At around noon on May 28, one day before Sen. Dan Sullivan drew a little-known candidate who shares his first and last name, the domain name SullivanForSenate.com was registered, which sounded similar to the website the senator had been using for nearly a decade: DanSullivanForAlaska.com.
About four hours later, on a Facebook account created that day, a campaign logo was posted similar to the one long used by the senator, featuring the last name Sullivan in yellow letters, with a prominent five-pointed star, also in yellow, set against a royal blue background.
Sen. Dan Sullivan’s logo
Challenger Dan Sullivan’s logo
Also in May, accounts were created on Instagram and Truth Social (the platforms do not specify a date), both using the handle “Sullivan for Senate.” As of Wednesday, June 3, neither has posted any content.
The dates of the website’s and social media accounts’ creation, which have not been previously reported, are among the curiosities fueling Republicans’ suspicions about the improbably named challenger’s last-minute entrance into a race that could determine which party controls Congress.
In a statement to Straight Arrow, the National Republican Senate Campaign accused the leading Democrat in the race, former congresswoman Mary Pelotla, and Democratic Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., of “resorting to deceitful political maneuvers that attempt to trick Alaskans and buy a seat.”
The general counsel for the NRSC, Blake Murphy, called the doppelganger Sullivan’s candidacy a “sham” designed “to mislead unwitting Alaska voters who intend to cast a ballot for incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan,” in a letter to Alaska election officials, a copy of which was published by Fox News.
Addressing Lt. Governor Nancy Dahlstrom and Director of Elections Carol Beecher, Murphy wrote, “you must uphold your statutory obligation” to prevent the integrity of the election “by keeping Sham Candidate Sullivan off the ballot.” Murphy also said the NRSC may take legal action to block the candidacy. They also sent letters to Sullivan and Peltolta, telling them “to preserve relevant evidence.”
Alaska election records show challenger Sullivan filed to run as a Republican. Messages sent Tuesday evening to Sullivan and Peltola’s campaigns were not immediately returned.
More than a dozen Senate candidates filed to run in the August 18 primary, with the top four vote-getters advancing to the general election in November. Alaska, like Maine, Washington, D.C. and a handful of other localities, allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. This practice is referred to as a jungle primary.
Who is behind the candidacy of a name twin?
The Anchorage Daily News reported that the “metadata” on challenger Sullivan’s May 29 press release announcing his candidacy “indicated it was written by someone by the name of ‘Amber Lee.’”
A person by that name was paid in 2022 and 2024 by a political action committee created solely to support Peltola’s prior campaigns for Alaska’s sole seat in the House of Representatives, Murphy noted in his letter, citing federal campaign finance records.
Lee, who also received a letter from Murphy telling her to preserve possible evidence, did not return messages seeking comment.
Michael Caputo, a longtime Republican operative who worked as a health spokesman in Trump’s first term, said he begrudgingly admired what Democrats appear to be doing in Alaska.
“I’ve tried to make it happen half a dozen times and never did,” Caputo told SAN in an interview Tuesday. “I don’t want to celebrate it because it hurts the Republican Party, but this is fantasy-level political consulting.”
That fantasy, or nightmare, is becoming more common.
Criminal charges were filed in 2021 against a former Republican lawmaker in Florida for helping insert a challenger into a race who had the same last name as an incumbent, according to The Associated Press. In 2024, a Democrat running for a local office, Joe Saunders, sued his aunt after she filed to run for the same seat under the name Moe Saunders, LGBTQ Nation reported.
Washington’s 2024 governor’s race had, at one point, three candidates named Bob Ferguson until two withdrew, according to the Tri-City Herald. Ireland had two different races in 2024, each featuring a set of candidates with the exact same names. Not to be outdone that year, the Times of India reported that “[a]s many as 17” local candidates were facing “one or more namesakes.”
The challenger says ‘Sullivan’ a lot and is silent on policies
In Alaska, the challenger seemed intent on highlighting the name similarities, titling the press release about his announcement, “Dan Sullivan Challenges Dan Sullivan for U.S. Senate Seat.”
The campaign website for the challenger Sullivan has no information about policies or even a link for donations. In his statement, the challenger describes his decision to run in vague terms. “When you truly care about a people and a place, you have a duty to make every sacrifice within your power to protect them,” the challenger said in the statement. “That’s why I’m running.”
The challenger went on to say, “I know firsthand the challenges everyday Alaskans face,” and that “It’s time for Alaska to elect a Sullivan that’s on their side.”
The statement made no mention of the challenger’s middle initial, J, which is different from the senator’s, which is S, something election officials would use to distinguish them if they appear on the ballot, Alaska television station KTUU reported.
Another distinguisher that went unused by the challenger is the suffix Jr., since, according to the announcement, the challenger’s father is also named Dan.
Round out your reading
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- We’re building a new Straight Arrow. Help us shape our future by taking our survey.