President Donald Trump did not rule out having Senate Republicans refuse to seat former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) if she defeats incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in the 2026 race for Alaska‘s U.S. Senate seat.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Alaska election is rigged because of reports that Democrats recruited a former teacher named Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr. to appear on the ballot. A retired school teacher who has no political experience, Daniel J. Sullivan has the same first and last name as the incumbent senator, and the resulting confusion has Democrats bullish the seat is in play.
“Well, you’re going to have to see what happens. It’s hard to believe that she could be allowed to run,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews Thursday when asked if Republicans should refuse to seat Peltola if she wins in November. “Frankly, I don’t know how you can allow somebody like that to run. It’s so unfair when you look at that.”
Both Peltola and Daniel J. Sullivan have previously denied Republican claims of collusion, but on Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Peltola aides carried out what they referred to as the ballot composition project — an effort to comb the state for people named “Dan Sullivan” and convince at least one of them to enter the 2026 race. The New York Times cited text messages and interviews with 12 persons familiar with establishing its report, which notes that ballot-stacking is not illegal and is a frequent practice of both parties in the state.
“You have Dan Sullivan, who’s a great senator. You have another guy named Dan Sullivan, who never even I think voted before,” he said. “He didn’t campaign. He was just put there as a fraud. But people aren’t going to know that, so nobody’s going to know what to do. That’s a fraud, and it should be allowed to happen. And it was done in conjunction with Schumer and everybody else.”
Peltola currently leads the incumbent Sen. Sullivan by 1.2 points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
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“If they don’t correct this, it would be certainly a dishonest election,” Trump responded. “If they don’t correct it, because you can take a good student, a smart person, and give them that ballot, and a man that never ran for office, that nobody ever heard of, is going to get a lot of votes, and it’s very unfair.”