The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Alaska election officials, seeking to block the certification of the November 3 U.S. Senate election unless incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan wins. President Donald Trump stated he ordered the legal action, pointing to potential voter confusion from a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.
Department of Justice Lawsuit Targets Alaska Senate Certification
Federal attorneys filed the lawsuit late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alaska, asking a federal judge to bar the state from certifying any result that may be impacted by voter confusion. The legal challenge arrives less than two weeks before Election Day in a closely watched contest that could determine control of the U.S. Senate, where Republicans currently hold a narrow majority.
I am very concerned about the Dan S. Sullivan Race for the U.S. Senate in Alaska in that it is totally confusing, with the Dumocrats putting up another man, totally unrelated to Politics, named Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr. It’s ridiculous that the Court didn’t stop this SCAM. Even 1,… pic.twitter.com/88YRCAqi7E
The lawsuit contends that the presence of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher from Petersburg who filed as a candidate, risks misleading supporters of incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan. Government attorneys argue that some supporters of Senator Sullivan likely will inadvertently vote for Daniel J. Sullivan, potentially sifting away the margins needed for the Republican incumbent to retain his seat against Democratic nominee Mary Peltola.
The United States accordingly brings this lawsuit to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate election in Alaska.
U.S. Department of Justice legal filing, via Associated Press
President Trump Directs Legal Action Amid Tight Polling
President Donald Trump openly claimed responsibility for the federal intervention while speaking to reporters ahead of a campaign rally in Florida. Speaking to the press, Trump stated that he directed the Justice Department to file a lawsuit against Alaska to stop a tight Senate race from resulting in the defeat of a Republican incumbent he supports, while characterizing the entry of the second candidate as a political strategy. The Republican president stated on social media that he was seeking justice and fairness while accusing Democrats of election interference, though his administration’s filings note that Alaska’s election officials are Republicans.
This is the corruption AK is fed up with, and it's why I'm in this race. Sullivan has enriched himself at our expense for 12 years. Now he’s using his DC allies to try to keep himself in power and put his own interests ahead of Alaskans.We will make sure every Alaskan is heard. https://t.co/b1zzIf1Fyx
The race has tightened significantly following the state’s August primary, where Peltola led the field with roughly 49.5 percent of the vote compared to about 41.4 percent for the incumbent senator, while the second Sullivan secured 2.4 percent. Recent surveys indicate a neck-and-neck race between the incumbent Republican and Peltola.
The Department of Justice named the state, the Alaska Elections Division Director Carol Beecher, the state’s election boards, and the state Ballot Counting Review Board as defendants in the complaint. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche remarked to reporters that utilizing the department to block election certification represents a hypothetical extreme scenario, though administration attorneys pressed forward with the emergency action.
President Trump on DOJ investigating Dan J. Sullivan (D) in Alaska senate race: "I'm the one that said do it." pic.twitter.com/D9Xx1Pp8tq
State Courts and Legal Experts Question Federal Authority
The intervention follows earlier state-level disputes over the ballot. Alaska election officials initially attempted to remove Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the ballot in June, arguing his candidacy lacked good faith due to his prior affiliation with the Alaska Independence Party and his decision to run under the name Dan rather than Daniel. However, Alaska courts ultimately ruled that he could stay on the ballot.
Legal scholars have expressed skepticism regarding the Justice Department’s current federal lawsuit. Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, noted that the statute simply doesn’t let the Department of Justice enjoin certification, adding that the action would likely only trigger if Republicans narrowly lose and probably would not survive judicial scrutiny.
In the meantime, specialists in elections characterized the legal reasoning put forward by the department in its Alaska Senate race lawsuit as “absurdly thin,” expressing doubt that it would survive a court review.
Campaign Reactions and the Ranked-Choice Voting Process
Democratic leaders condemned the filing as an attempt to alter an election outcome. Donald Trump knows that Dan Sullivan is going to lose the election, so now his Department of Justice is filing a sham lawsuit to overturn the will of Alaska voters and steal an election when he loses,
said Devan Barber, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Alaska utilizes a ranked-choice voting system for its general elections. Voters rank their candidates in order of preference.