Democrat Mary Peltola's own campaign staff ran a secret monthslong operation to put a fake Dan Sullivan on the Alaska ballot.
Now Alaska's governor is threatening to block her from ever being seated in the Senate.
Because what Peltola's aides swore in federal court just became a perjury investigation.
How Peltola Aides Recruited Decoy Dan Sullivan to Rig the Alaska Senate Race
The New York Times confirmed what Republicans had been saying for months.
Alaska Democrat Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign aides and the DSCC coordinated to find and recruit a retiree named Daniel J. Sullivan to challenge Republican Senator Dan Sullivan – spending months on the operation while publicly claiming they had never been involved.
Democrats needed a second Dan Sullivan on the Alaska ballot to bleed off confused votes from the real senator and slip Peltola through on ranked-choice voting.
The recruit – Decoy Dan Sullivan – voted Democrat in the last three presidential elections and donated directly to Peltola's campaign.
Then Peltola's campaign went to federal court denying they had anything to do with him.
President Trump demanded consequences, calling the scheme "voter fraud at the highest level": "The Democrats' false statements were made under oath in federal court. Therefore they perjured themselves, and should be liable for very serious consequences."
Alaska's Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher tried to pull Decoy Dan off the ballot after finding he had filed as "Dan S. Sullivan" – the sitting senator's exact name – when his legal name is Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.
Beecher found he chose the name for one reason – it matched the senator's – and Decoy Dan's own son works as a Democratic political operative.
Courts put him back on the ballot anyway, leaving two men named Dan Sullivan on the November 3 ballot – a sitting United States senator and a retired schoolteacher who had already voted for Peltola in both of her House races.
Dunleavy Threatens to Block Election Certification if Peltola Wins the Alaska Senate Race
Two days before Election Day, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy stopped hinting.
"We are going to investigate it, we're going to follow the law and if we conclude that there were things that should not have happened, let me put it that way, that are illegal, we will act on that," Dunleavy said. He wasn't finished: "And that may, in fact, impact whether somebody is seated in the U.S. Senate."
The Department of Justice has already filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block certification of any Peltola victory while investigating whether Decoy Dan votes cost Sullivan the race.
The DOJ called Decoy Dan's candidacy "frivolous" in its court filing and said it was not about to let it decide a Senate race.
And on certification itself, Dunleavy said: "If that means that the certification then is stopped or changed, then that's what happens."
A sitting governor just told the country he may refuse to seat a Democrat whose campaign engineered the fraud that put her there.
The law allows exactly that.
Ranked Choice Voting Gave Democrats the Cover to Run Their Election Fraud Scheme
Democrats know this system well – Peltola used ranked-choice voting to win her 2022 House seat, and Alaska Republicans have been trying to repeal it ever since.
Other Alaskans named Dan Sullivan were approached first and said no.
The man they eventually recruited had already voted for Peltola twice – they were not looking for someone random; they were looking for someone loyal.
Ranked-choice voting was the weapon because it is complicated enough to hide the crime inside the math – get enough confused voters to pick the wrong Dan Sullivan, and Peltola wins a race she couldn't win straight up.
Democrats who have spent years screaming about election integrity just tried to steal a United States Senate seat with a name trick.
Governor Dunleavy just told Democrats that winning on Tuesday and getting seated in January are two very different things.
Sources:
- Bob Unruh, "Governor Warns Election Certification Uncertain Amid Investigation into Dem 'Dan Sullivan' Scheme," WorldNetDaily, October 30, 2026.
- Catherine Salgado, "Democrat Campaign Recruited 'Decoy Dan' Sullivan to Run in Alaska," PJ Media, October 28, 2026.
- "RNC Applauds Removal of 'Decoy' Dan Sullivan From Alaska Ballot," Townhall, June 15, 2026.
- "Court Looks to Decide Fate of 'Decoy' Candidate with Same Name as Senator," Daily Caller News Foundation, June 29, 2026.
- Donald Trump, Truth Social statement, October 2026.
