alleged scheme to confuse voters

The Justice Department has issued at least three dozen new subpoenas and document preservation requests as part of its probe into the Alaska Senate race, a U.S. official confirmed to NBC News on Thursday.

The subpoenas were sent to Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign offices and those of former schoolteacher Dan J. Sullivan, who is also running for Senate.

The move comes the same day Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced that he is ordering an investigation into Peltola’s campaign following a report that it worked with allies to recruit a candidate with the same name as incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan in an effort to siphon his votes.

The Department of Public Safety will seek to determine “whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted,” Dunleavy said in an overnight post to X. “The evidence will determine what happens next.”

Dunleavy, a Republican, referred to Wednesday’s revelations from a bombshell New York Times report as “disturbing new evidence” and said that “anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable.”

The New York Times reported on an alleged push by Democrats in Alaska to get another Dan Sullivan on the ballot, in what has been described as ballot stacking. Legal experts say this is not illegal, while some describe the tactic as "dirty."

Alaska’s Department of Public Safety Deputy Commissioner Austin McDaniel said Thursday that the Alaska Bureau of Investigation had started looking into the “alleged conduct in a recent New York Times article,” at Dunleavy’s request.

“The Alaska State Troopers are committed to the fair and impartial enforcement of Alaska’s criminal laws, including those that protect the integrity of our elections. We will work closely with our partners at the Alaska Department of Law to ensure that the facts are thoroughly examined and that anyone found to have violated state law is held accountable,” McDaniel said in a statement.

The Peltola campaign did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

A Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson said a statement given to NBC News and other outlets, “The DSCC is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan,” adding that Republicans “have a long history of recruiting and propping up candidates in an attempt to boost their own campaigns.”

At a campaign event Thursday night, Peltola denied any knowledge of the reported scheme.

“I have to, right off the top, before any jokes, before any heartfelt reasons why you should get out and vote, I just want to clear the air,” she said at the beginning of her speech. “I knew nothing about any other candidates on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters.”

The Times’ revelations have rocked the critical battleground race with just days to go before Tuesday’s election. Republicans have widely condemned Democrats for allegedly trying to manipulate the ballot in an attempt to confuse voters — an accusation the GOP has been making since the second Sullivan entered the race.

President Donald Trump on Thursday cast doubt on whether Republicans would seat Peltola if she wins her race.

Asked by a reporter whether he thought Republicans should refuse to seat Peltola if she wins, Trump said, “You’re going to have to see what happens.” He added it was “hard to believe that she could even be allowed to run.”

The Times published an explosive report detailing the campaign and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s alleged efforts to recruit a Senate candidate with the same name as the incumbent, citing interviews with 12 people who were involved with or were told about the plan, or were contacted as potential recruits. The report also cited dozens of text messages among participants.

The Times’ report included information from Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager, who was fired in August. Rios later contacted the Times and “retracted all statements made regarding the 2026 Alaska Senate Race,” the outlet said. It also reported that she had been planning to file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the campaign but has not done so.

NBC News previously reported that the second Sullivan’s candidacy was under investigation by state and federal prosecutors in Alaska, and a grand jury issued subpoenas for information from witnesses linked to his campaign in August.

The Justice Department also filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block the certification of the election if the incumbent Sullivan loses.

Incumbent Dan S. Sullivan denounced the reported efforts to recruit the other Dan Sullivan in a phone interview with Fox News on Thursday, calling it “a secret operation” to “trick Alaskans.”

“We’ll see if it’s illegal or not,” Sullivan told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum.

Reached for comment Wednesday on the Times report, a spokesperson for Peltola’s campaign said the campaign “has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.” The campaign also pointed to instances of Republicans allegedly propping up “spoiler” candidates.

NBC News has previously reported that people who worked to recruit challenger Sullivan did not necessarily violate the law.

Stephen Richer, an election analyst for NBC News, said those involved in the recruitment could be in the clear legally if there was “no inducement, like money or threats” and the candidate ran “of his or her own volition, even if we don’t agree with the reasons that the person is choosing to run.”

The Times did not report any evidence that Sullivan was coerced, and he has said he entered the race of his own accord.

Following the report, Trump called for Peltola and the challenger Sullivan to be “removed from the ballot and prosecuted.”

Asked by a reporter whether he agreed that Peltola should be prosecuted, Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that “we should certainly look into whether she committed election fraud.”

“She is trying to steal a Senate seat from the voters of Alaska, and it’s disgraceful,” he said later. “So whether it’s criminal or not, she certainly has committed, I think, a great moral failing, and hopefully the voters of Alaska punish her.”

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said Thursday that his committee was requesting transcribed interviews with Rios and a Democratic operative, Jerid Kurtz, who reportedly was involved in recruiting the challenger Dan Sullivan.

“If you do not voluntarily appear for the interview, we will be forced to evaluate the use of compulsory process,” Comer wrote in letters to the two.

The Times reported that Kurtz did not respond to repeated requests for comment and made his social media accounts private.

Both Democrats and Republicans have a history of trying to prop up candidates who could draw votes from their main opponents.

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called the reported Peltola campaign effort “unprecedented” in an interview Thursday on Fox News, saying he believed the Sullivan saga “was a concerted effort to manipulate and to deceive the voters of Alaska.”

“The voters of Alaska are going to see through that,” he said.