Alaska’s Senate race has turned into a mess of names, tactics, and hardball politics, with a report alleging that Mary Peltola’s campaign and Democratic allies helped set up spoiler candidates to muddy the field against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The story centers on an internal effort that searched for candidates sharing the same name as Sullivan, while also floating other ways to split conservative and independent votes in a race already packed with tension.
The alleged operation was described as a covert “ballot composition project,” and the details paint a picture of campaign operatives, party lawyers, and consultants working behind the scenes. According to the report, the effort started in the summer of 2025 when a Peltola staffer was tasked with combing through voter rolls for Alaskans named Dan Sullivan. That search eventually produced a candidate who changed his registration and entered the race, giving Democrats at least one name that could cause confusion on the ballot.
President Donald Trump blasted the situation in sharp terms, saying Peltola should not be allowed to stay on the ballot and calling the episode “ELECTION FRAUD.” He also accused Democrats of running a dirty operation aimed at tricking voters and weakening the incumbent senator’s chances. The White House later amplified that message, framing the alleged scheme as a corrupt attempt to stack the ballot and manipulate the contest.
The report says the effort did not stop with one lookalike candidate. Operatives allegedly pushed other possible entrants, including drywall contractor Gerald Heikes, while also trying to keep progressive candidate David Leslie out of the race so he would not pull votes away from Peltola. In a state that uses ranked-choice voting, that kind of maneuvering can have a real impact, because even a small shift in who stays in the race can change the outcome fast.
Former campaign manager Elisa Rios told the newspaper that Peltola was not directly running the project, but was “definitely aware.” She also said voters deserved the full picture, while later trying to pull back her remarks before publication. The report said her account was backed by text messages, internal documents, and multiple other sources, which made the allegations harder to shrug off as simple rumor.
One of the more striking details involves Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz, who allegedly traveled around Alaska using aliases and met potential recruits in places like pubs and diners. The idea, according to the report, was to find conservatives or independents willing to run and divide the right-leaning vote. That kind of ballot gaming may be legal in some forms, but it still leaves a bad taste when voters start feeling like the race is being engineered instead of contested honestly.
The campaign and the DSCC pushed back hard. Peltola’s side said it had no role in recruiting either Sullivan or any other candidate, and the DSCC denied involvement in the effort as well. Still, the Times report pointed to internal messages, outside communications, and the involvement of attorney Jacquelyn Lopez as part of discussions over strategy and ballot planning.
The response from Democrats also included a defense that pointed back at Republicans. A DSCC spokesperson argued that GOP operatives have played similar games in other races, citing efforts to elevate fringe candidates or use ballot access tactics for political gain. That back-and-forth is classic campaign warfare, but in Alaska, where the ballot is already unusual and the margins can be razor thin, these claims land with extra force.
What makes this race especially combustible is the structure of the ballot itself. Peltola is the only Democrat on the slate, while the rest of the field includes Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, Dan J. Sullivan, and Gerald Heikes. With so many moving parts and such a strange setup, every name matters, every message matters, and every accusation lands like a brick.
The whole thing has also become bigger than one Senate seat. It feeds a broader argument about whether campaigns are still about persuading voters or just gaming the edges until the rules bend. In Alaska, that debate is now playing out in real time, and the pressure keeps building as Election Day gets closer.
