Alaska voters will see two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the November 3 Senate ballot: Dan S. Sullivan, the incumbent Republican seeking a third term, and Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, a fishing village reachable only by air and sea.

The challenger switched his registration from unaffiliated to Republican just before the filing deadline and later switched back. He won 4,107 votes in the top-four primary to claim his general election line, appearing alongside Peltola and longshot Republican Gerald Heikes.

The Times reports the retired teacher has said he is running in good faith as a moderate Republican, though he acknowledged past donations to Peltola and other Democrats.

Both the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have denied involvement, and Dan J. Sullivan did not respond to the Times's repeated requests for comment.

According to The Seattle Times, which carried the New York Times reporting, the effort was internally called the "ballot composition project" and began in summer 2025, when a Peltola staff member was told to comb voter records for people named Dan Sullivan.

The Times reports that operatives — including Ohio-based operative Jerid Kurtz, who allegedly used the alias "Zane" and a fake name while traversing the state making pitches over beers — sought to coax multiple would-be spoilers into the race to dilute the incumbent's support.

The project involved the Peltola campaign's lawyers and senior DSCC aides, per the Times, and even considered forming a new political party. Alaska's top-four primary plus ranked-choice general system makes this easier: candidates claim any party label without party vetting.

Both parties have exploited the system before, and ballot-stacking is generally considered legal.

The Times based its investigation on interviews over two months with 12 people who participated in or were told of the plan, plus dozens of internal text messages.

Per The Seattle Times, text messages show DSCC and Peltola campaign officials communicating for months, with then-chief of staff Anton McParland asking after "our friend," and a pro-Peltola super PAC, 49th State PAC, paying Kurtz's firm Wingspan Strategies about $87,000 this fall — though the PAC says it "never hired or paid Jerid Kurtz."

Former Peltola campaign manager Elisa Rios, fired in August, told the Times Peltola was "definitely aware" though not directly involved — then retracted all her statements ahead of publication; she has not filed a planned wrongful-termination lawsuit.

The Times informed Rios her interviews would run, and noted her accounts were consistent with its other reporting.

At President Trump's direction, the Justice Department sued in federal court last week to block certification of the election if Sen. Sullivan loses by a margin smaller than Dan J. Sullivan's vote total, arguing the state would fail its obligation to protect election integrity.

"I'm the one that said do it," Trump said Friday, per Yahoo News, and separately demanded on Truth Social that Peltola and the "fake" Dan Sullivan be removed from the ballot.

Peltola called the suit "flagrant corruption," saying the senator is "using his DC allies to try to keep himself in power," The Independent reports.

Legal experts cited across the pack say the case is dubious: the Cato Institute's Walter Olson called it "bordering on frivolous," Harvard's Nicholas Stephanopoulos said the NVRA gives no such power, and former DOJ attorney David Becker noted states run their own elections.

Democrats need the seat to have a chance at a Senate majority.

The federal judge considering Democrats' motion to dismiss fast-tracked the dispute and, late Wednesday, allowed the challenge to move forward, giving the DOJ until Thursday afternoon to respond, Yahoo News reports.

Alaska's Republican-led state government has also moved to dismiss the suit, and the Alaska Supreme Court already ruled in June there was no legal basis for removing Dan J. Sullivan from the ballot.

The legal fight likely matters only in a razor-thin finish — Sullivan's last Senate win came by 45,000 votes — but polls point to a much tighter contest this time.

Peltola has led all summer, yet her advantage has shrunk to about 2 points in the latest surveys, and the Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up while the Center for Politics calls it "leans Democrat."

With Election Day less than a week away, both the ballot dispute and the Senate majority could turn on Alaska.