Alaska Senate Candidate With Same Name As GOP Incumbent Ruled Ineligible For Ballot

A candidate named Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, Alaska, was ruled ineligible to appear on the August 2026 primary ballot for Alaska’s U.S. Senate race. The development is notable, as Republicans had raised questions over Democrat-led deception due to the fact that Sullivan bears the same name as incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan.

Dan J. Sullivan, a longtime Alaska resident who moved to the state in 1980, previously affiliated with the Alaska Independence Party. He worked as a fifth-grade teacher and has served in local roles, such as on a Petersburg board.

He filed as a Republican for the Senate race and maintained a campaign website at sullivanforsenate.com. He stated his candidacy stemmed from dissatisfaction with the incumbent and a desire to offer voters an alternative, emphasizing his background and views aligned with compassionate conservatism.

Sullivan ultimately filed his declaration of candidacy shortly before the deadline, listing himself as “Dan Sullivan” and affiliating with the Republican Party. This created overlap with the incumbent, who has used “Dan Sullivan” or “Dan S. Sullivan” in campaigns.

The filing occurred in a nonpartisan primary system under Alaska’s rules established by Ballot Measure 2 in 2020.

Under Alaska’s open primary system, all candidates for an office appear on a single ballot regardless of party. Voters select one candidate, and the top four vote-getters then advance to the general election.

The general election uses ranked-choice voting (RCV), where voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the lowest vote-getter is eliminated, and votes are redistributed to next preferences until one candidate achieves over 50% support.

Following complaints from the Alaska Republican Party and others, the Division of Elections reviewed Dan J. Sullivan’s filing. Officials examined voter registration records, party affiliation history, campaign materials, and associations.

On June 15, Director Carol Beecher issued a final determination decertifying his candidacy.

Beecher concluded the declaration “was not properly filed with the Division because it 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.”

She went on to cite several factors in making the ruling:

“(1) You requested to access the ballot under the name ‘Dan Sullivan’ even though it appears from Division records that you have never registered to vote or sought ballot access under this name. Our records indicate that you are registered to vote under the name ‘Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.’ … you initially emailed the Division asking to be listed on the ballot as ‘Dan S. Sullivan.’ ‘S’ is Senator Sullivan’s middle initial, not yours.”

(2) You requested to be designated on the ballot as affiliated with the Republican Party. Until two days before you filed your declaration of candidacy, you had never—according to the Division’s records—been affiliated with the Republican Party in Alaska.”

(3) Your public campaign website (https://www.sullivanforsenate.com/) uses a format, color scheme and overall theme similar to the public website for Senator Sullivan’s campaign (https://dansullivanforalaska.com/). … the similarity … appears to be deliberate.”

(4) A political consultant you have admitted is working with your campaign is a known longtime supporter of Democratic candidates including the primary Democratic challenger to Senator Sullivan.”

Rando 'Dan Sullivan' kicked off Alaska ballot in a win for the real Sen. Dan Sullivan https://t.co/E1EIgGGKvX pic.twitter.com/PLuhFgX2N5

— New York Post (@nypost) June 15, 2026

“A declaration of candidacy filed for the purpose of confusing or misleading voters and compromising the fairness of the ballot is not properly filed as required by Alaska Statute 15.25.060,” she added. Dan J. Sullivan has 30 days to appeal, though he will be short on time, as ballots print on June 28.

The incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan and Republican groups alleged the challenger’s entry could mislead voters in a race where the senator faces Democrat Mary Peltola, who is widely viewed as a competitive challenger. The challenger denied coordination and maintained that his filing was legitimate.

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