were meant for the senator, followed by whatever further steps the court considers appropriate.
The legal basis is the National Voter Registration Act, which says one of its purposes is to protect the integrity of the electoral process. The complaint argues the state would fail that duty if it certified a result affected by a candidacy that Alaska’s own elections director found was meant to mislead voters.
How the ballot fight got here
- May 29: Daniel J. Sullivan, a first-time candidate, filed to run for Senate and asked to appear on the ballot as “Dan Sullivan,” a Republican.
- June 15: Beecher ruled his candidacy wasn’t filed in good faith and removed him from the ballot. She cited his request to use the shortened name “Dan Sullivan,” which he hadn’t used before; his switch to the Republican Party just before filing; his work with a consultant who has supported Democrats, including Peltola; and a campaign website resembling the senator’s.
- June 26–29: A state trial court ruled the Division of Elections was wrong to remove him, and the Alaska Supreme Court summarily upheld that ruling, with a full opinion to come later. He argued that state law doesn’t regulate a candidate’s private reasons for running.
- August primary: All candidates appear together on Alaska’s primary ballot, and the top four advance. According to the complaint, Peltola received 49.5%, Sen. Sullivan 41.4%, Daniel J. Sullivan 2.5% and Republican Gerald Heikes 1.1%.
According to the complaint, Daniel J. Sullivan told The New York Times in July that he voted for Democrats in the last three presidential elections and for Peltola when she ran for Congress. Peltola’s campaign has said it has no involvement with his candidacy, ABC News reported.
On the November ballot, the senator appears as “Dan S. Sullivan” with his Republican affiliation and incumbent status noted. The challenger appears as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” without a party designation. Alaska’s general election uses ranked-choice voting, so voters can rank all four candidates.
How the sides are responding
- The Justice Department said in a statement that it is acting so that a “frivolous candidacy” doesn’t undermine the integrity of Alaska’s election, and noted that the state’s own Republican election officials had tried to remove the challenger.
- Democrats called it an attempt to overturn the result in advance. Devan Barber, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, called it a “sham lawsuit.”
- Sen. Sullivan’s campaign said it would let the DOJ complaint run its course and that Alaskans can tell the difference between the two candidates. The Associated Press reported that the campaign didn’t say whether the senator supports the lawsuit.
What legal experts say
Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame, told the Associated Press that the lawsuit would likely only matter if Republicans narrowly lost, and that it probably wouldn’t survive long in court because the statute doesn’t let the Justice Department block certification.
Under the Constitution, states run federal elections, including setting ballot access rules and certifying results. The question of whether federal courts can step in after the voting, based on a candidacy a state court already allowed on the ballot, is likely to be the central legal fight.
The state of the race
Alaska is a Republican-leaning state that Trump carried by double digits in 2024, but the Senate race is close. Decision Desk HQ’s polling average has Peltola at 49.1% and Sullivan at 47.5%, and its forecast rates the race Lean Democratic, giving Peltola a 61% chance of winning as of October 22. Peltola has raised about $32.6 million to Sullivan’s $13.8 million through September 30, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by Decision Desk HQ.
With Daniel J. Sullivan at 2.5% in the primary, his share is larger than the margin in most recent polls, which is the core of the department’s argument.
What to watch
- The court’s first response. A judge could act quickly on any request for preliminary relief, or let the case wait until after results are known.
- The Alaska Supreme Court’s full opinion on why the challenger was allowed on the ballot, which hasn’t been issued yet.
- The ranked-choice count. If no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, Alaska eliminates the lowest finishers and redistributes their votes, which is where Daniel J. Sullivan’s ballots would matter.