Alaska Senate race turns bitter as election officials rule Dan Sullivan can’t run against Dan Sullivan

Alaska Senate candidate Dan Sullivan (Republican) was set for a pitched election battle… against Alaska Senate candidate Dan Sullivan (Republican).

This extremely confusing situation has now been resolved by Alaska election officials, who have ruled that Dan Sullivan cannot run against Dan Sullivan. This came after Republicans cried foul, arguing that one of the Dan Sullivans’ candidacies was a deliberate tactic to confuse voters by putting forward a “decoy” Dan Sullivan to run against the “real” Dan Sullivan.

Yesterday, Alaska elections director Carol Beecher ruled on the “utterly unprecedented” situation, saying these are “circumstances unlike any previously presented to the Division”.

The ruling is that Dan Sullivan’s candidacy was not “filed in good faith”, saying:

“…. your declaration of candidacy was filed with the purpose of confusing or misleading the electorate and compromising the fairness of the ballot by attempting to access the ballot under a version you have never used (“Dan Sullivan”) and with a party affiliation (Republican) that you have never before professed.”

This was based on findings that this Dan Sullivan was registered to vote under the name “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr” rather than “Dan Sullivan”, that there was no evidence this Dan Sullivan had been affiliated with the Republican Party until very recently, that his campaign website is “similar” to the other Dan Sullivan, and that his political consultant was a longtime Democratic Party supporter.

“Blatant attempts to mislead voters”

Beecher concluded: “I conclude that the preponderance of the evidence is that you chose this new nickname and party affiliation because that name and party affiliation happen to be the name and party affiliation of another candidate in the race.

Decoy Dan Sullivan is now showing as "denied" on the @ak_elections website. #akleg https://t.co/1Ajg1LZKzC pic.twitter.com/kDVAOexpfJ

— The Alaska Landmine (@alaskalandmine) June 16, 2026

Dan Sullivan has fought back, arguing that he’s a “qualified candidate who followed the rules and filed to run for office under my legal name”. Meanwhile, the Republican National Convention has dubbed him “Decoy Dan” and praised the election officials’ decision to boot him out of the race.

RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said:

“Alaskans can rest easy that their leaders will never tolerate blatant attempts to mislead voters and rig elections like Democrats’ Decoy Dan Scam. This is the right decision that will protect Alaskans from an unprecedented attack on our democracy.”

Dan Sullivan can challenge this ruling in court, though primary ballots are set to print on 28 June. Dan Sullivan remains on the ballot.