Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s allies worked with operatives trying to recruit spoiler candidates into the Alaska race to siphon votes from Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that an effort known internally as the “ballot composition project” began in the summer of 2025 and resulted in recruiting another Sullivan — Dan J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher from the small fishing community of Petersburg.
President Trump seized on the report, saying both Ms. Peltola and the “fake” Sullivan should be removed from the ballot.
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The Times report comes less than a week after the Justice Department sued over the race, arguing that certifying the vote should be blocked if votes cast for a second candidate with a nearly identical name, Dan J. Sullivan, end up costing the incumbent reelection.
Election law experts told The Times that such a case would face steep hurdles because states run elections and voting has not yet taken place.
The Alaska Supreme Court seemingly put the issue to bed over the summer when it ruled that Dan J. Sullivan could appear on the ballot, rejecting the GOP’s argument that he was not a “good faith candidate.”
Republicans pointed out that he recently registered as a Republican and argued he could confuse voters into casting their ballot for the wrong Sullivan.
Dan J. Sullivan has maintained that he entered the race on his own.
The Times report, however, adds a new wrinkle, according to John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who served in the George W. Bush administration.
“The Alaska Supreme Court and the Alaska state government, which is in charge of running the elections, denied the Justice Department’s effort to clarify and make sure only one Sullivan was on the ballot by saying this other Sullivan’s a good faith candidate, but if in fact he was put up for and being paid for by the Democrats, I think the Alaska Supreme Court could reenter, reexamine this, and decide to strike that other Sullivan off the ballot,” Mr. Yoo said on Fox News on Wednesday. “This was all deliberately engaged for. It was all created and paid for, paid for by these Democratic entities involving the Democratic campaign.”
Citing 12 interviews, dozens of text messages and documents prepared for a potential lawsuit, The Times reported that the recruitment effort extended beyond the other Sullivan.
According to the newspaper, Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz, who was introduced by Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee aides as a specialist in ballot maneuvers, helped lead the recruitment effort while at times using the name Zane. Gerald Heikes, who is now on the ballot, said he was approached by “a guy from the Midwest.”
Another candidate, Democrat David Leslie, dropped out on Aug. 31 after receiving calls from Democratic figures, including Mr. Kurtz.
Mr. Kurtz did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment, removed his public LinkedIn profile and turned his X account private.
According to online records with LegiStorm, Mr. Kurtz appears to have served as a campaign manager for Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and overall worked in Democratic politics for over a decade, including as a spokesperson for former Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan and the Ohio Democratic Party.
The Times’ primary on-the-record source was Elisa Rios, Ms. Peltola’s former campaign manager, who was fired in August.
Ms. Rios said Ms. Peltola was not directly involved in recruiting candidates but was “definitely aware” of the effort.
Ms. Rios later asked The Times to retract her statements, but the paper said it was not obligated to do so and that her account was consistent with its broader reporting.
Ms. Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC denied any role in recruiting candidates.
“The Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and did not recruit any candidates into the race,” the campaign said.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that the “dirty tricks” will haunt the Democrat on Election Day.
“Peltola will be held accountable for this election for her dishonesty and deception,” Mr. Scott said. “Voters can trust the real Dan Sullivan, and I’m confident he will be reelected.”
Ms. Peltola has a narrow lead over Dan S. Sullivan in the Real Clear Politics average of polls. The race could decide which party controls the Senate in the final two years of the Trump presidency.
Early voting started Oct. 19. Nearly 60,000 early or absentee ballots have been cast, according to data from the Alaska Division of Elections.
Election Day is Tuesday.
Alaska’s nonpartisan primaries let candidates claim any party label without vetting by the parties, The New York Times reported, adding that ballot-stacking tactics are generally legal and have been employed by both parties in the state.
In 2024, Republicans backed an effort to keep a Democratic inmate, who ran his campaign from a New York prison, on the ballot when Ms. Peltola sought reelection to the House.
Republicans pounced on the report.
Mr. Trump said Democrats involved in the scheme made false statements in federal court.
“Therefore, they perjured themselves, and should be liable for very serious consequences,” Mr. Trump said on social media. “Mary Peltola should suffer the legal and political consequences for what she has done, a fraud on the American public, and Dan Sullivan should be allowed to run without either Mary Peltola or fake Dan Sullivan on the ballot.”
Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sen. Sullivan’s campaign, said that Alaskans “deserve to know the truth” about how the Peltola camp sought to “deliberately deceive and confuse voters, and then repeatedly lied about it.”
“Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along,” Mr. Adams said. “We always knew this was a concerted effort to deceive voters, and Mary Peltola was hoping it would stay hidden until after the election.”
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