Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York ripped Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign for recruiting candidates to hurt Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R-AK) reelection chances, which was previously reported in the New York Times.
“[The Peltola campaign] were thinking of everything they could to mislead voters into voting in such a way that would ultimately elect Mary Peltola,” York said on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle on Wednesday.
The controversy started when Republican candidate Dan J. Sullivan appeared on the state’s ranked choice ballot along with Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK).
Republicans grew concerned about the race after Dan J. Sullivan garnered 2.5% of the total vote in the primaries, arguing that the two names could confuse voters and cost the GOP votes in the tight race against Peltola.
The New York Times published an exclusive report on Wednesday, titled “Inside Democrats’ Secret Effort to Stack Alaska’s Ballot.”
The report details actions taken by Peltola’s team to canvas the state for anyone named Dan Sullivan, in an effort to add them to the ballot and “dilute the incumbent’s support” and push Peltola to victory.
“The first sentence of the New York Times story is really devastating,” York said.
“In the summer of 2025, a staffer for Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat who was eyeing a run for Senate, received unusual instructions from top campaign aides: Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can,” the report said.
“I mean, they had an all-points bulletin out for any Dan Sullivan whom they would then try to recruit to be on this ballot. And they finally hit it with this guy, Dan J. Sullivan, who told them that he hated Trump, and if this would help Mary Peltola then he would do it, and he did,” York said.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade asked York if this tactic goes unpunished, if it will become popular in other races.
“The answer is yes,” York said.
“They’ll especially do it if they have a situation like ranked choice voting, which you have in Alaska,” he continued.
Alaska’s ranked choice voting system allows the four candidates with the most votes from the August primary to advance to the general election. Then, voters can rank the candidates.
Peltola’s campaign has “repeatedly denied any involvement in his candidacy,” despite text messages and documents detailing efforts by her campaign to recruit Dan J. Sullivan and encourage additional candidates to enter the race, according to the report.
“We’re going to find out whether this is legal or not. And regardless of the election outcome, we need to know more about what happened here,” York said.
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on Oct. 23 to block the state’s election results if it becomes affected by “voter confusion.”
WHAT COMES NEXT FOR MARY PELTOLA AS HER CAMPAIGN FACES DECOY INVESTIGATION
“Given the substantial likelihood that the inclusion of Daniel J. Sullivan will confuse or mislead voters looking to cast a vote for Senator Sullivan, and thus distort the will of Alaskan voters, there is a substantial likelihood that a certification of the election will reflect an electoral process that lacked integrity,” the lawsuit reads.
The general election will be held on Nov. 3.