President Trump flies to Alaska today to campaign for Sen. Dan S. Sullivan — and the strangest fight of the 2026 midterms is waiting for him there: another man named Dan Sullivan, who Republicans say is on the ballot to steal the senator's votes. Trump is set to speak at 3:30 p.m. at the Menard Sports Center in Wasilla, a 3,500-seat arena in the Mat-Su Valley, days after Vice President JD Vance rallied for Sullivan in Fairbanks.
Sullivan, a Republican seeking a third term, faces former Rep. Mary Peltola, the Democrat national Democrats recruited to flip the seat. The race is one of the most closely watched in the country, and control of the Senate could run through it — which is exactly why the second Sullivan matters.
Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. is a retired teacher from Petersburg who filed in May, first trying to run under the name “Dan S. Sullivan” — the senator's exact ballot name, middle initial included — with branding modeled on the incumbent's. Division of Elections director Carol Beecher struck him from the ballot, concluding the filing was made to confuse voters. A judge ruled officials had no legal right to disqualify him, and in June the Alaska Supreme Court ordered him kept in the race. On the November ballot he appears as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. with no party label; the senator is marked as the Republican incumbent.
“His whole purpose of running is to confuse Alaskans, to make them think — Alaskan voters — that somehow he's me, so they could rig the vote in favor of Mary Peltola.” — Sen. Dan Sullivan
The other Sullivan denies he is anyone's plant, and Democrats deny any coordination with him. He has attacked the senator for embracing Trump's endorsement, saying the president is more interested in raising tariffs on allies than in lowering the cost of groceries, housing and energy. The courts, for their part, ruled only that officials cannot invent a good-faith test the law does not contain — not that the candidacy is what it claims to be.
In Alaska's ranked-choice system, even a small slice of mistaken votes can decide a race this close. Trump carried the state by about 13 points in 2024, but Peltola has already won statewide — and the Senate majority is on the line.
“The Democrats are obsessed with this state this cycle,” Vance told the Fairbanks crowd. Today, the president makes the same case in person.
President Trump has now confirmed that he personally ordered the Justice Department's legal action to block certification of Alaska's Senate race over the two candidates named Dan Sullivan. "I'm the one that said do it. They have two Dan Sullivans," Trump said, in remarks reported by Profilo Politics on Instagram. No independent outlet had carried the exact quote at the time of the report. The lawsuit, U.S. v. Alaska, No. 3:26-cv-00376, was filed on October 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, asking the court to preserve and segregate ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan and to fast-track sworn answers and depositions from the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Senator Lisa Murkowski has blasted the Justice Department's lawsuit, defending the state's handling of the ballot. "Alaskans don't need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year's ballot," Murkowski said. "The Department of Justice should never have filed this lawsuit." Her statement, reported by the Associated Press, came as Trump warned that confusion between the two Dan Sullivans could flip the race to the Democrats.