Peltola denies knowing about Alaska spoiler candidate as Justice
Department escalates investigation
[October 30, 2026]
By BECKY BOHRER, MEG KINNARD and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola denied
Thursday that she knew anything about an effort to put another candidate
on the Alaska ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent as
the Justice Department escalated a criminal investigation with new grand
jury subpoenas.
“I just want to clear the air," she said at the top of a speech in a
downtown bar in Juneau, Alaska’s capital. “I knew nothing about any
other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is
all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters."
Peltola is running against Sen. Dan Sullivan. A person familiar with the
matter told The Associated Press that subpoenas seeking grand jury
testimony or documents, along with records preservation demands, were
issued after The New York Times reported that Peltola’s campaign
appeared to be involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan Jr. as part of an
alleged effort to confuse voters.
The race is considered key to control of the U.S. Senate. More subpoenas
were expected, according to the person who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the
ongoing probe. Neither the recipients of the subpoenas nor the number of
them were immediately clear.
The Justice Department for months has been looking into allegations that
Dan J. Sullivan Jr. entered the race to siphon votes from the incumbent
Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. The potential targets of the investigation are
unclear, but President Donald Trump earlier this week called for the
criminal prosecution of Peltola and her campaign.
Attorney General Todd Blanche in a Fox News interview on Wednesday said
he wouldn’t discuss any criminal investigations, but accused Democrats
of “cheating.”
“They are trying to take votes away from the incumbent, not by running
an election, not by running on issues but by putting up a person with
the same name,” Blanche said.
Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and
has said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign. “Zero, none, zilch,”
he said in June after announcing his run.
The race is among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to
determine control of the chamber. Trump had previously directed his
Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Senate race
should Democrat Mary Peltola defeat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
State attorneys asked a court to rule on the Justice Department’s
lawsuit by Monday, saying the case could “cast a cloud over Alaska’s
election that is contrary to the public interest.”
Alaska's Republican governor has also ordered an investigation
Separately, Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an
investigation into Peltola, saying the newspaper's reporting “reveals
disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s
elections by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as
an incumbent U.S. Senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect
their votes.”
“Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone
else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy added, noting
that the reporting “substantially supports” earlier findings by the
state’s elections board into the matter.
Trump on Thursday cast doubt on whether Peltola would be seated in the
Senate even if she won the election. “Well, you’re going to have to see
what happens," the president told reporters on his way to a rally in
South Carolina. "It’s hard to believe that she could even be allowed to
run.”
Later, as he rallied for Republican Sen. Darline Graham, Trump said he
felt Peltola “actually should be removed from the ballot and
prosecuted."
[to top of second column]
|
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola, left, talks to Fu Bao
Hartle, a disability rights advocate, during a campaign rally in
Juneau, Alaska, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Mark Sabbatini /Juneau
Independent via AP)
Peltola dismisses the claims as a ‘distraction’
Peltola alluded to the controversy in a fundraising post Thursday.
“They can’t win on their record so they’re trying to intimidate me
into backing down,” she said, adding later: “This is just another
distraction as they avoid answering for the skyrocketing cost of
living we’re facing because of their tariffs and forever wars. It
won’t work.”
In Juneau, Alaska, independent Carter Bancroft said he voted
Thursday for Peltola. “I’m very certain in the candidates I wanted
to vote for and I wanted to vote for Mary Peltola,” he said.
But he said the latest claims have bothered him. He worries they
give “ammunition” to Trump and others to attack Peltola or other
Democratic candidates. “And I think I’m bothered by shenanigans on
either side," Bancroft said, especially actions intended “to confuse
things or try to trick people.”
John Delgado, an independent who leans Republican, said he has
“warmed up” to Sen. Sullivan, especially in light of the recent
claims. He agrees that Peltola should drop out of the race.
The situation in Alaska isn't that unusual. Political parties often
support extra candidates on ballots to try to pull votes from their
rivals. If state courts allow it, legal experts say, the federal
government has no role challenging the results.
In Ohio’s Senate race, Republicans have been tied to an effort to
boost a socialist on the ballot who would pull votes from the
Democratic candidate challenging Sen. Jon Husted.
On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance didn’t go as far as Trump did
in calling for Peltola to be prosecuted but said he supported a
probe into possible election fraud.
“I mean, she is a person who, for months now, has pretended that she
has had nothing to do with the fact that they have put a fraudulent
person, a person explicitly designed to confuse Alaska voters, on
the ballot,” Vance told reporters ahead of a campaign trip to Texas.
“She is trying to steal a Senate seat from the voters of Alaska, and
it’s disgraceful.”
State Supreme Court OK'd the other Sullivan on the ballot
Earlier this year, a top state elections official ruled Daniel J.
Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher in the small fishing community
of Petersburg, ineligible for the primary ballot, concluding that
his declaration of candidacy was filed “with a purpose to confuse or
mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or
neutrality.”
The case went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled he was
qualified to run. Alaskan voters will see “Dan S. Sullivan”
identified as a “registered Republican” and “incumbent” on their
ballots, while “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” will not have a party
affiliation.
The New York Times reported that interviews, text messages and
documents prepared for a potential lawsuit showed Peltola’s team
aimed to coax candidates into the race, with the aim of splitting
support for the GOP senator.
Asked about the reporting on Wednesday, Trump told journalists, “I
think they should be prosecuted.” He earlier had posted on social
media that “Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political
consequences for what she has done.”
___
Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
