WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for two names to come off the Alaska Senate ballot: Democratic candidate Mary Peltola and Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher who shares a name with the Republican incumbent.
Trump made the demand on Truth Social. Democrats, he wrote, had recruited the second Sullivan to confuse voters and take votes from Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in a race that could help decide which party controls the Senate.
“It has just been determined that the Democrats in Alaska illegally searched for, and recruited, a man named Dan Sullivan to run against our distinguished Republican Senator, Dan Sullivan, in order to defraud, confuse, and obfuscate the Election, thereby taking votes away from the REAL Senator, Dan Sullivan,” Trump wrote.
He also accused Democrats of lying under oath about the effort. “The Democrats’ false statements were made under oath in Federal Court. Therefore, they perjured themselves, and should be liable for very serious consequences,” he wrote.
“Mary Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done, A FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, and Dan Sullivan should be allowed to run without either Mary Peltola or FAKE Dan Sullivan on the Ballot.”
A second post struck the same theme. “In Alaska, I don’t think Mary Peltola, after perpetrating such a terrible scheme, should be allowed to run, because this is ELECTION FRAUD,” Trump wrote.
His posts came hours after The New York Times published an investigation into the race. The Times reported that aides with Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee took part in a monthslong secret plan. Its aim, the paper said, was to recruit another Dan Sullivan, and other candidates, to pull votes away from the incumbent.
The reporting rested on interviews, dozens of text messages and documents prepared for a possible lawsuit against the campaign, The Associated Press reported.
Elisa Rios managed Peltola’s campaign before she was fired in August. She told the Times that Peltola knew of the plan but did not run it herself. Rios later asked the paper to disregard what she had said.
None of that reporting established a crime. Recruiting a candidate to split an opponent’s vote is generally legal, the Times noted, and both parties have used the tactic in Alaska. Nor did Trump’s post point to a specific sworn statement behind the perjury claim.
Peltola’s campaign answered on Wednesday with a flat denial. It said the campaign “has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.” The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee denied involvement in the other Sullivan’s candidacy as well.
Daniel J. Sullivan has made the same point about his own run. He says he entered the race on his own and was not put up to it by Democrats. Asked in June whether Peltola’s campaign had been in contact with him, he said: “Zero, none, zilch.”
Alaska election officials tried to keep him off the ballot. A state official ruled him ineligible, saying the candidacy was filed to confuse voters. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled otherwise and left him on it. Four candidates are on the ranked-choice ballot for Nov. 3.
The court fight is not over. At Trump’s direction, the Justice Department sued last week to block certification of the race if Sen. Sullivan loses to Peltola, The Associated Press reported.
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