Trump calls for prosecution of Democratic Alaska Senate candidate over spoiler candidate controversy

President Donald Trump called for the criminal prosecution of the Democratic candidate running for Senate in Alaska on Wednesday after revelations that her campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.

The race is among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber. Trump had previously directed his Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Senate race should Democrat Mary Peltola defeat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

“I think they should be prosecuted,” the Republican president said about Peltola and the other Sullivan, responding to questions about a report in The New York Times. He earlier had posted on social media that “Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done.”

The newspaper obtained text messages between members of Peltola's campaign discussing recruiting other people with the same name as the two-term Republican. They eventually landed on a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community of Petersburg named Dan J. Sullivan. He made it through the state's August open primary and is one of four candidates on the ranked vote ballot for next Tuesday's general election.

Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola's campaign: “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.

He did not respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday from The Associated Press.

Peltola's campaign, in a statement, said: “Mary got in this race because Alaskans deserve a champion who is fighting to lower their costs and put Alaska first, and no tweet or threat from any DC politician will keep her away from that fight.”

During a campaign stop in Soldotna, Peltola suggested the Times' report was a “distraction" from issues such as Sen. Sullivan's support of the war in Iran.

“This is just another diversion,” she said in a video posted online. “This is all stuff to sell newspapers. This is all stuff to get subscriptions."

Earlier this year, a top state elections official ruled Dan J. Sullivan ineligible for the primary ballot, concluding that his declaration of candidacy was filed "with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was qualified to run.

Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has endorsed Sullivan and is a longtime friend of Peltola, said in a statement that 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 that belongs nowhere in our elections or among our elected officials.”

Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan’s campaign, said: “Mary Peltola, her campaign and her senior advisers colluded with the DSCC, national Democrat lawyers and Alaska Democrat operatives to recruit candidates to deliberately confuse and deceive voters.”

Peltola's campaign, in a statement Wednesday, said it “has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.” They issued a similar statement in June after Sen. Sullivan questioned the other Sullivan's candidacy.

Democrats, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, have repeatedly denied that they were involved in any campaign trick.

“The DSCC is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan," the organization said in a statement Wednesday. The Times report said DSCC staffers were on texts with the Peltola campaign discussing the second Sullivan.

Legal experts said the report about Democrats appearing to recruit Dan J. Sullivan as a way to potentially confuse voters will have no impact on a lawsuit filed recently by the U.S. Department of Justice. President Donald Trump directed the department to file the lawsuit, which seeks to halt certification of a possible Peltola win, citing the presence of the second Dan Sullivan on the ballot.

“It’s a dirty campaign trick, and it’s a good reason the Alaska Supreme Court should have permitted the candidate to have been removed from the ballot,” said Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor. “But now it’s in the hands of the voters, not litigation.”

It's not the first time a candidate's appearance on the Alaska ballot has been questioned. In 2024, the state Democratic Party sued to keep off the U.S. House ballot a man with no apparent ties to the state who is serving time in a federal prison in New York. A divided state Supreme Court allowed him to remain on the ballot. The man is running again this year, also in the House race, and is on the Nov. 3 ranked vote general election ballot.

The Times story about the recruitment of Dan J. Sullivan is based partly on interviews with Peltola's former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, who was fired in August amid a campaign shake-up. The newspaper said she tried to retract her comments last week. Efforts by the AP to reach Rios were not immediately successful.

Through Tuesday, more than 61,000 ballots had already been cast in Alaska, according to AP data. Sen. Sullivan is listed on the ballot as the Republican incumbent. The other Sullivan is listed as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation.

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Riccardi reported from Denver.