[UPDATE: Live Legislative Hearing on now (June 22, 2026 noon)
Daniel S. Sullivan is the junior US Senator for Alaska. (Lisa Murkowski is the senior Senator).
Petersburg, Alaska resident Daniel J. Sullivan filed to run for the US Senate near the end of the filing period.
Senator Daniel S Sullivan was not happy.
"Sen. Sullivan has complained that Sullivan from Petersburg is a “sham candidate” and says his challenger is intentionally misleading voters to benefit a ranked-choice vote for Democratic candidate and former Alaska U.S. House Representative, Mary Peltola." (From the Alaska Beacon)
I'd note that the primary election is an open primary - all candidates for the same office are on one ballot. It is NOT a ranked choice vote. Voters get one vote only. The top four candidates go on to the general election ballot, which is a ranked choice election.
The qualifications to run for the US Senate in Alaska (from 2005 document on the State of Alaska Division of Elections webpage on qualifications):
STATE OF ALASKA
DIVISION OF ELECTIONS
QUALIFICATIONS FOR HOLDING OFFICE
STATEWIDE CANDIDATES are those seeing the office of United States Senator, United States Representative, Governor or Lieutenant Governor. The qualifications for these offices are as follows:
United States Senator
- 30 years of age;
- citizen of the United States for 9 years; and
- an inhabitant of the state from which elected.
About the Senate & the U.S. Constitution | QualificationsNo Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. [U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 3, clause 3]"
If you look carefully, you will note that the language of the State and of the US Constitution are slightly different. The US Constitution sets the criteria, not the State of Alaska.
- The State language is pretty straightforward and writes the qualifications in a positive way while the Constitution frames the qualifications negatively: "No Person shall be ..."
- The State says 30 years of age while the Constitution makes it clear that that is the minimum age.
- The State says "an inhabitant of the state from which elected" while the Constitution "[No person shall be a Senator who shall not,] when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen."
Keep number 3 in mind. It becomes relevant later in the post when I write about Carol Hafner.
I'd also note that the Governor of Alaska and his Lt Governor are Trumpy Republicans and that the Lt. Governor's office is in charge of elections. The head of the Division of Elections is appointed by the Governor or the Lt. Governor - I'm not sure which and I don't think it matters in this situation.
On June 8, 2026, the Republican Lt. Governor, whose office is responsible for elections in Alaska, wrote a letter to candidate Daniel J. Sullivan:
"RE: Evaluation of Your Declaration of Candidacy for US Senate"
The letter has a long list of questions they have about his intent as a candidate, which they believe is to confuse voters.
On June 15, there was a second letter from the Alaska Division of Elections Website (You can read the whole letter at the link, I'm just going to give you the reasons why the Director decided to take his name off the ballot:
"On review of the complaints and other information in the Division’s possession, I conclude that your declaration of candidacy was not properly filed with the Division because it was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality. I highlight several facts that taken together bring me to this conclusion.
(1) You requested to access the ballot under the name “Dan Sullivan” even though it appears from Division records that you have never registered to vote or sought ballot access under this name.
Our records indicate that you are registered to vote under the name “Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.” That you chose the occasion of your declaration of candidacy for U.S. Senate to seek ballot access under a name you have not used in your interactions with the Division suggests—and in combination with the additional facts I outline in this letter leads me to conclude—that you are seeking to confuse yourself with another candidate in the race, the incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan, rather than distinguish yourself from him. Indeed, you yourself appeared to be confused when you initially emailed the Division asking to be listed on the ballot as “Dan S. Sullivan.”“S” is Senator Sullivan’s middle initial, not yours.
(2) You requested to be designated on the ballot as affiliated with the Republican Party. Until two days before you filed your declaration of candidacy, you had never—according to the Division’s records—been affiliated with the Republican Party in Alaska. Of course, under Alaska law, you are free to change your party affiliation. This said, that you chose to change your affiliationtom the same political party—one you’d never affiliated with before—as the incumbent Senator immediately before filing a declaration of candidacy in which you asked to access the ballot under the same name – in a shortened form you’d never used before - as the incumbent Senator strongly suggests an intent to confuse yourself with the incumbent Senator rather than to distinguish yourself from him.
(3) Your public campaign website (https://www.sullivanforsenate.com/) uses a format, color scheme and overall theme similar to the public website for Senator Sullivan’s campaign (https://dansullivanforalaska.com/). While the Division takes no position on whether you have appropriated the intellectual property of Senator Sullivan’s campaign, the similarity— particularly in light of the other facts I outline in this letter—appears to be deliberate. This again suggests an intention not to distinguish yourself from the incumbent Senator as any candidate genuinely seeking office would do, but to confuse Alaskans as to which “Dan Sullivan” is which.
(4) A political consultant you have admitted is working with your campaign is a known longtime supporter of Democratic candidates including the primary Democratic challenger to Senator Sullivan. This consultant’s work on your behalf is, in isolation, innocuous. Alongside the other facts I have catalogued in this letter, however, it suggests a determined effort and a deliberate attempt to use the similarity of your name to confuse Alaska voters in the upcoming primary election.
In light of these unique, and to my knowledge utterly unprecedented facts (circumstances unlike any previously presented to the Division), I am forced to conclude that your declaration of candidacy, in which you stated under oath that you “declare myself to be a candidate for the office of United States Senator” was not filed in good faith for the purpose of genuinely pursuing election as Alaska’s U.S. Senator. Rather, these facts force the conclusion that your declaration of candidacy was filed with the purpose of confusing or misleading the electorate and compromising the fairness of the ballot by attempting to access the ballot under a version you have never used (“Dan Sullivan”) and with a party affiliation (Republican) that you have never before professed. Indeed, I conclude that the preponderance of the evidence is that you chose this new nickname and party affiliation because that name and party affiliation happen to be the name and party affiliation of another candidate in the race. A declaration of candidacy filed for the purpose of confusing or misleading voters and compromising the fairness of the ballot is not properly filed as required by Alaska Statute 15.25.060. As such, I am unable to maintain your declaration of candidacy and I am de-certifying your candidacy for United States Senator. This decision is made pursuant to 15.25.042 and 6 AAC 25.260 along with other relevant provisions of law. Pursuant to 6 AAC 25.260(i), my determination in this matter is final. Although you have 30 days to appeal this decision, if you intend to challenge the decision and seek judicial relief in Alaska Superior Court to be placed on the ballot, be aware ballots are printed on June 28."
So, they did not find that he had lied in any of the material he submitted to the State Division of Elections.
What they object to is that his "intent" is to mislead voters.
They say he has never registered to vote as a "Republican" but they do not say how he registered. Under Alaska law, you can register as "Undeclared" or "Non-partisan" as well as various parties. "Undeclared" simply means you choose not to state your party preference. Many people who vote Republican do that.
They also say he is not registered as "Dan Sullivan" but as Daniel J. Sullivan. They also don't share whether Sen. Dan Sullivan is registered that way or as Daniel S. Sullivan or something else.
The Anchorage Daily News editorial board on Sunday June 21, 2026 wrote a long and strong editorial stating that Dan may have had deceptive intentions but that the State qualifications (see above) do not include policing a candidate's intentions. [The link maybe password protected.]
"Let’s not insult anyone’s intelligence here.
Dan J. Sullivan’s U.S. Senate campaign looks like a dirty trick, and most probably it is one. . .
Fine. But in the United States of America, people are allowed to run for office for bad reasons. They are allowed to run vanity campaigns, protest campaigns, spoiler campaigns, joke-adjacent campaigns and campaigns that make party leadership sweat through their Brooks Brothers vests.
That does not mean the Alaska Division of Elections gets to throw them off the ballot.
That is the line Director Carol Beecher, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and the Division of Elections crossed when Beecher issued her determination removing Dan J. Sullivan from the Aug. 18 primary ballot."
I would note that also on the list of candidates is a woman from South Dakota:
“I’ve flown over [Alaska],” said Carol Hafner, the South Dakota resident and Alaska Senate candidate. “As far as boots on the ground, that’s in my future.”
If we go by the Alaska Division of Elections website, she should be disqualified because she is not "an inhabitant of the state from which elected." But that is why I also included the US Senate's definition which includes "when elected." So you can run for the US House and the US Senate having never been in Alaska (or any other state you might want to run in) without having ever been to that state as long as you become an inhabitant "when elected."
Hafner's son is also running for the Alaska US House seat while sentenced to 20 years in a New York prison. He was already in prison when hee ran for the Alaska US House seat in 2024. He came in sixth. Only the top four candidates go on to the ranked choice general election in November. But the third and fourth place candidates dropped out and the fifth and sixth place candidates moved into the top four. At that time the Democrats complained (Hafner was listed as a Democrat) that since he was in prison who could not be an Alaska resident if elected. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled if I recall correctly, there was always a chance he could be paroled if elected and kept him on the ballot. I'd also note that the 3rd place candidate who dropped out was Republican Nancy Dahlstrom, the current Lt. Governor who wrote the initial letter about the investigation to Daniel J. Here's the saga of that election.
But clearly Carol Hafner's 'intent' is just as deceptive if not more so than Daniel J. Sullivan's. She lives in South Dakota. Is she really going to move to Alaska if she wins? There are 14 candidates on the ballot for the US Senate seat. Daniel J. is now listed as deleted. There is no way that Carol Hafner will end up in the top four, so she'll never move to Alaska. Sullivan and the Alaska Republican Party are not concerned about her.
But if Daniel J. Sullivan can be removed because his intent was not
"to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality"
then the state can start questioning the intent of any candidate.
Why not ask the State to remove Mary Peltola, the Democrat who has served a term as our representative in the US House?. After all, her intent to is unseat Sen. Daniel S Sullivan which, underlying all the Division of Election's language, is why they are bumping Daniel J off the ballot.
I'm sure that Daniel S Sullivan knows this is illegal. Intent is not one of the qualifications listed in the US Constitution or the Alaska Division of Elections criteria to run for US Senate.
But note that as I write this, it is June 22, 2026. The Director of the Division of Elections says in her letter that Daniel J. has 30 days to file an appeal, but that the primary ballot will be printed on June 28. In six days!
They are know they will lose in court, but that the ballot will have already been printed for the August 18, 2026 primary election.
I have no doubt that the judge who gets this case will also know that is their strategy and may well rule against the Division of Elections AND demand that a new ballot be printed.
If that happens, the taxpayers of Alaska, not the head of the Division of Elections or the Alaska Republican Party, will pay.
It also opens up the likelihood that the Division of Elections will blame the court for any problems due to having reprinted the ballots, after their scheduled deadline.
I would say that no matter Daniel J's intent, it's clear he qualifies for the ballot. The real problematic intent is with Daniel S. Sullivan, the Alaska Republican Party, and the Division of Elections who know that "honorable intent" is not a qualification for the office of US Senator. And are pretty familiar with dishonorable intent.
