President Donald Trump called for the criminal prosecution of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola on Wednesday, reacting to reporting that her campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting a candidate with the exact same name as the Republican incumbent, Sen. Dan Sullivan.
The high-stakes Alaska race is among a handful of contests this year expected to determine control of the U.S. Senate. Trump previously directed the Department of Justice to file a lawsuit seeking to block the certification of the Senate race should Peltola defeat Sullivan.
“I think they should be prosecuted,” Trump said when asked about Peltola and the second candidate, responding to a report published by . The president earlier posted on social media that Peltola “should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done.”
The reporting detailed text messages between members of Peltola’s campaign discussing the recruitment of individuals sharing the name of the two-term Republican incumbent. The campaign eventually connected with Dan J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher from Petersburg, Alaska. He advanced through the state’s August open primary and is one of four candidates appearing on the ranked-vote ballot for the general election.
Dan J. Sullivan has consistently denied running at the behest of Democrats and maintained he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign, stating in June, “Zero, none, zilch.” He did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Peltola’s campaign issued a statement defending her candidacy: “Mary got in this race because Alaskans deserve a champion who is fighting to lower their costs and put Alaska first, and no tweet or threat from any DC politician will keep her away from that fight.” In a separate statement Wednesday, the campaign asserted it “has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign,” echoing denials made in June.
The ballot placement previously faced legal challenges. A top state elections official ruled Dan J. Sullivan ineligible for the primary ballot earlier this year, concluding his candidacy was filed “with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.” However, the Alaska Supreme Court subsequently ruled that he was qualified to run.
Legal experts note that revelations regarding the recruitment strategy will not alter a recent federal lawsuit. President Trump directed the Department of Justice to file the action to halt certification of a potential Peltola victory due to the presence of the second candidate on the ballot.
Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor, described the situation as a campaign tactic that justifies removal, but added, “Now it’s in the hands of the voters, not litigation.”
Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who endorsed Sullivan and is a longtime friend of Peltola, criticized her opponent in a statement, saying Alaskans “deserve the honest truth from Mary and her campaign — what has been revealed is a pattern of lies and coverups and a culture of deception that belongs nowhere in our elections or among our elected officials.”
Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan’s campaign, accused Peltola, her campaign, senior advisers, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), national Democratic lawyers, and Alaska operatives of colluding “to recruit candidates to deliberately confuse and deceive voters.”
Both the DSCC and Peltola’s campaign have repeatedly denied any involvement in electoral trickery. While report stated that DSCC staffers participated in text exchanges with the Peltola campaign regarding the second candidate, the committee issued a statement denying direct involvement with Dan J. Sullivan.
The reporting on the candidate recruitment was based partly on interviews with Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager who was fired in August during a campaign shake-up. The newspaper reported that Rios attempted to retract her comments last week.
Ballot challenges are not unprecedented in Alaska. In 2024, the state Democratic Party unsuccessfully sued to remove a U.S. House candidate serving time in a federal prison in New York who had no apparent ties to the state. That same candidate is running again in the House race on the upcoming ranked-vote general election ballot.
