Alaska GOP Races to Clear Voter Confusion After Same-Name Candidate Splinters Senate Primary

Alaska Republicans are scrambling to educate voters about a same-name candidate who splintered support from Sen. Dan Sullivan in Tuesday's jungle primary, warning that ranked-choice "ballot fatigue" could hand the seat to Democrats in November. Former Rep. Mary Peltola led the field by 5.4 points over the two-term incumbent, and GOP officials now fear a confusing ballot could decide the race.

The culprit is Dan J. Sullivan Jr., an independent who filed as a Republican and pulled 2.3 percent of the primary vote -- votes that would not have closed Peltola's lead but that Republicans say reveal a deliberate effort to muddy the waters. In the challenger's hometown of Petersburg Kupreanof, he took 66 votes to the senator's 213, roughly a third of the incumbent's support there.

Peltola Leads as GOP Vote Splinters

Peltola, recruited into the race by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, topped the field that will advance to November's general election under Alaska's top-four primary rules, though final results are not yet certified. Former Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich pointed to an uncomfortable comparison: Rep. Nick Begich, the state's lone congressman, pulled 60,061 votes in his own primary -- slightly more than the three top Republican-leaning Senate candidates combined.

"Nick Begich, without all this entertainment, has 60,061 votes," Ruedrich said. "There is some obvious crossover."

The Same-Name Fight

The drama began weeks before the primary, when Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher disqualified Sullivan Jr. over concerns his candidacy was "filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot's fairness or neutrality." A judge later allowed him back on the ballot.

Beecher's letter catalogued a series of red flags: the newcomer requested to appear on the ballot as "Dan Sullivan" despite registering as "Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.," at one point tried to use the senator's middle initial, had no prior Republican registration, and launched a website with a color scheme similar to the incumbent's. She also noted the campaign's connection to Amber Lee, an Alaska Democratic consultant who has previously supported Peltola -- metadata from the campaign's launch identified her as its author.

"This consultant's work on your behalf is, in isolation, innocuous," Beecher wrote. "Alongside the other facts I have catalogued in this letter, however, it suggests a determined effort and a deliberate attempt to use the similarity of your name to confuse Alaska voters."

Sen. Sullivan has accused his same-name challenger of being a "far-left liberal" complicit in an effort to "rig" the election and demanded to know whether Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee were involved. Democrats deny any coordination. The National Republican Senatorial Committee celebrated Beecher's initial ruling, with Regional Press Secretary Nick Puglia saying, "Alaskans saw right through Chuck Schumer and Mary Peltola's tricks to confuse and deceive them with a sham candidate."

Ranked Choice and 'Ballot Fatigue'

Republicans say the real danger comes in November, when Alaska's ranked-choice voting system turns the confusion into a test of voter math. Under the system, voters rank candidates, and support from eliminated candidates transfers to voters' next choices. That means a same-name candidate could siphon ranking slots and second-choice votes from the incumbent all the way through the final round.

State Sen. James Kaufman, an Alaska Republican, said he has already heard from voters who had to slow down to make sure they filled out the ballot correctly -- and he worries more will simply refuse to rank at all. "Some people have a pretty strong traditionalist perspective: one person, one man, one vote," Kaufman said. "There's a pretty strong segment of the population here that just patently disagrees with the rank-choice voting system."

Ruedrich noted Alaska has been through this before. In 2022, little-known Buzz Kelly advanced to a general election after voters confused him with Republican Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka. This year, perennial candidate Gerald Heikes is also complicating the picture, running with backing from a Massachusetts liberal -- roughly $1.2 million has flowed through the group Right for Alaska to oppose Sullivan, with another $410,000 supporting Heikes, whose ads accuse the senator of not being pro-life.

What to Watch in November

With results not yet final, Republicans are preparing a months-long education push aimed at making sure Alaska voters know exactly which Dan Sullivan is the real one. Party officials expect the warning campaign to intensify now that the primary has confirmed just how much damage a name on the ballot can do.

The stakes are national: Democrats are eying Alaska as a longshot pickup in their bid to retake the Senate, and a confused, fatigued electorate could be exactly what they need. For Republicans, the November ballot is a test of whether voters can see through the games -- and whether Alaska's ranked-choice experiment finally breaks.