The sitting senator is Daniel S. Sullivan, elected in 2014. The other Sullivan is Daniel J. Sullivan, who only became a Republican just in time for this election.
He’s a retired elementary school teacher and insists that voters won’t be confused: “I have every right to run for whatever office I’m qualified for, and I’m qualified for this office,” writes the Associated Press.
Dan Sullivan at a roundtable discussion about Canadian transboundary mines.
Wikimedia Commons
A spokesman for the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, Nick Puglia, issued a statement asserting that Democrats were trying to “rig this election with a sham candidate because they will never beat Senator Sullivan on his Alaska First record,” reports the New York Times.
The Times reporter learned a few things about Daniel J’s politics:
- He told me he has never voted for President Trump. He voted for the Democratic nominee in the last three presidential elections.
- He said he voted for Ms. Peltola in her bids for the House in 2022 and 2024. He did not vote for Senator Sullivan in his previous two Senate campaigns.
- And he is politically active, attending local events protesting the Trump administration, including at least one “No Kings” protest.
Mr. Sullivan maintained that he was running in good faith and of his own volition, as a moderate Republican and not a secret Democrat. He said he’d voted for some Alaska Republicans, like Senator Lisa Murkowski.
Murkowski is more Democrat than Republican.
The DOJ issued grand jury subpoenas in the dueling Dan Sullivans’ Republican Senate saga. Federal investigators in Alaska are probing whether Dan J. Sullivan, a former teacher, entered the race to confuse voters and steal votes away from the incumbent, Dan S. Sullivan.
🚨TRUMP JUST CAUGHT DEMOCRATS RUNNING THE OLDEST BALLOT SCAM IN THE BOOK… TOMORROW
Alaska’s U.S. Senate primary is hours away and the radical Left just tried the classic name-confusion trick.
They put up a second “Dan Sullivan” — a retired teacher who suddenly flipped… pic.twitter.com/t4cc6hGbcA
— QThestorm (@17QStorm) August 17, 2026