Alaska ‘same-name candidate’ scandal: Democratic strategist says ‘this stuff happens all the time’

A fresh controversy has erupted around the Senate election in the US state of Alaska. Democrats-linked operatives have been accused of trying to field another candidate with the same name to split the vote against incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.

The allegation surfaced in a New York Times report. According to the report, Democratic operatives recruited a man named Dan Sullivan to run as a spoiler candidate, potentially aiding the Republican senator’s opponent, former Representative Mary Peltola.

But appearing on a panel on the television channel MS NOW, Democratic strategist Adrienne Elrod was quick to shrug off the controversy. “Some of this stuff happens all the time,” she said.

Elrod compared the matter to the 2024 presidential election. In her account, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran against Joe Biden, Republicans propped him up; many Trump donors gave him money because they thought he would draw away some of Biden’s supporters. He later ran as an independent.

“The bottom line is this stuff happens all the time. There are tactics that both campaigns can use. It is very clear who is the incumbent. So if you’re a Republican or any voter in Alaska, and you want to support the incumbent, you know who you’re voting for,” Elrod added. She admitted at the same time that she had not read the Times report.

MS NOW anchor Peter Alexander said the “funny business” involving Democrats in Alaska was “not illegal”. He pointed out that the Republican senator is listed as “incumbent” on the ballot, which he argued undermined the Trump administration’s concerns about voter confusion.

Republicans have long been suspicious about the candidacy of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher who is among four Senate candidates listed on Alaska’s ranked-choice ballot.

The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the state of Alaska. It seeks to block certification of the election results if the incumbent senator loses and votes cast for the other Sullivan could have changed the outcome.

The New York Times report began this way: in the summer of 2025, a staffer for Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat who was eyeing a run for Senate, received unusual instructions from top campaign aides — find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can.

According to the report, the staffer combed through voter records to produce a list of Dan Sullivans from across the state. If the Peltola campaign or its allies could persuade another Dan Sullivan to run for Senate, the confusion could cost the senator crucial votes. “The plan worked,” the report said.

According to Peltola’s former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, Peltola was not directly involved in the scheme but was “definitely aware”.

The Peltola campaign has repeatedly denied any involvement in his candidacy. But the Times reported, based on interviews and text messages along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that Peltola’s team not only worked with people trying to recruit Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory.