US President Donald Trump, left, and Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, during a campaign event in Wasilla, Alaska, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.
Nathaniel Wilder | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Department of Justice filed an extraordinary lawsuit seeking to block Alaska from certifying the winner of its upcoming U.S. Senate election if incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, cites what it suggests is likely voter confusion from having another Republican candidate, named Daniel J. Sullivan, on the ballot in the race, and the chance that could help Democratic nominee Mary Peltola win the election.
The Alaska race is one of several Senate contests around the United States that could determine whether Republicans retain their slim majority in the upper chamber of Congress.
“Should Alaska certify any electoral results tainted by the inclusion on the ballot of Daniel J. Sullivan — whose candidacy, Defendant Beecher [Alaska Elections Director Carol Beecher] found, is ‘for the purpose of confusing or misleading voters and compromising the fairness of the ballot’ —the State and its officers will fail in its obligation to protect the integrity of its election,” the suit says.
“The United States accordingly brings this lawsuit to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate election in Alaska,” the suit says.
The DOJ’s lawsuit says that “the sole purpose” of the candidacy of Daniel J. Sullivan “is to benefit the Peltola campaign by reducing the number of votes for Senator Sullivan.”
Daniel J. Sullivan received just 2.5% of the vote in Alaska’s open primary on Aug. 28, but that was enough to win him one of four spots on the Senate general election ballot.
Peltola got 49.5% in the primary, and Sen. Sullivan received 41.1%. A third Republican, Gerald Heikes, received just 1.1% of the primary vote, earning him the fourth spot on the ballot.
Alaska’s general election for the Senate is conducted by ranked-choice voting. Voters rank their candidates in order of preference.
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates the Alaska Senate race as one of seven “toss up” contests for that chamber.
FiftyPlusOne’s average of polling in the race shows Peltola, the former U.S. House member from Alaska, with a narrow two-point lead over Sullivan.
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