 |
| On the ropes, Dan Sullivan and President Donald J. Trump will fight the results if Mary Peltola or Dan Sullivan, Jr. wins. |
Former Democratic lawmaker is prime target for President Donald J. Trump and his allies if she wins an uphill race to win the Great North.
Mary Peltola, the former U.S. House member is close to an upset win against Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK). In the state of Alaska, they have rank choice voting where the top candidates will end up in a run off if the two do not achieve 50.9% of the vote.
Peltola, the first indigenous lawmaker who is Inuit. She is a widow who lost her husband in 2023 after a plane crash. She lost to Rep. Nick Begich III (R-AK) in 2024.
Sullivan is running against Peltola and two other candidates. The other candidates are Republican Gearld Heikes and Dan Sullivan, Jr.
The Republicans are angry that Dan Sullivan, Jr. is on the ballot and it could "confuse" Alaskans into voting against Sen. Sullivan.
President Donald J. Trump has the U.S. Department of Justice and its incompetent Attorney General Todd Blanche are preparing an investigation into Peltola.
Daniel James Sullivan and Daniel Scott Sullivan are unrelated to each other, and are unrelated to former Anchorage mayor Daniel Albert Sullivan.
In an interview with the Petersburg Pilot, Sullivan stated that he had been considering running against the incumbent U.S. senator for 12 years, and remarked that he finally decided to run after the Senator's lack of opposition to the Anti-Weaponization Fund. Senator Sullivan said this was "an effort to confuse Alaskans" and "dirty politics" by Democrats, calling Dan J. Sullivan a "sham candidate". This was denied by Dan J. Sullivan, who called himself a "pragmatic Republican centrist". It was also denied by Mary Peltola's campaign, the Alaska Democratic Party, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Senator Sullivan threatened legal action if the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska did not remove Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot.
 |
| Mary Peltola's return could happen. Will the return mean continued support for Israel despite frustrations from her Democratic supporters? |
Dan J. Sullivan grew up in the Chicago metropolitan area, and has lived in Southeast Alaska since 1980. He worked for the United States Forest Service in his early career before beginning a career as an elementary school teacher.
Sullivan taught in elementary schools for over 20 years before retiring. He was appointed to the city of Petersburg's Public Safety Advisory Board in December 2021. He served in that position until October 2022.
He stated that he was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party from when he moved to Alaska in 1980 until the party's dissolution in late 2025.
Sullivan's initial campaign announcement stated that he was "focused on unseating the incumbent, putting Alaska first, and restoring accountability, common sense, and public service to Washington, D.C."
He later described his political philosophy as "a pragmatic Republican centrist" similar to Lisa Murkowski, with influence from Rand Paul. Incumbent U.S. Senator Daniel Scott Sullivan argued in an early June 2026 interview with CNN that "[Daniel James Sullivan's] whole purpose of running is to confuse Alaskans, to make him, make them think – Alaskan voters – that somehow he's me, so they could rig the vote in favor of Mary Peltola."
An analysis of Federal Election Commission records by KTUU-TV showed that he had donated to Peltola's previous campaigns, including $100 in 2022 and $30 in 2024. KTUU reported that "That financial history is the extent of the documented link between the Petersburg Sullivan and the Peltola campaign."
His initial press release and website design were supported by political strategist Amber Lee, who has previously worked with Democratic campaigns in Alaska. Lee has publicly spoken in favor of Peltola's candidacy, including in a January 2026 interview with The Hill.
The Wall Street Journal reported that weeks before the election, polls showed that approximately one third of voters likely to vote in the primary election could not distinguish the two candidates. Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy was the subject of legal debate, which as of June 27, 2026 advanced to the Alaska Supreme Court. In its initial response to Sullivan's candidacy filing, the Alaska Division of Elections stated that Sullivan's name would appear on the ballot as "Sullivan, Dan J. (Registered Republican)."
An Alaskan election official ordered Sullivan's name removed from the ballot, as his candidacy "was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot's fairness or neutrality", a decision he appealed.
Anchorage Superior Court judge Thomas A. Matthews reversed the Division of Elections' decision to exclude Sullivan from the primary ballot on June 26. Matthews' decision ruled that the "good-faith" standard for ballot access was not supported by Alaska law, the Division of Elections' regulations, or Article One, Section 3 of the United States Constitution.
On July 2 the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the decision, ordering Sullivan's name to be listed on the August 18th primary ballot. The Division of Elections released a sample ballot that will distinguish between the two Sullivans by listing Dan J. Sullivan as "Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr." and no party affiliation (despite Sullivan filing as a Republican) and identifying Dan S. Sullivan as the incumbent, which the DoE had not done for any other incumbent for at least 10 years.
Trump without evidence claimed Peltola who lives in remote Bethel, Alaska managed to convince Sullivan, Jr. who lives in remote Petersburg to run. The conspiracy claims intensified following an October 2026 report by The New York Times. The report alleged that in 2025, top aides for Mary Peltola’s campaign instructed a staffer to comb through Alaska voter records specifically to find anyone named "Dan Sullivan" who could be persuaded to run.
Peltola has publicly stated that she "knew nothing about" the second Sullivan and emphasized to her supporters that she is "not interested in tricking voters."
Sullivan Jr. has maintained in interviews that he decided to run entirely of his own volition because he was dissatisfied with the performance of the incumbent senator. He has denied any knowledge of or involvement in an organized plot.
If one of them wins, Trump vows to push for them not to be seated.
Anyway, vote in Alaska for Mary Peltola. I am not keen on her like in the earlier rise. She is a continuation of the pro Israel Democrats and independent lawmakers despite it going against her Inuit heritage and their fights against colonialism.
