WASHINGTON — In Alaska politics, the question this week is simple: How many Dan Sullivans does one Senate race need?
The already unusual Alaska Senate contest took another strange turn when a politician named Dan Sullivan weighed in on the race between incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan and another candidate who also happens to be named Dan Sullivan.
Former Anchorage Mayor Dan A. Sullivan endorsed the sitting senator, Daniel S. Sullivan, ahead of last Tuesday’s primary, leaning into the confusion created by the shared name in one of the year’s most closely watched Senate battles.
“As the OG Dan Sullivan, I urge Alaskans to vote for Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan. He’s been great for Alaska,” the former mayor wrote in a Facebook post last Tuesday.
The endorsement attracted wider attention on Sunday after VoteHub spotlighted the post on social media, turning the name mix-up into a viral subplot in the Alaska Senate race.
The contest is considered one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, drawing comparisons to high-stakes campaigns in Michigan, Maine, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa and Ohio.
Although Alaska has long leaned Republican, former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) has remained strikingly competitive in polling, underscoring how unpredictable the race has become.
Peltola currently holds a 5.4-percentage-point lead over the incumbent senator in the latest tally from last Tuesday’s open primary in the Last Frontier State, where candidates from all parties ran on the same ballot and the top four finishers advance to November’s general election.
Both Peltola and Sen. Sullivan have been projected to advance to the general election, while the other Dan Sullivan — retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan — appears poised to make the cut as well, despite outlets refraining from calling it that due to the outstanding votes left to be counted.
GOP critics have dubbed the retired teacher “Decoy Dan” and accused him of being a Democratic plant seeking to use his name to confuse voters in a remarkably competitive race.
The former public school teacher admitted to the New York Times that he voted for the Democratic candidate for president during the past three presidential elections, but insisted he’s a moderate Republican nonetheless.
Alaska uses a ranked-choice voting system in its general election in which contests where no candidate locked down 50% or more support head to a second round, where voters who didn’t back either of their top two candidates have their next choice counted.
A lower court initially kicked “Decoy Dan” off the ballot, pointing to evidence that he wasn’t mounting “an actual good-faith candidacy,” noting he waited until days before filing to register as a Republican. But, ultimately, the Alaska Supreme Court let him back on.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department reportedly secured grand jury subpoenas to investigate the retired teacher.
